IITs, IIMs focus on IP education

As part of the Ministry of Human Resource Development’s (MHRD’s) focus on Intellectual Property (IP) education, the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) and Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) have been working to promote awareness of the issue.

“We had proposed intellectual property research (IPR) chairs for three IIMs — IIM, Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Calcutta — and five IIT — Kanpur, Kharagpur, Delhi, Bombay and Madras. Currently, the grant released is Rs 20-25 lakh per year. Collaboration with the higher education institutes for IP will aid growth,” says G R Raghavender, registrar of copyrights and deputy secretary (book promotion and copyrights), department of higher education.

The IPR chair at IIM Bangalore (IIM-B) focuses on the economic and strategic aspects related to IPR. “Our fully-functional IPR chair has been working in diverse areas where IP can be implemented. Through courses and seminars, we plan to educate students about the importance of IP,” says Damodaran A, chairperson IPR and IIM-B faculty.

This December, IIM-B proposes to hold a joint conference with World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) on the theme of ‘Intellectual property Management, Education and Research’. Speakers from Kellogg School of Management and University of Cambridge will attend apart from faculty at leading management and technical institutes in India.

“The idea of the conference is to take stock of IP education, assess critical gaps and propose measures for overcoming them. The focus will be on IP education in India’s management and technology schools. We propose to develop a road map for intellectual property management and research in India,” adds Damodaran.

Although IIM Ahmedabad (IIM-A) has been organising short-term programmes and seminars on the theories and practices of IP regimes for understanding the strategic issues involved in protection of IP, it has so far refrained from putting up a chair. “We will have to revisit the plans of setting up an IPR chair as we have not been taking grants from the government for the last 4-5 years, in the hope for greater autonomy,” says Samir Barua, director, IIM-A.

The IPR chairs at IIMs have been designed to focus on intellectual property management, while those at IITs specialising in IPR aspects related to patents, trademarks, industrial design and geographical indicators.

“We have set up mechanisms in the IIT for faculty members to file patents. We also have some consultant lawyers on rolls. We have made an IPR policy document, which is disseminated among faculty members as well,” said Ashok Misra, director, IIT-B.