By IANS,
New Delhi : The UN intellectual property rights body Thursday urged countries to ensure that intellectual property rules were not violated.
“We have a structural problem in implementing the intellectual property regime,” Francis Gurry, director general of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) said here.
“The governments should ensure that intellectual property rights are not violated,” he told the delegates present at an interactive session organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
US Trade Representative Ron Kirk, while visiting India last month, had also urged the country to tighten the intellectual property rights (IPR) regime.
According to Gurry, there are more than 4 million patents in force worldwide.
Intellectual property protection involves granting exclusivity to the rights holder in relation to protected property. This can then be exercised to prevent third parties from copying, manufacturing or adopting features of the relevant designs or technology.
“Design as of today is an extremely important thing and it needs protection,” Gurry said, adding that intellectual property rights concerning designs have to be given a serious thought by nations.