India has a robust legal framework and it has always been on the side of the law with regard to intellectual property right (IPR) matters and fully compliant with WTO on the issue, Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Saturday."It is pure misinformation that India has poor protection for intellectual property. India has a robust legislative framework and any company holding a patent is well-protected," she said on the programme "Talkathon", a new media initiative of the information and broadcasting ministry telecast live on Saturday evening.Power Minister Piyush Goyal and Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani were also present in the programme.
"There is not a single case against India in the WTO (World Trade Organisation). If our patent laws were poor, any number of countries could have dragged us to international courts on IPR matters," she added.IPR issues have been a sticky point in India-US relations, with the US administration periodically demanding that India change some of its patent laws.Regarding a policy on patents currently being formulated, the minister said the government had adopted a transparent process in drawing up a policy.The think-tank has submitted its report, which is now in the process of inter-ministerial consultations. After that, once it is cleared by the cabinet, we will have a policy," Sitharaman said.