Legacy Intellectual Property

Companies patent aggressively as a strategy and regularly discard patents that do not fit in. Delaware economic-development agency saw an opportunity in it, received 255 patents as donation from its resident firms DuPont Co. and Hercules Chemical Co. Inc and entrusted the responsibility to Center for Advanced Technology and Innovation to evaluate , assess and license. A new package for incubating firms, space+ facilities+ funds + raw technologies has emerged.
A pointer to emerging scenario in India! Should the labs donate the technologies to incubators?

Emerging Technologies in India

Cygnus Business Consulting & Research brought out a report on “Emerging Technologies in India”. This report, covers status of sixteen emerging technologies in India in terms of applications, education, research activities, patents filed in the country, major industry forums and profiles of major R&D centers. Sectors covered include Convergence,Display technology,Embedded systems (Hardware engineering), Enabling Technologies (Information Technology),Imaging technology,MEMS,Multimedia, Networking, Nanotech ,Optical technology, Photonics,Semiconductor,Speech and Signal Processing, Telecom,Technology on Indian Languages,Wireless,Smart Card,Broadband Technology, Electronic & Electrical Technology, Nuclear Sciences,Aerospace and Logistics.

Contact person: Debasish Banerjee, Senior Marketing Manager INFORMATION
TEL: 040-23430203 – 05, 23430209(D),(m) 9347004441

VC funds for North East

Worbus plans to invest in SMEs and in north east. Read the economic times news. It currently opeartes from Pune.

Structuring of venture capital investments into India

IVCA reports (4th Quarter 2006) that after a two-year lull, investors are showing renewed interest in early stage ventures. This throws up the question of the best option for an overseas investor, particularly an US investor, to structure his investment into the Indian start – up company. The report also caried an extract of paper by Sri SR Gopalan.There are two basic options :

Under the first option, (Option A) an overseas entity, often a Delaware corporation, is formed and the investors as well as the Indian founders take a stake in the US corporation. The investors get Preferred Stock while the Indian founders are offered Common Stock. To comply with regulatory requirements, founders’ stake is either through stock options or through a payment of less than $ 25,000 as permitted by Reserve Bank under the automatic route. The US Company carries out all the US based activities such as marketing and sales. A 100% sub is formed in India for delivery operations. Often an intermediary company in a tax-exempt jurisdiction is formed to make the investment from the US Company into the Indian company.

Under the second option, (Option B) the investments are made into the Indian entity, which then sets up a 100% subsidiary or branch in the US to carry out marketing and sales. In this case also, the US investor may form an intermediary company in a tax-exempt jurisdiction to make the investment into the Indian company. As per the report with maturing of exit route in Indian shore, Option B is gaining in popularity.

UTI Ventures invests USD 6 MN in Vallabhdas Kanji

Bangalore based UTI Venture Funds (UVF), the Private Equity arm of Unit Trust of India (UTI) group , has made a private equity investment worth USD six million in Vallabhdas Kanji Limited through its Ascent India Fund.VKL is part of the Rs 500 crore Kanji Morarji Group, that includes Kancor Flavours and Extracts and Auto Hangar (India). Presently, UVF manages two funds - Ascent India Fund and India Technology Venture Unit Scheme (ITVUS). Its portfolio includes Subex systems,HBL Nife Power systems, Ramakrishna Forgings.

Ruth Dreifuss asks Novartis to withdraw its Indian patent case

Former Swiss president Ruth Dreifuss joins Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) and 16 other organizations asking Novartis to withdraw its case filed in India.The challenge to India's patent law arose when an Indian patent bureau rejected an application for the Novartis cancer drug Gleevec on the grounds that the company wanted to patent a "trivial improvement". MNCs want to protect even trivial improvements , charge high prices but buy peace with NGOs by giving the medicines free or at discount. But people like Sigrid Sterckx, professor of ethics and an expert on patents at the University of Ghent in Belgium, do not agree. Read the article from asia Times Online.
Read also response from Novartis.
Rep. Henry Waxman chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, joins the debate and writes to Novartis`I do not dispute your right to apply for a patent or appeal a denial. I am concerned, however, that your attempt to influence domestic Indian law could have a severe impact on worldwide access to medicines."
Indian NGOs allege that while international support is pouring in , Indian government is considering recommendation of Mashelkar committee report advocating amendment to patent act, which could favour Novartis position.

New Ventures India

New Ventures India supports sustainable enterprise creation by accelerating the transfer of capital to outstanding investment opportunities in India that incorporate social and environmental benefits.New Ventures selects SMEs in fast-growth, environmental sectors such as ecotourism, non-timber forest products and certified wood, organic foods and fibers, renewable energy, sustainable fisheries management, and clean technologies. These SMEs are seeking capital in the range of Rs.50 lacs to Rs.15 crores. The program matches entrepreneurs with executive mentors and consultants and teams of graduate business students (MBA) to improve the enterprise's business plan to present at a New Ventures Investor Forum. It is promoted by World Resources Institute and the CII-Godrej Green Business Centre with USAID under the Global Development Alliance.

`Small is beautiful' fund

Buiness Line reported that `small is beautiful' (SIB), a Rs 231-crore private equity fund on Tuesday announced investments in three companies engaged in power generation amounting to Rs 51crore. SIB has invested in KVK Energy & Infrastructure Ltd, Hyderabad for its proposed 56-MW coal-washery-rejects-based power project in Chhattisgarh. The second investment is in Shalivana Projects Ltd for their two 10-MW biomass-based, power projects in Maharashtra. The third investment is in the Chamoli Hydro P Ltd for its five-MW hydel power project in Uttaranchal. The fund is managed by KSK Energy Ventures ltd, Hyderabad-KSK will identify, invest and develop power projects to help them achieve financial closure, after which the "Small is Beautiful" fund will invest in these projects, to finance and support their operations. KSK will also act as the Investment Manager of the fund.

Mass production of patents in China

Thompson Scientific study of patenting by Academics in 2005 has some interesting findings. Despite more than doubling in number over the six year period studied, academic inventions still represent only 5% of total inventions worldwide.The United States has seen a 21% growth in academic inventions from 2000 to 2005, with the University of California way ahead in terms of total numbers. Technology transfer here is managed by a central Office of Technology Transfer, with campus-based technology transfer offices. The inventions they lay claim to include nicotine patches, cochlear implants and atomic force microscopes.The flood has come from China- the top 10 from Asia are in China with patenting from 900 to 500- a very significant number considering that MIT score in 2005 was less than 200.

Moser Baer Photo Voltaic (MBPV) heralds new PV technology

Solar (Photo Voltaic) energy has been in the news for past few decades but has not made any significant dent due to low yield pushing capital costs to unsustainable level. The good news-Sensing new opportunities in solar energy business, IT major Moser Baer has invested Rs 350 crore in photovoltaic business, which it feels will fetch Rs 450 crore ($100 million) revenue in the next one year.It started with off shore research and strategic equity participation in two solar concentrator technology companies, Solaria and Solfocus followed by minority stake in Stion Corporation, a nanostructures technology company based in California. What is common to hard disks and PV- both use semiconductor process based on silica. The business model of MBPV is to offer clean power to villages without depending on government subsidy either to the firm or to the user.

Indians rule the US start-up arena

Immigrant entrepreneurs have taken the United States by a storm over the past decade and a half and leading the charge are Indian immigrants to the US.Indians account for 28 per cent of all foreign-founded private start-up companies in America, according to a first-of-its-kind study, 'American Made: The Impact of Immigrant Entrepreneurs and Professionals on US Competitiveness.' Read the Rediff news.