Inaugurating the country's first modern IP building in New Delhi, Nath said India had the capability to become a good producer of patents from a user, as intellectual property was poised to become increasingly important not just for wealth creation but for employment generation and improving living standards.

Stating that the modern integrated state-of-art complex fulfilled the long-felt need, Nath asked the IP officials to ensure efficient delivery of services in a transparent manner, befitting the working environment.

The IPR office building is a part of Rs 124 crore (Rs 1.24 billion) project for modernisation and strengthening of IPR and patent offices in the country and first in the series of four virtually interlinked building in the metros.

This IP office will deal not just in patents, but also trademarks, copyright and geographical indications.

Pointing out at the growing importance of IPR, he said patent application filing in the country had gone up almost four-fold in last five years from 5000 in 1999-00 to 17,000 last year.

He said the government had provided an appropriate legislative framework for registration and protection of IPR and emphasised that "our legislations are well calibrated to meet domestic requirement while fulfilling our international obligations."