INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS & TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER

Dr. Sanjeeva Kumar Majumdar

By MHRD IC DATE: 07/05/2020 TIME: 03:00

Dr. Sanjeeva Kumar Majumdar is working as Manager in StartUp Activities & Intellectual
Property Division of National Research Development Corporation, New Delhi, which is an enterprise
of Department of Scientific & Industrial Research under the Ministry of Science & Technology,
Government of India. NRDC was created with the mandate to promote and commercialize
indigenously developed technologies emanating from various Research Institutes, Universities &
Academic Institutions in the Country.

The speaker started with the definition for intellectual property and various types.
Intellectual property as a property can be sold, bought, leased or rented, or assigned. Then various
roles of IP were discussed and significance of IP protection on various aspects. Intellectual property
rights include patents, copyright, industrial design rights, trademarks, plant variety rights, trade
dress, geographical indications, and in some jurisdictions trade secrets. Further, the speaker talked
about DO’s & DON’T’s in IP identification and management.

A patent is a form of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude
others from making, using, selling and importing an invention for a limited period of years, in
exchange for publishing an enabling public disclosure of the invention. An inventor applying for a
utility patent must prove that the invention is useful. The invention must have some beneficial use
and must be operable. A machine that will not operate to perform its intended purpose would not
be called useful, and therefore would not be granted a patent. A useful invention may qualify for a
utility patent only if it falls into one of five categories: a process, a machine, a manufacture, a
composition of matter, or an improvement of one of these. Unlike a copyright, a patent does not
arise automatically; an inventor must apply for a patent. The inventor must apply within one year of
publicly disclosing the invention, such as by publishing a description of the invention or offering it for
sale. An inventor, or his or her attorney, generally makes a preliminary patent search before applying
for a patent to determine if it is feasible to proceed with the application. The application and a fee
are submitted to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, where it is reviewed by a patent examiner. If
a patent is granted, the inventor must pay another fee, and the government publishes a description
of the invention and its use. Only a patent attorney or patent agent may prosecute patents before
the PTO. Before a person may be licensed as a patent attorney or patent agent, she must have a
degree in certain technical or scientific fields. Utility and plant patents last for 20 years from the
application date; design patents last for fourteen years. If the owner of a utility patent does not pay
maintenance fees, the patent will expire earlier. After a patent expires, the invention becomes public
property and can be used or sold by anyone.

Technology transfer is the mechanism by which the accumulated knowledge

developed by a specific entity is transferred wholly or partially to another one to allow the receiver
to benefit from such knowledge. Commercialisation of IP was another major point explained by
speaker.