Awareness seminar on IPR

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, December 15

An awareness seminar on importance of intellectual property management in academic and research institute was organised by the Institution’s Innovation Council (IIC) at Central University of Punjab here.

The seminar was aimed at nurturing young researchers about Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) management. The keynote speaker was Dr Yashwant Dev Panwar from department of science and technology, and chief guest was Dr Yogmaya Verma from Biotech Consortium India Limited. More than 100 students, research scholars and faculty from different institutions participated in the event.

Dean Prof Anjana Munshi welcomed the guest speaker and participants. Dr Yashwant briefly described different types of IPRs, trademarks, copyrights, designs, patents and trade secrets. He exhorted young researchers to apply for the patent registration of their research innovations before publishing it in any research journal.

He said, “Patents not only provide legal protection to researcher’s innovation but also give an opportunity for exclusive commercial use of that innovation for a limited time period. It is important to use right language and full disclosure of information while filing a patent and other IPRs.”

Dr Yogmaya delivered an oration on ‘University technology transfer- challenges and opportunities’. She said, “The government expenditure on R&D has tripled in the past decade and there is a steady increase in number of patents filed. But, as per the form 27, around only 25% of patents are reported as working. Research institutes can generate additional value from their patents by licensing their patented information to business houses for further commercial use.” She described the role of research institute’s IPR cell in shortlisting the innovations in patent registration and devising strategy for their licensing and commercial applicability.