Discuss the issues related to Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) and how their violation can be checked?

Issues related to IPR

• Balance: TRIPS pushed India toward product patents in pharma (2005); Section 3(d) of the Patents Act still blocks evergreening of old molecules, which is a public-health issue as much as a legal one.
• Access versus incentive: compulsory licences (as in the Nexavar episode) and price control sit against the claim that weak patents kill research.
• Traditional knowledge and GI: turmeric and neem-type biopiracy fights, and Geographical Indications for Banarasi, Darjeeling, or Kannauj, are India’s defensive IPR, not only Silicon Valley patents.
• Digital copyright: piracy of film, software, and courseware is cheap; creators lose while platforms scale.
• Trademarks and counterfeits: fake medicines, auto parts, and consumer goods hurt safety, not only brand owners.
• MSME awareness: small firms neither file nor enforce; the patent office backlog and cost of litigation are themselves issues.
• Data exclusivity, SEPs, and seed IPR remain contested in trade talks and in farmers’ rights debates.

Checking violation

• Civil and criminal law: injunctions, damages, and criminal provisions for wilful counterfeit and copyright piracy must be used, not only written.
• Customs recordation so fake goods stop at the port; police IP cells and fast-track commercial courts cut delay that kills the right.
• CIPAM / DPIIT awareness, the National IPR Policy (2016), and easier e-filing raise the chance that a start-up actually patents.
• Platform notice-and-takedown for digital piracy, with due process so satire and fair dealing survive.
• Pharmacovigilance and drug-quality labs because fake medicine is an IPR and a health crime together.
• International cooperation: TRIPS enforcement, WIPO, and bilateral customs data on repeat offenders.

Checking violation is enforcement plus cheaper legitimate copies, not raids alone.