Institute has tied up with an invention investment company to commercialise its innovations.
Converting their ideas into monetary value will now become easier for the IIT Bombay faculty — thanks to a partnership between the institute and Intellectual Ventures (IV).
“It’s very hard for academicians to monetise intellectual property (IP). We’ve being looking at ways to do it and the IV model is a dynamic one. It will help commercialise our R&D efforts and enable faculty to generate revenue,” said Krithi Ramamritham, dean of research and development at IIT-B.
On Monday, a memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed which is expected to result in wider dissemination and practical use of inventions generated by IIT-B faculty and students.
IV is a US-based invention investment company and IV-India is headed by former IIT-B director Ashok Misra.
“By accessing its global network of leading companies, universities and research institutions, IV will address unique problems needing solutions. We also intend to focus on requirements and solutions which will be needed in the coming 5-10 years,” said Misra. He said that IV has also proposed to set up an ‘invention centre’ at IIT-B and the details are being worked out.
IV will help patent ideas, license IIT-B inventions accepted under this partnership and work on possible commercialisation strategies for them. IV will pay IIT-B fees for such licensing and will also bear the patenting costs associated with such inventions.
It will provide an interface with society and make IIT-B inventions available to more people globally.
Outlining several problems involved in patenting, K Kurien Isaac, IIT-B associate dean (R&D), said that while cost per patent is very high, faculty have to struggle to create a prototype or take their idea to a level where the technology can be proven before they can even go for patenting. “Since patents in India are not given just for ideas, what the IV model will do is very exciting. It’ll pick up at the idea level and work on it,” he said. Till date, IIT-B has filed over 130 patents.
The areas that the partnership will primarily focus on include IT (software, VLSI etc); biology (life-sciences, healthcare, telemedicine etc); energy and physical sciences.
“Ideation is the only currency in the world that’s never devalued and there’s no meltdown for them. This partnership will create a dynamic fusion between ideas and marketing, very important for success,” said Alyque Padamsee, member of IIT-B advisory council.
The partnership is not exclusive as both parties will be allowed to engage with others for IP-related matters.
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