Govt to decriminalise 1,000 minor offences, overhaul IP regime

New Delhi: The government will identify 1,000 provisions penalising minor offences within the next 45 days for decriminalisation, commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal said on Wednesday.

He also invited stakeholder inputs for a review of various laws governing intellectual property (IP) to simplify and make them more user-friendly. Based on the feedback, the government may amend existing laws or introduce new ones, as was done with the new Income Tax Bill.

The initiative aims to make India's IP framework more innovation-friendly while ensuring affordability and access to medicines.


"We are focused on data exclusivity, but without evergreening creeping into our system," Goyal told IP stakeholders, warning that patent evergreening could result in costly medicines and invite retaliatory taxes from other countries.

Goyal described data exclusivity as the "last missing link" before India could attract significant R&D inflows. He noted that two of the most dissatisfied stakeholders with India's patent laws - Switzerland and the UK - have already completed an IP chapter with India in ongoing trade negotiations.