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The National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science and Technology (NIIST), Thiruvananthapuram, under the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), is launching a one-month-long skill development training class on August 16 with a view to churning out much needed IPR (Intellectual Property Rights) experts or patent agents.
Announcing this, a spokesman for CSIR-NIIST said that first-class MSc or B Tech degree holders are eligible to apply. The training course includes lectures, discussions, tests and assignments backed by what he described as a well-structured syllabus. The faculty comprise of experts with rich experience in IP (Intellectual Property) management. The syllabus ranges from Introduction to IPR, Patent Law and Practice in India, Patent search and drafting exercises to patent practice.
Well-structured syllabus
The career as an IP professional (IPR attorneys, patent agents, examiner of patents or IP management experts) is highly rewarding, says RS Praveen Raj, Principal Scientist-IP Management and Technology Transfer at CSIR-NIIST. A lot of thinking has gone into the design of the course, ‘Intellectual Property Rights, Patent drafting and Practice’ as part of skill development programmes for training scientific personnel and students. Many well-known institutes in the country offer postgraduate courses in IP Rights and Management, but the proposed course is very unique in all respects, Raj told BusinessLine.
Need for strong IPR system
IPRs assure monetary rewards for technological innovations along with accolades for the creator of the IP. A larger cross-section of the scientific workers is not fully aware of the necessity of harnessing a strong IPR system to their best advantage, Raj added. IPR has not yet obtained required traction among science students in Kerala. There is a growing demand for IPR experts , and there are good career prospects for those opting IPR for higher education, he said.
Career prospects
“The recent past has witnessed a sharp rise in IPR litigations in the country and an exponential growth is predicted in respect of patent litigations,” Raj said. Filing of patent applications by Indians is also showing an uptrend. Despite this, we still starve for IPR Professionals, may it be patent agents/attorneys, IPR managers or academicians.
Multinational corporates offer remuneration of no less than $5,000 (around Rs 2 lakh) for preparing a patent document. Even for a patent application from an Indian company, a skilled IP professional can demand service charges in tens of thousands of Indian rupees. But the required technical skills demand a very good science background and extensive training in addition to the knowledge of IPR laws, Raj says.
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