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Anshika Jha

UK Intellectual Property Office’s (UK IPO) Attaché

Part of UK in India

1st March 2017 Delhi, India

Seminar on understanding the aesthetic value of IP-designs

Earlier this month, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) organised a seminar on the value of industrial designs, in collaboration with the UK Intellectual Property Office (UK IPO) in New Delhi. The seminar was part of CII’s Annual Knowledge Expo, and was therefore able to see participation from several representatives from the industry and academia.

Noting India’s National IP Policy’s commitment to raise IP awareness, particularly in the industrial designs space, UK IPO and CII have undertaken to reach out to Indian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), start-ups and researchers through 4 regional designs seminars around India. This was the second one, the other three being in Hyderabad, Kolkata and Pune.

Dr. KS Kardam, Head of the Delhi Patent Office, opened the seminar and observed that design protection is an effective way to secure the IP rights of any product having an aesthetic look and feel, but public awareness about its utility is lacking. As UK IPO’s representative, I joined him in the inauguration and brought forth statistics to explain the positive role designs have played in UK’s growth story. For instance, 11% of the investments in intangible assets in 2014 in the UK were over assets protected by designs- which amounts to GBP 14.5 billion. What is interesting is that whereas the investment amounted 0.8% of UK’s GDP in 2014, design intensive industries contributed to 11.5% of UK’s GDP, so the return was several times greater. Moreover, the designs industry created 2.6 million jobs for the UK between 2011-13.

These observations highlighted the role industrial designs can play as a driver for growth.

The seminar also saw industry experts talk about strategising industrial design protection in product development and R&D, and design enforcement.

About Anshika Jha

Anshika Jha has been the UK Intellectual Property Office’s (UK IPO) Attaché in India, based at the British High Commission in New Delhi, since May 2012. She works to strengthen…

Anshika Jha has been the UK Intellectual Property Office’s (UK IPO) Attaché in India, based at the British High Commission in New Delhi, since May 2012. She works to strengthen the partnership between the governments of the UK and India on matters relating to intellectual property protection. A major part of her role is also providing practical, on-the-ground support and advice to UK businesses with any IP-related issues they face in India.

She is a dual qualified lawyer – being a Solicitor in England and Wales and an Advocate in India. She earned her Masters in Law from the University of Oxford; and had professional stints in PricewaterhouseCoopers, Slaughter and May (London magic circle law firm) and Remfry & Sagar (IP law firm in Delhi).

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