At the World Intellectual Property Day 2023 celebrations, he said that a certain section thinks that India is hesitant to negotiate these new issues in FTAs with its trading partners. Goyal also said that about 1,000 new posts have been created in the IP office for faster patent applications clearances.
“Today I was discussing a free trade agreement with the four EFTA countries…while most people think India is hesitant to engage on modern subjects or subjects like gender equality and women, the EFTA countries did not mind if we did not have a chapter on women in the FTA (but) it is India who proposed that we will talk about gender equality and women in our FTA,” Goyal said.
Earlier India had opposed the inclusion of non-trade issues like gender in its trade pacts.
On India’s patent office, Goyal said: “About 1,000 new posts have been created in the IP office so that we have many many more controllers, so that we can clear patent applications. I am personally taking reviews to see how we can digitalise the entire IP ecosystem”.
Goyal also said that in the next few weeks, there would be zero interface between individuals and lawyers and the IP office as everything will be only on video conferencing and nobody will be allowed to enter the IP offices.
“The idea is to develop a complete corruption-free regime,” he added.Around 82,000 patent applications have been filed in the last fiscal, out of which 58% are by Indian firms.