Presented at UK Intellectual Property Office Workshop on the Management of Intellectual Property in UK-India R&D Collaborations, Delhi, 30th January 2012

1. Indian Approaches to IP
management and the current
framework
A.S.Rao
CIIE,IIM,Ahmedabad
http://www.linkedin.com/in/indiainvents
1

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.
2

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
3

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 (!!!).
4

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 (!!!)
5

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.
6

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’
7

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.
8