India has strong legislation on Intellectual Property Rights but the country still lacks adequate enforcement measures to check leakages such as piracy, a Microsoft official has said.
"IPR legislation in India is considerably strong but strengthening of enforcement is required," the company's regional consultant (law & corporate affairs) South Asian Pacific, Tim Dwyer said when queried on the adequacy of Indian IPR laws.
At the sidelines of an Indo-US seminar by Confederation of Indian Industry on IPR enforcement Dwyer who is regional consultant (law & corporate affairs) said there was need for awareness about IPR.
"The government should look into how IPR education like cyber safety can be included in school curriculum to create awareness among children. Also the very high number of pending cases before the police is hindering them from focussing on IPR related matters," he said.
Laws should be simplified so that it can be properly enforced, CII deputy chairman Biswadip Gupta said.
US is sponsoring a series of seminars on IPR in India to strengthen IPR enforcement so that US companies operating in the country do not suffer loss on account of IPR violations.
Estimate losses due to piracy in India is close to $1 billion while piracy of Microsofts' products in India is about 75 per cent.
The US is expected to post a patent attorney as IPR attache in New Delhi this summer.