The workshop on ‘Intellectual Property Rights Awareness’ jointly organized by Manav Rachna International Institute of Research and Studies (MRIIRS) and Haryana State Council for Science & Technology on 20th March 2018 included technical sessions by the revered speakers and panel discussion.

During the technical session, Ms. Avipsha Thakur spoke about the “National IPR Policy” and emphasized the importance of IPR awareness at college and student level. She also highlighted 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 Yashawant Panwar informed the audience about the various types of patents that can be registered in India and how one can attain copyright, trademark, geographical indications, etc. 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, and advised the Academic Institutions to evaluate all the research articles and Dissertations for innovation and patentability before going public. Mr. Nilanshu Shekhar spoke about the patent processes relevant to Biology.

The technical session was followed by the Panel discussion. The panelists were Mr. Yashawant Panwar, Mr. Nilanshu Shekhar and Mr. Sandeep Aggarwal, IPR Consultant. The session was moderated by Dr. Shilpa Chapdgaonkar, 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.

The outcome of the panel discussions was that all the Higher Education Institutions should scan the research articles for innovation, novelty and patentability. Prof. Joseph Davis, Convener of the workshop thanked the audiences for their active participation and acknowledged the funding support of Haryana State Council of Science and Technology.