The Indo-US ties have been strained for some time now and the recent bone of contention between the two sides is the Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) issue. The Obama administration, under pressure from trade lobbies of the country in general and the pharmaceutical sector in particular, is not happy with India's IPR regime while the latter has been constantly claiming to abide by the WTO framework. However, in a major relief to India, the US, in its recent Special 301 report, has kept India out of the Priority Foreign Country list, a worse classification that may amount to sanctions.

While the issue is still being debated by policy makers and experts, the question that is striking me is how much aware the Indian SME sector is of protecting their intellectual property rights. Recently, I met a patent official who lamented the poor rate of applications from the Indian industry. According to an estimate, in 2010 only 39,400 patent applications were filed in India against nearly 5 lakh applications in the US, 4 lakh in China, 2 lakh in S Korea and 1.5 lakh in Europe. I don't think the situation has improved much since then, particularly with regards to applications from the SME sector.

Since 2005, there has been an increased level of government effort to spread IPR awareness among small enterprises. Today, most of the states have patent facilitation centres. Small industry association FISME has also set up some such centres in a few cities. In addition, the National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council set up for growth of manufacturing sector has a programme to enhance SME awareness of IPR. These developments are encouraging but we can't help but admit that India is still at a nascent stage as far as IPR awareness among SMEs is concerned. The sector needs more information as well as facilities.

At the same time, I feel that IP rights require more attention from the small enterprises. In today's market economy protecting one's relevant intellectual property rights is not an option but a way of doing business. If a firm fails to do so it may soon find another business encroaching on the original idea. The situation can be even worse when a copycat registers the right in its name and claims infringement by the originator of the idea, invention or design. Exporters not registering a trademark of their brand in overseas markets may easily fall prey to counterfeiting.

However, registering IP rights in India is not an easy task for SMEs — it is often pointed out. Some complain about high costs. Is it really so? According to some industry experts, IPR registration usually turns out more beneficial than costly in the long run. A more serious issue pointed out by some entrepreneurs is of difficulty in protecting even a registered brand. A single logo or brand name is registered for two or more parties! Bureaucratic hurdle is also viewed as a big challenge. In fact, many SMEs have accepted the inevitability of being copied and they simply prefer to keep inventing continually to remain competitive, without giving any thought to intellectual rights and their violation.

I invite your feedback — this will help our readers get to the core of what's going on and have a better insight into the problem.