Management, science and technology, and law institutes should come together to jointly design programmes on intellectual property rights (IPR) education. This is one of the key recommendations of the first IPR researchers’ confluence on spearheading IPR in India held recently. It was initiated by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay’s Shailesh J Mehta School of Management (SJMSOM), in collaboration with the ministry of human resource and development (MHRD).
“You can’t impart IPR education without the three key ingredients of law, management, and technology,”said professor Karuna Jain, head of SJMSOM.
“Currently, in India, law schools are focusing more on IP laws, while the concentration of the management schools is on the business dimension of intellectual property, and on ways to exploit value. Also, while the technology institutes are supposed to generate intellectual property, they have limited programmes covering the field,” .
The confluence has mooted a multi-disciplinary and practical approach to IPR education, in which IITs, Indian Institutes of Management, and law schools collaborate. Sector-specific studies focusing on the impact of the changing dimensions of IPR on a particular industry, and vice-versa, have been suggested. Similarly, inter-disciplinary research in the field has been proposed.
“Most IITs have IPR cells, but the situation is different in our universities, which have a more traditional approach. We are now trying to promote the creation of IPR cells in universities,” said Suresh Kumar, principal scientific officer of the Technology Information, Forecasting and Assessment Council (TIFAC).
Another crucial suggestion is the creation of an intellectual property rights’ infrastructure. The need to create specialised funding mechanisms, identification of profit models with a focus on commercialisation and industrial applications has been recommended.
The confluence, which had representatives from the government, industry and academic institutions, is preparing a roadmap. “An action plan committee has been created, which will meet again in January to work out implementation guidelines and timelines. The recommendations will be submitted to MHRD,” said Jain.
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