Indian government agencies have signed an agreement to strengthen intellectual property (IP) rights within India’s defence industry.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) said on 10 July that the agreement was signed by the Department of Defence Production’s (DDP’s) Intellectual Property Facilitation Cell (IPFC) and the Ministry of Science and Technology’s National Research Development Corporation (NRDC).

The MoD said the partnership between the IPFC and NRDC is “expected to bridge [a] capacity shortfall and provide a major fillip to the ongoing efforts of [the] MoD towards promoting a culture of innovation and IP rights in India’s defence industry”.

The agreement is intended to enable the two agencies to support domestic defence companies to file patents for defence technologies and to commercialise related products and IPs.