Jaipur, Oct. 8 (UNI): Nuclear scientist and Principal Scientific Advisor to the Central government, Dr R Chidambaram, urged that India should strive to go beyond the objective of a 'developed nation' by aiming to become a global 'innovation leader'.

Dr Chidambaram said this while delivering the second convocation address at the Malaviya National Institute of Technology here on Saturday.

Dr Chidambaram said India is now considered one of the hot-spots for innovation. "Till sometime back, they (developed states) were talking only of China in the context of technology. Now they talk of China and India," he said.

Dr Chidambaram referred to an instance mentioned in the biography of renowned scientist, Prof. Chandrashekar, wherein his biographer, Kamaleshwar Wali, puts a question to Chandrashekar as to how India produced such world-class scientists like C V Raman, and S N Bose in the 1920's.

Prof. Chandrashekar had replied, "In the 1920's there was need for self-expression as a part of the national movement to show to the West that, in their own realm, we are equal to them," he said.

Dr Chidambaram said, "today, 59 years after Independence, our motivation should be to make India a developed nation in the fullest sense of the term in the shortest possible time."

He said in areas like atomic energy, space and IT software, the world no longer viewed India as a developing country. He said we could claim to be a developed nation when the quality of life in rural India becomes comparable to the quality of life in the non-urban areas of already developed countries.

Sunil Arora, Principal Secretary to Rajasthan Chief Minister, Vasundhara Raje, was the guest of honour at the function.

Chairman, Board of Governors Mukul Kasliwal and Director Prof. R P Dahiya spoke about the achievements and future plans of the institute.

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Patent Act has seen phasewise amendments starting from 1999 to the end of 2005 giving full shape to the patent regime in India and bringing full-fledged patent rights for all types of inventions. Since 2000, the Indian industry has strived to be self-sustained on the R&D front and also identify what needs to be done to face in the patent regime period. With this, almost all the sectors started their operations to identify intellectual property (IP) generated among them and this exercise was more in the pharmaceutical and life sciences sectors.

Companies, governmental organisations and R&D units are also working towards development of intangible assets through protection by way of patents, trademarks or other IP laws. The awareness is higher at the R&D units and industries than government organisations. But units like Council for Scientific & Industrial Research Organisations are exceptional and are in forefront. Though maintaining a list of patents with them is a good sign to being with, but some of these patents that have been acquired have no value As India seems to be emerging the knowledge hub of future, it needs to streamline all the activities that go into development of IP. This is very important in the context of standardisation of the IP protection and also to obtain good revenues out of this new law. There are certain means to be followed before opting for protection of IP. It is not a good practice to file every small and big invention which one comes across. And it is also not true that only the complex inventions generate revenues. Things, as small as a safety pin, can also generate the revenues in the patent system. The development of the safety pin itself is a good example. Developed in 1849, Patent No. 6,281 by Walter Hunt, it was developed by twisting a length of wire. Hunt invented the safety pin in order to pay a debt of $15; he eventually sold the rights to his patent for $400. Another example is Sir Edison.To his credit, he has 1,093 patents and most of them are very popular inventions

Inventions, which have a greater role to play in human life, can generate more revenues. Of course, this sounds a little exasperated, but the system of patent depends on it. If one opts for protection of the invention without keeping this in mind, revenue generation is not possible. There are several examples for this and these patents are called petty patents.

It is very important to follow the IP strategy by all the organisations. It may be the name on your front door, your client list, a graphic design or an invention; every thing can be protected under the IP system. But before proceeding to any protection, it is important to identify its value through an IP audit. This system is lacking in the Indian industry and other organisations including government and semi-government R&D units.

The value of IP depends on several factors like its usage by the company that protects, marketing responses, easy accessibility to the invention and some time competitors’ involvement. And after the protection or development of a patent file or any other intellectual property file, the involvement doesn’t end with the grant of the rights by the concerned authorities. The involvement starts from there.

For any industry or organisation involved in research & development, one should have the forethought to analyse about IP generated and then opt for patent or trademarks protection (IP protection). This almost saves the time and money spent on the intellectual property development and can fetch good results.

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