The Hindu Business Line : STPI plans sops for SMEs to develop patents

Realising the increasing need for Indian companies to develop Intellectual Property, Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) plans to offer special incentives to encourage small-medium sized companies (SMEs).

STPI is contemplating to provide an IPR cell within the technology parks. This would cover 50 per cent of the costs incurred by SMEs in filing patents. Further, it would also provide provisions for getting ideas patented in a year's time.

Official sources from STPI told Business Line, "Subject to approval from Parliament, these provisions may get implemented by the end of next financial year. While big companies have the resources to innovate, lot of these small companies are not able to do so due to lack of funds. So, for the IT sector and SMEs with interesting ideas this would be our initiative, apart from attempting to attract more venture capital funds for these companies."

More workshops

There would also be several programmes and workshops that would be conducted to spread awareness on IPR related issues. "In the coming years, we expect Indian companies to develop their own intellectual property and companies would have to ensure that they do not infringe upon the IPR of other companies. Some of our workshops would be aimed at providing adequate knowledge on these issues," added sources.

While some of the STPIs may have certain provisions as a part of their IT policy, there are no uniform standards at the national level. A draft for this has already been prepared and would be given to the Planning Commission to consider the feasibility, sources said.

Besides these, STPI already has incubation centres for SMEs to enable the companies to avoid capital expenditure, to test the commercial viability of some of their ideas and in certain cases to avail themselves of transit facilities.