New IPR Policy for Academic Institutions on the anvil

New IPR Policy for Academic Institutions on the anvil

“The patent system added the fuel of interest to the fire of genius, in the discovery and production of new and useful things.”-Abraham Lincoln. No one can refute the words of Abraham Lincoln more so today, as we live in the knowledge era. Therefore, it has become imperative to enhance creativity, innovation and competitiveness by harnessing the IP of individuals, institutions, industry and the country, so that it can then be legally protected and exploited. India has great potential and with its rising importance in the global economy, it is time to leave an Indian IP footprint in the global arena.

The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Government of India, has taken various initiatives to ensure that the intangible assets of the country are adequately protected. Establishment of the exclusive Cell for IPR Promotion & Management (CIPAM) has been the start of a quiet but effective IP revolution. They have been instrumental in changing the IP landscape of India by timely introducing various schemes to cover schools, universities/colleges and industries, including MSMEs and start-ups.

CIPAM has recently released a 23-page draft of the model guidelines on implementation of IPR policy in academic institutions. This has been prepared based on the “Guidelines on Developing Intellectual Property Policy for Universities and R&D Organizations, WIPO, Geneva”.

The guideline suggests the creation of an IP cell in every academic institution which in turn will be responsible for fostering an environment to protect and promote the IP of students, faculty, researchers, and the institution. It suggests that they conduct regular awareness programmes for graduates and undergraduates and IPR counselling for research scholars and faculty. The IP cell can also be a backbone to help commercialise and thereby augment the financial self-sustenance goals of the academic institution & its labs and to reward faculty and researchers. The other role of this cell is to ensure that the policies of the government with respect to IP are implemented by ensuring an efficient, fair, transparent administrative procedures for ownership and profit sharing for both the individual and the institution.

According to the guidelines, an academic institution has the patent right if a student, researcher or faculty has developed a product using the resources and funds of the institute. However, the same patent right shifts to the inventor if the institute determines that the invention had been developed on individuals own time using his resources.

The ownership rights for scholarly academic works that are generated using the institute’s resources like books, lecture notes and dissertations remain with the author. However, the institute has the rights over lecture videos, online courses, films, plays and musical works.

The ownership rights in all trademarks involving the academic institution shall ordinarily be vested with the academic institution unless otherwise determined by the academic institution.

The draft policy also provides guidance for collaboration between academic institutes and industries through better clarity on IP ownership and IP licencing. They suggest drawing up an agreement  covering all aspects of IP rights and revenue sharing and in the absence of such an agreement, the IP rights shall be shared among the concerned parties, similar to the royalty proportion set out under “Licensing and Revenue Sharing”  of the draft policy.

The draft policy also recommends the appointment of an expert committee to address the concerns of the aggrieved person and the disputes that may arise in the course of implementing the IPR policies by the academic institution. As the tag line of CIPAM suggests “Intellectual property rights- The future “, the new guidelines are a much-needed recommendation to help IP march ahead and make India a global IP leader.