Bhutan Local Governance

  Launch of National IP 2018

The Ministry of Economic Affairs officially launched the National Intellectual Property Policy (NIPP) 2018 in the Ministry on March 23, 2018. Hon’ble Tengye Lyonpo graced the occasion as the chief guest. The Royal Government approved the NIPP 2018 during the 151st session of the Lhengye Zhungtshog held on February 13, 2018.

Works on the formulation of the intellectual property policy were initiated in 2015 to assess the impact and benefit of intellectual property rights protection in the country. With the increase in the number of industries in the last few decades and the growth in products and services in the market, innovation and creativity has played an important role in the expansion and growth of industries and businesses. Today, businesses are venturing into innovative ways of producing and manufacturing of products and services, and its delivery to consumers. To empower the industry in harnessing long-term benefits from their innovation, there is an urgency to provide greater protection and promotion of their intellectual property rights. These are important measures to build the confidence of the industry to continue investment in innovation in order to add new products and services to the market.

The Policy provides direction and clarity on the development of intellectual property system through consolidation of efforts across all sectors of the economy and building linkages between the industry, Research and Development (R&D) institutions, universities and the private sector. The Policy provides a framework for improving the intellectual property system as a catalyst for innovation and development.

The Policy has seven strategic objectives that will be implemented through formulation of strategies and annual action plans in close consultation with the relevant stakeholders involved.

The Policy envisages to bring changes in a number of areas; legislative frameworks on the protection of intellectual property rights that are well suited to socio-economic conditions of the country, building collaboration between the industry and R&D institutions to engage in conducting joint researches, framing of appropriate protection regimes for traditional knowledge, traditional culture expressions and genetic resources that concerns the indigenous communities and greater participation at the multilateral level to implicate and preserve national interests on intellectual property, among others.