law school – The KGP Chronicle

IIT Kharagpur Law Students to Draft Real-time Patents for Institute’s Innovations

In 2006 IIT Kharagpur had introduced a new academic discipline in the IIT system – Intellectual Property Law, seed-funded by distinguished alumnus Dr. Vinod Gupta. Over the years, Rajiv Gandhi School of Intellectual Property Law, the law school at IIT Kharagpur has not only expanded its scope across all academic verticals of law education but has emerged as one of India’s top law schools. With Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) still as the key domain, the school has been instrumental in promoting IPR workshops for young innovators. A few years back a drive was undertaken at the School to promote Geographical Indication tag for traditional crafts across the country. In the Spring semester, the School conducted project-based learning by enabling the law students to draft patent documents of actual innovations made by the researchers at IIT Kharagpur.

“While we routinely conduct patent drafting exercises this is the first time we have adopted real-time patent applications prepared by the students. In its endeavour to enhance practical understanding for students, RGSOIPL has yet another time taken a unique approach not typically done in other law schools. Our law school students have the best benefit of being in an IIT system by meeting face to face the institute inventors who are working on high-end technologies and also understand the entire process of converting the invention disclosure to the patent application,” remarked Dean of the School Prof. Goutam Saha.

The process involved studying the invention disclosure and preparing the patent application with the claims in line with the statutory requirements under patent law and the examination practice. An innovator from IIT Kharagpur also participated in the session so that technical queries in relation to research works could be clarified.

“Students of the law school have been involved in conducting patentability searches, participating in inventor interview meets to enhance practical knowledge. Further, as part of the Legal Aid and IP Facilitation Cell, they have been working along with the faculty of the School in conducting IP search and analytics,” said Prof. M Padmavati, Former Head of the School. She further opined on the background of the LL.B honours students who are from the engineering or science background and pursuing specialization in IP Law.

The exercise was facilitated by the IPR Cell of IIT Kharagpur. The drafted claims and patent specifications were evaluated by the patent attorney of the Institute. The patent attorney provided students important insights into the drafting of patent specifications and claims including the cross-jurisdiction practice. The session was conducted with utmost regard to safeguarding IP and maintaining IP compliance.

To know more visit: http://www.iitkgp.ac.in/department/IP

Contact:

School: dean@rgsoipl.iitkgp.ac.in Media & Communications Cell: media@iitkgp.ac.in

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Feathers in the Cap

Careers 360 India Education Diary

IIT Kharagpur has emerged among the country’s best and as the only IIT to qualify and excel in four disciplines – Architecture (1st), Engineering (4th), Law (4th) and Management (6th), taking on specialized schools in their domains.

Speaking about the feat of excelling in non-engineering categories, Director Prof. P P Chakrabarti emphasised on the uniqueness of each of these specialized disciplines within the IIT system.

“While there are specialized institutions in these subject areas, being part of IIT Kharagpur has catapulted the growth of these disciplines in a matter of a few decades due to the convergence culture of IIT Kharagpur typically focusing on research, multidisciplinary academics and overall career development of students enabling a unique symbiotic approach to excellence.”

IIT Kharagpur is leading in ‘Research and Professional Practice’ and ‘Graduate Outcome’ in the categories of Architecture, Law and Management while holding a competitive rank in Engineering.

“Our research publications and citations are extremely high domestically as evident from Scopus and SCI. However, there is a need for transforming research into industrial and consumer applications. In recent times we have undertaken several initiatives in the forms of Centres of Excellence which are focused towards technology development for industry and giving a thrust to the startup culture,” he said.

The Institute has launched centres of excellence and undertaken projects of national importance in six thrust areas which include Advanced Manufacturing, Intelligent and Smart Transportation, Affordable Healthcare, Digital Convergence, Innovative Infrastructure and Geoscience for Future of Earth with support from the government and industry. The research collaboration and impact thereof can be witnessed across various engineering and other disciplines such as management, law, social sciences, architecture etc.

Also, the multidisciplinary approach has led to specialized thrust areas in academics which is flexible and unique. The course design and curricula of the programs above deliver the country’s crème graduates leading to the best-in-class graduate outcomes.

“Focus on the integrated and growth-oriented strategy adopted by IIT Kharagpur has enabled us to sustain our top position while keeping the societal and industrial needs in mind in launching new courses and also massively using our alumni resources,” says Dean, Planning & Coordination Prof. M K Tiwari.

The Department of Architecture and Regional Planning clearly exhibits this trait with its key area of regional planning addressing the diverse regional planning needs of a country like India which are more in the lines of a subcontinent with intermittent regions within her cities, townships and villages, opines Prof. Joy Sen, Head of the department, who himself is a well-known Regional Planner.

“We focus on regional sciences, regional econometrics and regional programming which enable us to develop inclusive and innovative regional planning models,” remarks Prof. Joy Sen.

Similar is the case with the Rajiv Gandhi School of Intellectual Property Law at IIT Kharagpur which has carved its excellence in the domain of Intellectual Property law while successfully running LLB with specialization in IP, LLM and Doctoral programs.

“I do see a lot of interest in students to take up courses like AI and Law, Energy Law, IP Management, IP and Competition Law, Law of the Sea, Information Technology Law to name a few,” says Prof. Padmavati Manchikanti, Dean of the School. “In fact, some of the thrust areas of the School, AI and Law, Biodiversity Law, Energy Law, Energy Policy and Governance, are unique in the country,” she adds.

Prof. Prabina Rajib, Dean of Vinod Gupta School of Management which has been ranked 6th following the top 5 IIMs, emphasized at the interdisciplinary elective courses in engineering, science and mathematics offered by other departments, centres and schools at IIT Kharagpur. This sharpens their interdisciplinary knowledge and capability as efficient managers.

“Our students are mostly from engineering background and their career path follows a direction more oriented towards technology management. Keeping in line with the industry needs, we have introduced many new electives in Business Analytics area and also offer electives in emerging topics like Artificial Intelligence and Business Law, Internet of Things Cyber Security, Intellectual Property Rights ,” says Prof. Prabina.

The teaching, learning and resources parameter has been affected in this year’s NIRF rank as well, acknowledges the Director. However, he indicated this has more to do with the high number of students at IIT Kharagpur which has the largest number of academic disciplines with 19 departments, 12 schools and 17 centres of excellence.

“We are further working on recruiting more faculty which will also accelerate up our research initiatives. In the past three years, more than a hundred faculty members have been inducted in the system,” he added.

Earn your spurs

Science and technology can be used to create a number of innovations useful in various facets of life. Sometimes the true value of a research work remains unexplored and the innovator is unable to fully exploit the invention commercially. A different situation may arise where some other person copies or misuses an invention without the permission of the true inventor. So it is essential to protect the right of an inventor which not only prevents misuse and copying of an invention but also promotes further innovation. Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) are a kind of legal right which gives privileges to the owner or inventor of a work.

IPR gives “limited entitlements to eligible right holders to exclude others from certain uses of the protected material.” Patents form the most integral part of IP rights, but there are others such as copyright, trademarks and trade secrets. Patents are a kind of monopolistic right given for twenty years of time period for an invention which is novel, involves an inventive step and have some industrial applicability. Not all inventions are patent eligible. Each country has its own law that dictates the patentability of a particular invention. Further in case of biotechnological inventions the ethical and moral dimension plays a critical role. As biotechnology can be used in every sphere of life from creation of life-form to destruction of the same, for making life saving drugs to life destroying kits; undue protection through patents may affect the society or the public at large. The recent incidence of use of gene editing technology “the CRISPR technology” for removal of undesirable trait from an embryo is a live example of ethical issue in biotechnology.

Together the different forms of IPR try to ensure that human dignity is not compromised, there is equitable access to the outcomes of biological research, there is protection of animals and the environment and the research does not go against public order and morality, that is, the value system of different communities.

Even then, the questions of ethics and morality are not always easy to resolve. For example, should a publicly funded agency patent its research results when they can substantially impact public health? Should the holder of a patent over a basic research tool or a production technology issue license in a restrictive way?

“The question of ethics is very important to biotechnology. We have to know what is patentable and what is not. With patents, you can protect any invention which is new, involves inventive step and has industrial application. But then, can we make a bioweapon and protect it? Will that be ethical? Anything against public order and morality is not patentable. But different societies have different value systems. This is why GM food has gained wide accepted in the US but are held with caution in Europe,” said Prof. Niharika Bhattacharya of the Rajiv Gandhi School of Intellectual Property Law, who recently organized a short term course on ‘Biotechnology and Intellectual Property Law’ at the IIT Kharagpur law school.

Apart from familiarizing participants with the ethical quandary of scientists and lawmakers, the AICTE-QIP sponsored short term course had another purpose – to inform those dealing/researching with biotechnology about when and how to protect that research, how to transfer and licence that technology. “Researchers are often satisfied with the publication of the research in a journal but when it comes to protecting an innovative outcome of research, and the nitty gritty of technology transfer, most academicians are in the dark, especially in the smaller academic institutions,” said Prof. Bhattacharya.

Dr Avinash Kumar, a participant of the course illustrated this point. A teacher of biotechnology at the Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar University at Agra, Dr Kumar has to teach ‘Patenting of Biological Life’ as part of the curriculum. But he also wanted to learn the nitty gritty of patenting as he is himself is considering patenting an invention of his that deals with domestic effluents. He had earlier filed for a patent for his friend’s invention and failed to process it. “I filled up all the five or six forms for patenting, but they never came back to me for the next stage of processing.”

At what stage protection of invention/research IP should be initiated, what can be the long term benefits, how IPR is helpful for entrepreneurship, all these were questions addressed in the course. There were practical aspects too, the participants were taken through the entire modalities of filing for patents. There was also demonstration by Questel, which offers the software for searching, analysing and managing IP. Dr Veena from Reva University in Bangalore who specializes in microbiology and cancer research talked about how the course had helped her to locate patents, something that will invariably aid her work.

There was another aspect of the course that was highlighted by another participant. Prof. Manjit Kaur from Maharshi Dayanand University of Rohtak, Haryana, was mainly there to facilitate her teaching of biotechnology, which, given the new AICTE norms, necessitates introducing students the basics of IPR. She said, “I not only gained the practical knowledge that will go a long way in helping my students who are doing B.Tech or PhD in biotechnology, but also learnt about the job prospects for students in this area. They can be patent agents, patent attorneys and examiners.” The participants were also taken for a field visit to IIT Kharagpur’s STEP to show them how technologies can promote entrepreneurship.

“When researchers are investing time, money and doing R&D, the outcome whether a process or a product should bring them some commercial value. Also it has to be remembered that the larger goal of research is that the technology should be, and can be, made available to the public. This is why I thought it is necessary to introduce and explain the concept of IPR to such scientists/researchers to create more awareness and which will further help them generating commercial value from their research,” signed off Prof. Bhattacharya. The short course on Biotechnology and Intellectual Property Law ended on February 10, 2019.