Smt. R.P College for Women Nagpur and LAD College (Shankar Nagar campus), on January 10, 2016, organised a national seminar on Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) and importance of patents to boost research. Technical sessions on introduction and importance of IPR, patentability of inventions, copyright, plagiarism and its relevance were the major takeaways from this seminar. This workshop was all about fundamentals of IPR and inventions that are not patentable in India.

Dr Shyamala Nair, Principal of LAD College in her speech, spoke about the achievements of LAD College and how committed the college has been in empowering women. Also, Nair urged all the students to exercise their creativity in the best possible way.

Dr Kane, Vice Chancellor of Rashtrasant Tukdoji Maharaj Nagpur University, while addressing the students during the seminar said that IPR and patents have now become the ?buzz words in academic circles. He also gave a brief introduction on the topic – Information and Communication Technologies and Internet. Kane said that through copyrights, intellectual property and patents, etc, knowledge transfer has become much easier today.

Dr Kane, while making the audience aware of procedures, techniques and other important information on patents, further said, Apart from plants and animals, all evolution and developments take place due to intellect. The two skills – reading and writing – are products of this intellect that facilitate knowledge transfer. And, the availability of knowledge transfer has made copyrights necessary. Almost 75% of our research on a daily basis is academic in nature. Various discoveries, science and their commercial usage have led to the implementation of patents.

During an interaction with Nation Next, Swapnil Gawande, Attorney for Copyrights and Patenting, said, There are very few science colleges in India who have conducted similar seminars and activities on the importance of IPR, inventions and their patents. Negligence of implementation of patentability is the biggest issue in India. Eighty per cent of applicants, who file for patents in India, are foreigners. So, for the awareness of the same, it’s a great idea to conduct such seminars and activities. Engineering and pharmacy colleges give more importance to such seminars than science colleges. This initiative will now help the students and faculty from the science department to get informed about patentability. I hope to see more applications for patents to be filed post this seminar. He further added, Instead of focusing more on the commercial aspect, an inventor should focus more on the research part of his work. He should check whether his invention could be patented or not. The country should be benefitted from his inventions.

Dr Bindu Sharma, Founder and CEO IP Solutions LLP Bangalore, who was one of the key speakers, told Nation Next, IPR in India is gaining more importance than ever before. Intellectual property is an intangible asset that needs to be protected well in order to extract maximum benefit out of it. New ideas and inventions should be documented; proper research regarding patents should be done. We need to protect and monetise these creations. Also, it’s extremely important for institutes to have an IP policy to define an IP Strategy (that the institution follows).

Dr Yenkie, Chaya Satpute, Pankaj Borkar, Dr Anuradha Gadkari, Dr U Guha and Dr DR Peshwe were the other guests who were present during the seminar. Dr JP Chawla Secretary of NUMTA and Dr Chitra Lade were the convener of the seminar. The national seminar was held at LAD Colleges Justice Bhavaishankar Niyogi Auditorium, which was organised under the aegis of IQAC and Research Development Cell of LAD College in collaboration with NU Microbiology Teachers Association.