Country Reports April 2010

 Country: INDIAPeriod of Report: April 2010
  1. The Copyright (Amendment) Bill, 2010, was introduced in the Rajya Sabha on April 19, 2010. The Bill proposes to make the Director and the Producer the joint copyright owner of any cinematographic work and to ensure that film song lyricists, composers and screenplay writers get their rights on royalty.
  2. The Indian Patent Office has now made available online the Indian Patent Database vide its Indian Patent Information Retrieval System.
  3. The National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) is to organize a national consultation on International Regime on Access and Benefit Sharing on April 23, 2010.
  4. The Indian Patent Office has constituted an Advisory Committee of Stakeholders to improve the IP Prosecution procedure and promotion of IP in the country.
  5. Parliamentary Standing Committee has asked the Government to review the proposed law on Protection and Utilization of Public Funded Intellectual Property Bill, 2008 after reviewing the complaints filed by Scientists for putting too many restrictions on innovation.
Country: PAKISTANPeriod of Report: April 2010
  1. The Senate on March 26, 2010 passed a Bill to amend the Patents Ordinance, 2000 (The Patents (Amendment) Bill, 2010) to facilitate the intellectual Property Organisation of Pakistan to dispose of the Patent applications smoothly and efficiently.
Country: NEPALPeriod of Report: April 2010
  1. Nepal and the United States have agreed to sign a new Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) which includes provisions on protection of intellectual property rights and technical assistance.
Country: SRI LANKAPeriod of Report: April 2010
  1. Sri Lanka’s Criminal Investigations Department (CID) conducted investigations on pirated software rackets which is an offence under Intellectual Property Rights Act No 36 of 2003.