Lack of courses on intellectual property (IP) Rightss in educational institutions in the State has resulted in students continuing with their downloading and copying habits even in the corporate world, said IP analysts in the city.
“There is no awareness among our students about downloading and using another person’s intellectual property,” opined Subhadip Sarkar, Director- Intellectual Property(IP), Cognizant.
He was speaking at a conference held here on Saturday on ‘Corporate Governance and Compliance’.
Sarkar said that there has to be more awareness among students right from the undergraduate levels about compliance and intellectual property and the types of content that can be copied and used carefully following rules.
“Colleges must impart thorough knowledge on the process of filing patents and carefully select the ideas that are viable at industrial levels,” said Sarkar.
Outlining the purposes for which copying third party content is allowed, Vijay Kumar M, an IP Analyst said, “Downloading and using information for non-commercial or educational use is fine, but the process has to be monitored and done with caution once a person enters and begins to work in a firm.”
Participants suggested that every state must have its own patent office with IP officers with an efficient patent filing system in place.
Suggestions were made that undergraduate institutes must have cells to capture and monetize the ideas that students come up along with background knowledge of the best practices in patenting and putting a person’s knowledge and innovations in the public domain with ensuring that it is protected.
Issues that might arise in legal areas of intellectual property were discussed in the conference with other areas like corporate law, mergers and acquisitions, human resource and industrial law.