Draft policy calls for revenue sharing pacts between institutions, researchers

An academic institution must be allowed to to enter into revenue sharing agreement with researchers, in cases of commercialisation of innovations and creations in case of outputs generated as a result of utilisation of its internal resources, according to draft guidelines floated by the government on the implementation of intellectual property rights (IPR) policy for academic institutions.

“However, if an institution determines that an invention was made by an individual on his or her own time and unrelated to his or her responsibilities towards the institution and was conceived without use of its resources, then the invention shall vest with the individual or inventor,” the draft added.

The draft has been prepared by the Cell for IPR Promotion and Management, under the Commerce and Industry Ministry. The draft is being circulated for comments by stakeholders.

These guidelines are not intended to override the best practices already followed by most of the academic institutions, the note clarified.

“The use of these guidelines is intended to complement the existing intellectual property laws of India. All academic institutions are free to adopt and/or implement subsequent process of policy implementation, as well as propose further strategies for the same,” it said.

For copyrights, the draft has proposed that the ownership rights in scholarly and academic works generated utilising resources of academic institution, including books, dissertations and lecture notes, shall ordinarily be vested with the author.

The ownership rights in lecture videos or massive open online courses, films, plays, and musical works, however, shall ordinarily be vested with the academic institution.

Similarly, ownership rights over integrated circuits and plant varieties and industrial designs will rest with the academic institution if a student, researcher or faculty member has used its resources and funds for developing the product.

The academic institutions are free to enter into revenue sharing agreement with the researchers, in cases of commercialisation of innovation, and creation as per the advice of IP Cell, the draft added.

Academic institutions may appoint a committee of experts to address the concerns of the aggrieved person and all disputes shall be dealt with by this committee.

It has also suggested creation of IP Cells in academic institutions to conduct awareness programmes for students, faculty, researchers, and officials.