A TTG Student Group report of the 22nd March, 2016 IPR Workshop held at S. N. Bose Auditorium, IIT Kharagpur:
Welcome Speech: Prof.Sunando Dasgupta, Dean SRIC, IIT Kharagpur: Prof. S. Dasgupta explained the benefits of having intellectual property rights in brief and introduced the speakers. The youtube video of Dean's speech follows.
A brief introduction of Technology Transfer Group:
Mr. Mervyn
Pereira, Head at Technology Transfer Group, third year undergraduate student,
Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Kharagpur. He explained research faculty and students the invention discloure process followed and support extended by IPR Office and role of TTG.
ExpertSpeak: Dr. S.K.Mitra, Deputy Controller, Patents and Design, Patent Office,
Kolkata
Dr. Mitra
explained the whole of process of Industrial Design Registration starting from
application to more detailed procedural steps. He introduced the concept of
Industrial Design by stating and explaining the definition of the same. He made
the attendees aware of the benefits of industrial design and how a small change
in design can also be considered a new intellectual property. He compared the
chances of getting a patent to getting an intellectual right over industrial
design and also stressed on alarmingly low number of design registrations
despite of such huge benefits. He made attendees realize the importance and
need for increasing industrial design registrations from the institute and from
India as a whole. According to Dr. Mitra, "there are growing number of
Industrial Design registrations in the rest of the world particularly in
western countries and Japan which is contributing to their increasing intellectual
wealth. The registrations in India have also seen an increase but it isquite
less as compared to patent registrations and other intellectual property
registrations but seeing the growing popularity, the current situation is
expected to change for the better. The Designs Act is often thought to be
unnecessary because of the presence of the Patents Act but it is not the case.
The Designs Act, 2000 is a major motivation to a better design analysis by the
researchers and it is necessary because it covers all the aspects required for
anundisputed Design Registrations. The Designs Act also defines a number of
concepts related to Industrial Design". He explained a number of
definitions related to Industrial Design particularly the 'Prohibited Design'.
In his own words "A design which is created by modifying an existing design
and has introduced only minor changes in the design which do not add any value
to the product is a prohibited design for registration. It is not considered to
be a new design". He thereby answered to a number of queries that are very
often. Dr. Mitra hopes to see a growth in number of Industrial Design Registrations
through the institute as was evident from his concluding words.
Dr. S. K. Mitra giving talk on Industrial Design concept
Prof. S. Matilal, RGSOIPL, IIT Kharagpur
Prof. S. Matilal made the attendees aware
of the rights of a copyright holder. As stated by him a copyright holder has a
right to publish, distribute and also to take legal action against those who
infringe his/herrights. He explained further, "The infringement of
copyrights is a serious issue and Research Scholars should be careful while using
materials from an external source in their work. If proved, infringement of
copyrights can lower their prestige as a researcher and the copyright holder
can take legal action against them. If any copyright infringement has been
found to be happening in the knowledge of the institute then it can be serious
blow to prestige of the institute and can also led to any further legal actions
against the institute." He explained different scenarios of copyright
infringement and also explained how the copyright holder can take legal action
in such cases. Further in his speech, he explained how to use a copyrighted
material fairly which is also termed as a "Fair use" of material in
the literature of Intellectual Property laws. As stated by Prof. Matilal
"Deciding if a use of copyrighted material is fair or not is completely
dependent on the court. Something that we think to be fair use can be a case of
infringement and something that appears to be an infringement can also be a
fair use if appropriate arguments for its use are provided". He concluded
the talk by giving an example of a legal action taken by big entertainment
company against a women for using a copyrighted music as background music in a
small video of her kid. He told, "She accepted the legal fight and court
considered her case to be fair use, which explains that fair use is completely
a court decision".
Prof. S. Matilal giving talk on copyrights
Prof. M. Padmavati, RGSOIPL, IIT Kharagpur
Prof. M. Padmavati focused on the novelty
aspect of research work which is the essential element for a patent application
to be accepted. As described by her, "if a work is to be patented then it
must be novel. Before applying for patents, the applicant must try to do an
exhaustive prior art search. 'Prior Art' search is the search for any earlier work
in the field which is similar to your
work and which can be a reason for refusal of your patent application due to lack
of novelty. There are a number of patent databases other that the Indian patent
database which can be used for prior art search but the most useful are
databases of USA, European region and Japan because these are the regions where a large number of patent are
filed every year. If the work passes through this test then it can be
considered to have a global novelty and it is most suitable to be patented".
She stressed on the most significant aspect of patent filing and provided an
orientation to attendees who are willing to go for patenting of their work.
Dr. M. Padmavati giving talk on importance of novelty search
Prof. Rabribrata Mukherjee, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT
Kharagpur
Prof. Rabribrata Mukherjee is himself a
researcher and has got a number of patents for his works. He focused on how researchers
can manage the publication of work along with filing a patent for it. He
avoided discussing the legal part of patent filing and was speaking as a fellow
researcher with the attendees. He shared his experience of his earlier research
works and how he got them patented. He also stressed on the novelty aspect of
the work and described it as the most important criteria for a work to get
patented. Further, he explained the benefits of having a patent and focused on
the point that a researcher should have a right over his/her work to avoid the
use of his work without his knowledge. He concluded the talk with stating that
the scholars should avoid copying work from external sources to boost his/her
work because it can lower the research ranking of the institute, if proved.
Prof. R. Mukherjee giving a talk on managing of publications and patents
together
Query Session with the panel of guests:
Dr. S.K.Mitra, Deputy controller, Patents and Design, Patent Office, Kolkata(first from right) answering queries of attendees; also seen (from left) Prof.Rabibrata Mukherjee, Prof.S.Matilal, Dr.M.Padmavati.
A good
response was seen during the query session. A number of students came forward
to ask questions to the panel which responded flawlessly to all the queries.
Many of queries were regarding the concept of Industrial Design and about what
can be included in it.
Attendees asking queries to the panel
