Comments invited on National IPR Policy

DIPP placed on web draft policy on National IPR and invited suggestions. Salient features:

Objective 1 - IP Awareness and Promotion
Create awareness on a bigger scale. Since signing of TRIPs  workshops are held as regular events and scientists cannot be said to be unaware of IPR.

Objective 2 - Creation of IP 
Audit and bench line studies- more reports do not help.

Facilitate creation and protection of ‘small inventions’ through a new law
on utility models; Small invention?

 Introduce the ‘first-time patent’ fee waiver and support systems for
MSMEs and reduce transaction costs in other ways (e.g. prior art search); Is small fee and Google search for prior art limiting IP creation by MSME?

 Provide statutory incentives, like tax benefits linked to IP creation, for the

entire value chain from IP creation to commercialization;  These possibly will be fiscal incentives. Challenge is how to provide these benefits to units not recognised by DSIR. Need to understand why less than 10% of earmarked funds are utilised by DeitY for patent reimbursement.

Objective 3 - Legal and Legislative Framework
Reports on Standards not required. Sending teams to standard setting meetings also will not help. Influencing global standards with IP generated in India is a wish, governments do not set private standards. Companies are invited to the consortium only when they are working on state-of-art technology. The gold plated gate-pass to standard setting committee needs funding for a long period to private firms Indian owned and MNC owned. The legal requirement is AMENDING GFR (GENERAL FINANCE RULES) OF INDIA PROVIDING FOR GRANTS TO PROVATE FIRMS AND PROVISION TO WRITE-OFF INVESTMENT IN FAILED INNOVATIONS.

Objective 4 - IP Administration and Management
Rank and pay of officers is important. The highest ranking official should be of the rank of Secretary to GOI.

Objective 5 - Commercialization of IP
All assumptions need thorough checking. IP commercialisation is a topic for universities, nations should focus on IP trade. Funding IP acquisition  by researchers to MSME is also a nation building  activity.

Objective 6 - Enforcement and Adjudication 

Training Police and Juduiciary: ongoing process. quick results cannot be expected. what IP crimes are more relevant to India?

Objective 7 - Human Capital Development
Need to check sustainability of IPR cells in educational institutes from experience of TIFAC, NRDC etc.

Thrive Solar Energy invites proposals from women entrepreneurs for setting up solar lamp assembly units.

Thrive Solar Energy Private Ltd., (THRIVE SOLAR) located in Hyderabad is focused on designing and developing high quality, low-cost LED home lights that help serve the millions of poor in inaccessible areas in Asia and Africa. Thrive solar proposes to help set up around 500 SOLAR LED lights manufacturing and assembly centers in India to help empower women, provide local employment, increase the work skills and provide for kerosene free and well lighted rural India.
Investment required -Rs 5.25 lakhs.
Contact for DPR: ranga@thriveenergy.co.in

India Water Week - 2015

India Water Week 2015 - is being organised by the Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation, National Water Development Agency and Central Water Commission from January 13-17th 2015 in New Delhi. 
This year's theme is "Water Management for Sustainable Development"
Details: http://www.indiawaterweek.in/index.aspx

AP Government sets up entity for Innovation Society

A.P government has set up 3 entities for development of ICT Industry namely

• eGovernance Authority
• Electronics &IT Agency
• Innovation Society.

I was invited to join Executive Council of 3rd entity -Innovation Society,

Innovation Society

Technology survives and thrives through innovation. All the 3 areas, namely, e-Governance,

Electronics and IT are substantially technology-based and hence innovation has to be promoted. Moreover, specific capacities and skillsets are required to be built/ harnessed for successfully promoting these sectors. Hence the need arose for a society for Innovation.

Terms of Reference

a) Creation of an Innovation Policy and agenda, with more focus on Electronics and IT;

b) Design and establish an Innovation and Transformation Academy for creating a pool of
highly talented professionals and entrepreneurs, who can contribute significantly to the
development of the State.
c) AP has to take advantage of the situation to leapfrog in terms of the technology and
business models, processes and procedures. The innovation required for such
leapfrogging in all areas involving technologies, would be the responsibility of the
Society.
d) Nucleating Start-up villages and providing guidance and support for their growth;
e) Accelerating the implementation of the various schemes of GOI for Capacity Building in
the ESDM sector, as already alluded to in section D2;
f) Creating and implementing a framework for enhancing the quality of graduates in IT and
Electronics, with active collaboration of the Industry;
g) Launching a knowledge portal as the repository all best practices in e-Governance, IT
and Electronics;
h) Designing innovative, futuristic and cost-effective blue-print for the Information
Infrastructure and Systems required for the New Capital for AP.

Composition
The Innovation Society shall be constituted under the AP Societies Registration Act, 2001 and shall be headed by a CEO who shall be technocrat, with proven record of promoting innovation in technology areas. In order to effectively monitor the functioning of the society as per the mandate set in the Blue print, the Society shall have the Governance structure with a II - Tier mechanism as given below:

Governing Council
1 Honorable Chief Minister Chairman
Members
2 Hon’ble Minister (IT)
3 Advisor(e-Governance, Electronics & IT)
4 Chief Secretary
4 Special Chief Secretary, Planning
6 Principal Secretary, Finance
7 Sri BVR Mohan Reddy, Vice Chairman, NASSCOM
8 Prof U B Desai, Director, IIT, Hyderabad
9 Sri. Lalitesh Katragadda
10 Sri. Satish Andra, Industry Representative
11 Mr. Sanjay Vijay Kumar, Pilot Incubator
12 Secretary, IT Member Convener

Executive Council
Secretary (IT) Chairman
Members
Sri Pranav Kumar Suresh, CEO, Startup Village
Dr R Raghunandan, Executive Director of Indian STEPS & Business Incubators
Dr. Aynampudi Subba Rao, Visiting Professor, Innovation & Incubation at IIT Hyderabad
Ms Annie Mathew, Director, Asia Pacific Alliances & Business Development, Blackberry
CEO of Innovation Society Member/ Convener

Secretary, IT may invite Prl. Secretaries/Secretaries/ Academicians/Industry Representatives as and when required to Governing Council / Executive Council for their value addition.

Promoting Semiconductor startups

Make-In-India philosophy and reports of larger innovation fund with DeitY have rekindled hope for a synergistic policy to promote new technology ventures including the dream of INDIAN DESIGNED CHIP .

Chip development has become prohibitively expensive over time. While one person could design a chip in the 1960s, design teams can reach into the hundreds of engineers today. Products may take years to develop, and then the projects are turned over to third-party manufacturers, known as foundries, for production. The chips are more complex because the circuitry is so dense that chips can have billions of transistors on them, with the level of detail resembling a street map of the world.

Startups and new chip designs are the lifeblood of the semiconductor industry.New incubator , Silicon Catalyst targets startup with fewer than 10 employees and less than $2 million in funding.

Export of an active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) is not an infringement under Section 107A of the Patents Act.

On November 5th, in Bayer Corporation (Bayer) v. Union of India & Ors (NPL), the High Court of Delhi (Court) examined the scope of India’s Bolar exemption. Specifically, the issue to be decided in this case was whether the exportation of an active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) constituted a defense to infringement under Section 107A of the Patents Act.
The decision:

After a review of the facts, the Court accepted that the product NPL sought to export was not for commercial purposes since the amount was only sufficient to make 1000 to 2000 tablets (which was approximately the single trial batch size required by the Chinese Regulatory Authorities). Thus, according to the Court, the only question that had to be addressed was whether Section 107A covered export of a patented product for use by an overseas importer to conduct studies and generate data for the purpose of seeking regulatory approval in that country. 

After reviewing the history of the Bolar exemption in the U.S., India’s accession to the TRIPS agreement, the introduction of Section 107A in the Patents Act in 2002 and its subsequent amendment in 2005, the Court stated that the exclusion to a patentee’s right as provided under Section 107A was wider than the exceptions provided by the laws of the U.S. Specifically, the Court stated: 

“India is one of the largest producers of generic versions of drugs around the world. Given the economic realities of our country, providing cheaper medicines is a necessity. The parliament in its wisdom has, thus couched the exclusion to a patent, as provided under Section 107A, in wide terms. The sweep of the plain language of Section 107A, thus, cannot be restricted in the manner as canvassed on behalf of Bayer. 

…Plainly, Section 107A of the Act takes within its fold any sale of a patented invention which is required for development and submission of information under any law in a country other than India that regulates the manufacture or sale of any product. Indisputably, under the Chinese Law, submission of studies and data related to bio-equivalence and bio-availability of API in a generic version, is required as discussed earlier and the sale of 1 kg. of Sorafenat to HPCL can be reasonably stated to be related to the studies that are required to be conducted by HPCL for obtained the regulatory approvals. 

…[t]he language of Section 107A of the Act is determinative of the question whether export as sought for by NPL is permissible within the exemption of Section 107A of the Act. The use of the expression ‘reasonably related to’ as used in Section 107A of the Act would plainly mean a reasonably nexus. Thus, the only question that needs to be answered is whether there is any reasonable nexus between the sale of Sorafenat by NPL to HPCL and submission of information under the law in force in China. In my view, the answer to this question is clearly in the affirmative. 

…It is also important to note that the language of Section 107A of the Act is materially different from the law as applicable in U.S. Whilst, the US Law restricts the safe harbour to a sale within United States and solely for purposes related to information under a Federal Law, Section 107A of the Act is circumscribed by no such conditions. Thus, a sale even outside India would fall within the sweep of Section 107A, provided it is reasonably related to development and submission of information as required under a law in force in India or outside India.”

The Court also rejected Bayer’s arguments that the language of Section 107A excluded “exports” because this term was not specifically recited. Specifically, the Court stated:

“I am not inclined to accept this contention for the reason that the expression ‘selling’ is wide enough to even include cross border sales (i.e. exports). If the Parliament intended to restrict the exception to only sales within India, the same would have been expressly stated as was done by the US Congress under 35 US Code 271(e)(1).”

Finally, the Court examined the question of whether Section 107A should be read to include only sales made “within” India. The Court answered the question in the negative for three reasons: 

1.  The plain language of the section did not support such an interpretation. Specifically, there were no “words or expressions” that allowed such a restriction to be read into this section. In fact, to the contrary, Section 107A expressly permits use for submission as required by the laws outside of India.

2.  Even if a purposive interpretation of Section 107A is attempted, such an interpretation favors permitting export. According to the Court: 

“[T]he purpose for excluding development activities and uses for regulatory approvals is to ensure that exploitation of patented invention is not restricted beyond the period or sphere of exclusivity granted to the patentee. Thus, although initiative and effort of an inventor must be rewarded, the protection is limited and should not stifle further development and restrict participation beyond the period of exclusivity. There is a strong case for enhancing availability of essential drugs at affordable prices and the safe harbor exception must extend to permit developing overseas sources also.” 

3.  National barriers offer only limited barriers to trade. As a result, confining the exclusion of Section 107A to sales within India would not aid the object of such exclusion. 

Source: Lisa Mueller

Report of the Forum on High-Tech Defence Innovation

India is the largest arms importer in the world, which means that it is exporting not only foreign exchange, but also entire eco-systems that a thriving defence industrial complex could have generated for India, with all its benefits.  India needs to urgently discard its “Import with Benefits” model and usher in a Defence Industrialization Strategy (DIS) through indigenous, high-tech innovation.  A successful plan has to dig practically into every aspect of our Nation’s functioning, outlined in the more detailed report below. The Report is the Forum’s voice, an articulation of what it stands for.

Vallurupalli Nageswara Rao- edupreneur from Andhra

In the year 1959,Sri. Vallurupalli Nageswara Rao, founded 'Southern Engineering Works' (SEW) in Vijaywada, A.P. India, along with late Sri. Y. Purnachandra Rao and Sri. Y.M.G. Nageswara Rao as co-founders to pursue civil engineering construction activities. Part of the prestigious Nagarjuna Sagar Dam in Andhra Pradesh was the first project SEW e executed. The company was awarded a major dams such as, Tawa, Bargi, Bansagar, Hasdeo Bango, in Madhya Pradesh, Srisailam and Priyadarshini Jurala in Andhra Pradesh. In 1983, the company was converted to a Private Limited Company and named as SEW Constructions Ltd. In 2008, the company was renamed as SEW Infrastructure Ltd. to highlight commitment to infrastructure projects.

He belongs to the successful entrepreneurial community of Andhra that believed in paying back to society. VNRVJIET, top engineering institute in Hyderabad is named after him.  

Chinese Manufacturer of award winning Keyboard looking for Indian partners

Mo Xiaodong(Stephen Mo) is inventor of vertical numeric keyboard, which received Gold medals in exhibitions held in Germany, France, Hungary. The product is available for license to manufacture in India. Contact person:

Mo Xiaodong(Stephen Mo), 

Mobile phone:+86 18612560998, 

email: jbhmoxiaodong@163.com

CII Industrial Innovation Awards 2014

Total 81 applications were received all across India and from leading companies under different award categories. After the first level of submission and subsequent online jury top 65 have been selected for the 2nd stage. Two level of screening were carried out on these 65 organizations, consisting of Onsite Jury Assessment (In direct interaction with organizations and Assessors) and Final Jury (physical meeting of Assessors to evaluate the results) and top 23 were shortlisted for the Grand Jury. In addition the Final Jury has also recommended to consider 3 more organizations to be part of top 26 most innovative organization for the year 2014.  After the successful conclusion of Grand Jury for the CII Industrial Innovation Awards 2014 top 26 innovations have been identified as the top innovation driven organizations for the year 2014.

CII Industrial Innovation Awards 2014 Winners are:

Grand Winner (Overall): Bilcare Ltd.

Manufacturing Sector MSME: Pluss Polymers Pvt Ltd & AP Organics ltd