1

Indian Approaches to IP management and the current

framework

A.S.RaoCIIE,IIM,Ahmedabad

http://www.linkedin.com/in/indiainvents

2

Management of Intellectual Property in UK-India R&D Collaborations

• Treatment of Assets by Government of India,• IP management as `Options’ by Indian Business,• Intellectual assets as building blocks for

academics,• Long tail of university research revenues and

emerging opportunities.

3

Intangible assets

• Accounting treatment covered under General Finance Rules (2005),

• Ministries or Departments of Government sponsor projects or schemes to be undertaken by Universities, Indian Institutes of Technology and other similar autonomous organizations such as ICAR, CSIR, ICMR,etc.

• On completion of the project or scheme, a stipulation should be made in such cases that the ownership in the physical and intellectual assets created or acquired out of such funds shall vest in the sponsor

4

Flexibility exists

• PATSER of DSIR , first to provide matching, conditional grants to private commercial firms allowed rights for commercialization of technology on exclusive basis and full ownership of IP by the executing agency.

• Similar approach followed by TDB of DST providing soft loans to companies and TePP (of DSIR) providing grants to independent innovators,

• Yet , most of government departments are uncomfortable to provide grants to commercial firms, take a decision on treatment of Patents… and wait for amendment to GFR (!!!).

5

IP in a business package

• With acquisition of JLR, Tata Motors gained access to two design centers,

• Tata Steel with Corus acquisition gained access to European research in Ultra Low CO2 in steel making,

• Another arm of Tata’s invested in start-ups working on Unmanned Aerial vehicles, Multi-fuel compressors etc.

• Options also include investment in Sun Catalytix — an energy storage and renewable fuels company — founded by a Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) professor, Daniel Nocera,

• Indian firms invest in business and look for IP to support – not develop business from IP (!!!)

6

Intellectual Assets management in Universities

• Licensing is only one form of knowledge transfer from knowledge generating community,

• Research leads to learning and make the faculty better teachers,

• Discover STARS at IP stage- CIIE pilot with focus on processes. Modules on Mapping Institute IP, Developing screens to prioritize, link bundled IP to innovation, developing business scenarios etc.

7

Long tail of university research revenues

• Only one out of every 200 license agreements is expected to generate more than $1 million in royalty income (AUTM 2007),

• Many innovations that aren‘t actively offered probably do have merit, though this merit leads to a small demand, not a hit,

• Next wave of technology partnering could be between `Knowledge clusters’ and `production clusters’

8

Templates needed for…

• Collaborative R&D projects based on acquired patent(s),

• Assessment of bundling potential,• Dynamic model of evaluation for periodic

disposal of IP as open IP,• Guidelines for dealing with non practicing

entities.