Union Minister of Commerce and Industry, Suresh Prabhu, launched a tutorial video on “Intellectual Property Rights” for school students and the GI website in New Delhi today.The tutorial video is available on CIPAM’s You Tube Channel and will form part of the existing resource pool on CIPAM’s official website www.cipam.gov.in which is freely available for public.Speaking on this occasion, Suresh Prabhu said that India’s huge geography and ancient history has given rise to a diverse and distinct identity and CIPAM has the mandate to protect and promote this diversity through GI. The website will help in promoting creativity and motivate more of India’s skilled artisans to apply for GI registration.Commerce Minister further said that GI is a manifestation of India’s deep knowledge and skill in various crafts and protecting this knowledge will further encourage people to invent, create and innovate. Ministry of Commerce and Industry has put in place a new regime which will lead to India transforming into a knowledge based society.Suresh Prabhu also stated that India is not only a signatory to TRIPS Agreement but has also enacted fresh legislations, amended existing laws and strengthened domestic legal framework to fulfil the harmonisation with the WTOs TRIPS Agreement. Fresh legislation has also been put in place to upgrade the countries IPR.The 20-minute tutorial video has been created by the Cell for IPR Promotion and Management (CIPAM), Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) in collaboration with Qualcomm. The video explains the fundamentals of Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) such as Patents, Copyrights and Trademarks.‘IP Nani’, India’s first Intellectual Property (IP) Mascot,features in a series of short animated videos, to spread awareness about the importance of IPRs amongst children.
The tutorial video can be used in schools without any external intervention from teachers or experts and will aid in reaching a large number of schools and students, thereby overcoming issues of bandwidth and limited resources.CIPAM, DPIIT, has been actively involved in many IPR related initiatives, including a nation-wide IPR awareness campaign drive in the country. Training sessions have been conducted in over 300 schools till now, reaching over 12,000 students. These sessions involved the use of interactive tools in the form of presentations, creatively illustrated posters and pamphlets, so as to teach the younger generation about recognizing their own IP as well as respecting others’ IP. Content on IPR has also been included in the NCERT curriculum of Commerce for class XII.The Geographical Indications (GI) of India website showcases Indian GIs products, classified state wise as well as product category wise. The website has specific and comprehensive details of geographical area, description of product, uniqueness, history, product process/ processing in addition to enlisting GI authorized users. It will increase the visibility and marketability of GIs of India and hence help in their commercialization.Commerce and Industry Minister also gave away certificates to students who were selected to work on the GI website through a hackathon conducted by DPIIT.The students who worked on GI Website are Deepak Singh, NitantSood, Karan Kapoor, Kunwar Deepak, Rachit Singhal, Sahil Verma, Rishabh Malik and Brahmdeep Singh.