DU to soon get a policy on patent registrations

Among other things, the policy will guide students on whether researches are ‘ patentable’ or not

Students and teachers of Delhi University ( DU) are in process of drafting an intellectual property ( IP) policy to facilitate registration of patents, copyrights and trademarks by its students and teachers. The policy will also answer major questions like: Which research is patentable? What are the legal issues involved? If the student pursues a research using university infrastructure, is the outcome students’ intellectual property?

DU’s “Intellectual Property Rights Cell” was established 2008 with a view to helping researchers, inventors and creators manage their intellectual property rights through the legal machinery and also to manage its commercial aspects. The cell initially was headed by dean of research, the HRD ministry had earlier this year constituted an IPR chair at the university.

“The cell will also undertake the task of corresponding with the attorney and the inventors on IP matters. The researchers will be able to focus on their respective projects and all the issues pertaining to patenting will be taken care of and the confidentiality of each research will be maintained,” said MHRD IPR chair professor ( technical) Dr Rekha Chaturvedi.

The policy will help the students and researchers need to know what exactly will be patentable while they are pursuing a research? “In the lack of a proper policy, researchers are often unaware of the dos and don’ts and face difficulty in dealing with legal and commercial issues,” she added.

It is aimed to deliberate upon ownership patterns of the patents, IP rights of students, teachers and visiting professors, copyright policy, licensing policy, patent funds, division of payment structure, IPR issues in digital domain, patentability assessment, invention disclosures, plagiarism, among others.