The two-day interactive meeting which began here yesterday, is being organised with the assistance of World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) where officials of the seven- member countries will exchange views on IPR and explore the possibilities to strike a common position.

India has expressed its willingness to lend its technical assistance to member states to strengthen and fine tune their legislative and administrative intellectual property regimes.

Sri Lankan minister for trade Kingsley Wikramaratna who inaugurated the meeting suggested that Saarc should immediately begin to exchange technical and patent information among the member states.

The Indian high commissioner to Colombo Shivshankar Menon said in his speech it was time for the Saarc member states to reviewthe intellectual property regimes of their own countries and explore the possibilities to evolve a common position to be taken up in all international fora.

Menon said with rapid changes taking place in the international law and intellectual property, issues like protection of databases, traditional knowledge and folklore needed to be addressed effectively.

Saarc countries, with their rich bio-diversity and commonality have much to gain from the continued use of traditional knowledge and natural resources in general applications, he said and called for a just and fair IPR regime which would be respected by all.

He said India was in the process of reviewing its experience and laws to prepare a new legislation to meet the new challenges. The new laws would include areas like protection of layout designs of integrated circuits, undisclosed information and geographical indications, he said.

India has also decided to become a member of the Paris Convention and Patent Cooperation Treaty to provide betterprotection to indigenous inventions and technologies, Menon said and offered Indian assistance to Saarc states to beef up their IPR regimes.