How Are Colleges Working to Protect Copyright, Patent on Student Creations?
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As innovation due to the rapidly advancing technology increasingly becomes core to the college education, campuses are stepping ahead to protect the Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) of their students.
Intended to help students identify their Intellectual Property (IP) while respecting others’ IP, they are setting up dedicated IPR cells to streamline paperwork, offer legal counseling, etc. With these efforts by campuses, the students can now apply for and obtain copyrights and patents for almost everything. No matter whether it is a product, an image, or a simple text, a student can secure the same. The only condition is that the project and product should be new and unique.
The copyright or patent is owned by both the student and the institute. Here, the college plays the role of an applicant, and the student is the inventor. So, the inventorship credit goes to the student.
IPR cells aid students to promote their work. And, it further helps the students in the commercialization of their products, ideas, etc., by attracting potential buyers.
Plugging the Gaps
It is due to the lack of separate Intellectual Property Law (IP Law) for universities that the campuses are working on their own policies. Indeed, the colleges are doing so while keeping in mind the objectives and privileges of the National IPR Policy adopted by the Indian government in 2016. According to the IPR Law in India, one of the prerequisites for filing the copyright or patent application is that the work must be:
- New,
- Non-obvious, and
- With tangible utilities or outcomes.
As India follows the first-to-file rule, it is always in the best interest of the applicant to e-register and then proceed further only if a prototype is ready. Moreover, he/she should ensure that the novelty isn’t lost even by prior publication in a journal. The kind of IPR is selected based on the type of work. For instance, if it is a new process or material product, then it comes under Patent Protection. Nevertheless, if it is aesthetic and design-based innovation, film, or video, then fall under the Indian Copyright Act of 1957.
Time and Money
Although some patents get registered within a month of filing application, many others take around four months or even more. Most of the time, it is due to the queries amid the students, faculty member, and Patent Attorney and Officer. Whatever is the reason, these things show that ‘obtaining patent protection’ is not an easy task. Note that the final granting of patents can take years even.
From all these statistics, we can conclude that though patenting is a long-drawn-out process, yet going for this is beneficial in many ways. By obtaining Patent Protection in India or anywhere, the inventors can gain the confidence to conduct more researches and come up with more inventions. They can become more industry-ready.
Considering these advantages of patenting, universities are involved in practices to help students with this process. The campuses are supporting the inventors in the entire process, from filing to responding to patent administrators if needed. They appear supportive from the perspective of expenses also. The cost of Applying for a Patent, in general, ranges from Rs 4,000 to Rs 9,000.
Universities also support students by paying renewal fees for half the 20-year life of a patent. Nonetheless, they also share royalties on ideas, inventions, and products produced by students in college using university facilities. Terms of sharing vary based on universities.
Many times, students wish to leave the campus and move out of the nation. In such cases, the college takes care of the rest of the Patent Registration Process in India with the help of an authority letter from the student.
Well, this is one of the best moves that campuses in India took to motivate students to utilize their intellect as more as they could. It is a good way to shape present students into great creators and inventors who will make the nation proud in the future. In a single line – this effort by the colleges will for sure be beneficial for not just the students but campuses and the nation as well. For more visit: https://www.kashishipr.com/
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