The intellectual property rights awareness workshop was organized at ManavRachna International Institute of Research and Studies (MRIIRS) on 20th March 2018. The workshop was joinly organized by Department of Biotechnology and IPR cell of MRIIRS in collaboration with Haryana State Council of Science and Technology. Prof. Joseph Davis, Convener coordinated the workshop which was inaugurated in the presence of Dr. M.K. Soni, Pro Vice Chancellor, MRIIRS & Executive Director, MRIIC, Dr. Krishnakanth, Executive Director & Dean, FET, MRIIRS, Dr. Pradeep K. Varsheny, Director, ManavRachna Research, Innovation and Incubation Center (MRIIC) and Dr. Patrali Banerjee, Head, IPR Cell.

In the technical session, Ms. Avipsha Thakur, Asst. Vice President, CIPAM, Govt. of India spoke about the “National IPR Policy” and emphasized the importance of IPR awareness at college and student level. She has also informed the participants the readiness of the Govt. to train the students to spread the IPR awareness at school level and opportunities for students to undergo internship at CIPAM. Shri YashawantPanwar, Scientist E and Head, PFC, TIFAC, Department of Science and technology, Govt. of India spoke on the patents and various forms of patents that can be registered in India and also on other forms of IPRs like copyright, trade mark, geographical indications, etc. He gave many examples of how very simple inventions (like safety pins, post-it etc) gave the people advantage in their daily lives and also benefited the inventor financially. He also challenged the Computer Science students to develop a Program to screen the Patents in real-time to improve the Patent filing process in India. He also advised the Academic Institutions to evaluate all the research articles and dissertations for innovation and patentability before going public. Mr. NilanshuShekhar, Patent Attorney & Managing Director, KAnalysis Consultant (P) Ltd spoke about the patent processes relevant to Biology. The workshop was well received by the audience with active question-answer sessions after each talk.

The technical session was followed by the Panel discussion. The members were Mr. YashawantPanwar, TIFAC, Mr. NilanshuShekhar, Patent Attorney and Mr. Sandeep Aggarwal, IPR Consultant. The session was moderated by Dr. ShilpaChapdgaonkar, Head, Molecular Bioscience Cluster, MRIIC. Many questions related to technicalities of patents like patentability of innovations etc and patenting system were posed which were duly clarified by the panel members. At the end of the session, Dr. Joseph Davis, thanked the audiences for their active participation. The outcome of the panel discussions are that all the Institutions of higher learning should scan the research articles for innovation, novelty and patentability.