 Welcome you all for this IP session. Today we have Professor Unath Pandit, Control General of Patent, Design and Trademark and Register of Copyrights. He oversees the Intellectual Property Administration for Government of India. Professor Unath Pandit had made a revolutionary change in the IP ecosystem in our country. Sir, I welcome you all on behalf of our students, faculty members who is watching across this country. I welcome on behalf of them to this session, sir. I welcome you sir. Thank you. So, sir, you have made a big impact in the IP system for our country after you are taken and in charge as a control general of patent office. So, we want to get your experience and share your experience with the students and faculty members from school and college and they also should get motivated from this speech. With this, we have got few questions from the students and faculty members. On behalf of them, I want to ask this question to you sir. Sure. Yes. So, first question is what kind of growth has been witnessing in the filing of patent in the last few years, sir? If I say that in last few years, the real fruits of government's attempt for the IP friendly ecosystem has shown the result. And while answering this question, I would like to refer the actual numbers which we have achieved in say in 13, 14. The patent filing was roughly around 42,900. And by last year, the filing was 82,800. So, there is a sharp growth of 92.8 percent in the patent filing. And while we see the overall grant, the results are really showing much encouraging numbers. In 2013, there were around 4,200 patents got granted. And by 22, the 34,000 patent got granted. So, there is an increase of 700 percent in the patent grant. And from last year to this year, if I refer that in patent filing, we have shown the 25 percent jump from 80 to 1000 till in this year also. And there is a 12 percent jump in the patent filing all over the world. While we have recorded last year 30.1 and 25 percent in this year. So, we are fastest growing country in the world as per the World Intellectual Property Organization number in terms of a patent filing. And while we are referring to the last year's number, I would also like to submit the grant as on date. Last year it was 34,000. Till today, we have around 72,000 grants. So, that is again a sharp increase in the number of grants. And overall disposal is something which is going to touch by this year around 1 lakh. So, this is the growth journey in the IP ecosystem in the country. And certainly on the patents aspect, it is quite encouraging. On trademark aspect, on an average, we are granting 3.75 lakh trademarks. Since last nine years, this is an average grant. And now imagine if 2 percent of a mark are going to be say as a 1 crore brand value. Then directly, this new grant is going to contribute to the 7,000 roughly, 7,000 crore of a value in the economy. So, this is the entire approach which we have seen. The government has announced the IP policy in 2016. And then onwards, strategically taken various initiatives. So, that innovators are taking part in the growth journey. And the new innovations, new intellectual property which got into the practice and protected are now showing the result in the economic growth. That is fantastic sir. It is an overwhelming responding from the academic institutions and the patent filing participants. It is really encouraging and motivating to see that there is huge patent has been filed and there is a drastic change of 700 percent. That is something we have been amazed and also under your dynamic leadership, you have made a lot of impact creating to the system. And also, we have understood that you have been made lot of changes in the system to fast filing that is what we had understood. Yes. So, I want to I was the next question to you sir. What is the status of patent filing from the academic institution in terms of number as well as quality? Definitely, there is again a much more surprising numbers which I am having. See, I quoted the 80-2000. See, this 234 percent jump which was recorded. In this also, there is a huge jump on Indian filing. So, earlier there used to be more than 80-85 percent foreign filing and Indian filing was around 15 percent. Now, we have completely changed the scenario. The domestic filing is a 52.8 percent. Oh, great. And among this, the academic institutions has played a big role. So, in say as a 5 years down the line 18-19, the filing from the academic institution was 6700 plus patent applications. In 2030, hold your chair. Yes sir. The filing jumped to the 23500 plus application. So, this is a 247 percent jump in last 5 years. You can see the kind of the resources which government has deployed in the 14-19. This resources have shown the sharp growth into the patent filing and in grant also because grant was taking a time at one point in time. But from 2018 number if we compare that it was around 1800 grants and now it is a 4600 patent got granted in 22-23 which is again a 151 percent jump. But these filing which has been in last 2 years from 10,000 to 23,000 in last 2 years, this will show the effecting next 2 years. Great. That is really great. Earlier there used to be 58 months on an average to get the patent granted from the request for examination to the award of a certificate for patenting. Now, this has drastically been reduced to earlier from 58 to gradually we brought down to 48. Now, 48 to 40 and by end of this financial year we will have maybe around 24 to 30 months from the RQ date. So, whatever the filing which we have seen from 10,000 to 23,000 by the academic institutions, they will get a patent in normal course if they have applied for the request for examination then in next 2 years. And there is a wonderful provision which government of India has made that academic institutions can expedite their examination. So, rule 24 C in the patent rules it is giving this flexibility to the academic institution and for doing this they will require to file form 9 which is for the early publication of the application and form 18 A which is required to be filed. Form 9 and form 18 A is filed then with application the entire application will examine in fast track mode. This is called an expedited examination. So, their application will get published in say as a 7 to 10 days from the filing and from 18 A enables that within 30 to 45 days they will get the first examination report. Currently there was some backlog so few applicants were observing the delay in the grant but then in last 20 months we have worked on the expediting the entire backlog. So, those backlog got cleared and now we have a beautiful the rainbow colored IP regime looking in future. Yes sir that is a very useful information to the participants who are seeing this program sir. The reason is because we have launched a ministry of education innovation cell. I launched a program column program for IP literacy awareness. In this program Kapila we have been worked jointly with your ministry and we reduced the filing and examination fee. Previously the filing fee was 8000 now we made it a 1800 and the examination fee was 20,000 now we made it as 4000. So, now this both had given value addition along with that information given by you expediting it and making it is a very useful information to all the viewers of this program today. Make use of this facility and make sure that you file more number of patent and get benefited out of it. So, next question to you is there how does this patent filing help students and faculty members in their product development from your experience you want to share. See being academician I will see that any research which we are doing that is a hard earned investment of the man over and the hard earned investment of the intellectual creation which we are doing. Knowingly, unknowingly each research has the IP we need to learn how we can identify this intellectual property and students can try that to convert their final year project into the patent application. Initially we may face the struggle but gradually students have to learn how they can protect their intellectual property. Friends you need to understand where the IP lies like for problem statement we are identifying a problem statement and we are going into the root cause of the problem statement and with the knowledge we are trying to address this problem. Similarly, whatever the knowledge which is available from the known knowledge what exactly you have utilized and how this has utilized this will help you and gradually once you practice this then you will tell that no my research has the IP my research has the intellectual property and all the premier institutes like IIT these students have already learned they are converting their research into the patent filing and once they have filed the patent they are incubating their research to the start-up journey and their technology they are trying to bring into the commercial forefront. Now for each and every student has this potential it does not make any difference whether you are IIT students or you are an engineering student from the state level university. This is going to bring a difference in the intervention to the research application and this research application with due protection of intellectual property will offer you the market validation and this market validation can be earned by either establishing your own start-up or even the out licensing opportunity is also there once you have the intellectual property protected by way of a patent. That is another useful information sir these many day students were concentrating more on publishing their work as a project work in the journal paper you have given another roadmap to them to publish it in the patent and product idea that is really I would like to quote here the statement by Dr. Marshall Kerr he was always emphasizing that researcher must learn to patent first and then publish first patent it then publish it and this is the approach which we not just the student academicians and the faculties also need to learn that how we can allow the intellectual work from mind to market. That corrective understanding is required in each and every academic institution and whatever they are doing we are we are not tempering with their research strategy we are just showing them a new standing position from which they have to see the entire research and that will show them the intellectual property in their research work. Yes sir that is really a useful message sir the next question is what is the objective of launching this national IP awareness machines and how it is useful to the students, teachers and faculty member from college and schools a few thoughts of yours. See we have in our national IP policy to 2016 we have emphasized on the IP awareness and promotion and students and faculty must learn what is the intellectual property okay and what all different tools of the IP and how and why they should be protecting their intellectual property okay and the last but not the list and most important in the entire IP journey is respecting the intellectual property okay whatever the IP which has been created by self or even by other how we can respect the intellectual property okay. So these are the essential objective which we want to achieve through national intellectual property awareness mission in short it is called a NIPM and NIPM initiative we have started in December 2021 okay and till date around 2.4 million okay 24 lakh students okay youth okay and the faculties got the basic IP training okay and this IP training we are going to further make it available in a digital era okay so that each and every students can opt this small course maybe a 3 hours of a course but this will give them more insight what is the IP and why I should be protecting the IP. So many students I have seen they do a wonderful job yes wonderful research work in their master studies even during the smart India hackathons yes they are really designing a valuable solution but because this awareness is not there they are not protecting this IP and the entire unique concept is not getting the desired attention so friends I once again emphasize that you must see the IP from the different lenses and wherever if you feel that there is an intellectual property try to protect this. That is really great sir like we have been also part of this NIPM program Ministry of Education Innovation cell been connected to the colleges and there were nearly 80,000 plus students and faculties have been part of this program and 500 plus institution also I want to convey that around 800 institutions have registered with us we are sharing with the data for no providing training to the faculties and students of higher education institutions. The other one is we have a Kapila scheme which we support for patent piling and examination likewise any other scheme is there which incentivize for fact filing patents from your good office. See a Kapila scheme is a wonderful scheme I must appreciate for this and this Kapila schemes impact got amplified by four times while we have reduced the 80 percentage fee and that is how we can cater a more number of patent filing from the academic institution utilizing the same budgeted value. And now beyond this Kapila program there is one more scheme under SIPP. This is something which is facilitating the IP filing and all the patent practitioners have come forward that we wants to support this IP filing. That is great. And earlier there the terminology was IP facilitator but now honorable CIMP use Goelge has termed this as IP Mitra. Facilitator has a limited role but a friend has a wider role and this IP Mitra I liked the name very much. The IP Mitra is empenneled as the facilitate the IP filing and further they can work hand in hand how to ensure that the IP which has been protected that C is the commercial light also. And all the IP support filing granting and even the legal support which is required this has been offered under this program and professional fee of the empenneled patent agent shall also be offered as a token honorarium under the IP Mitra. So, there is a less burden on the faculty or student to protect their IP and under Kapila you are remember seeing the official fees also. So, if both the schemes somebody try to combine then absolutely at a zero cost you can protect your IP. What can be best than this? That is good sir. So, complimenting these two programs are complimenting each other and that result has been shown in last two years from 10,000 to 23,000. Now, this has a potential to even stand alone reach to 75,000 or 1 lakh in the country. See, if our academic institutions start protecting their IT then number will go like anything. And that is why the students, faculty need to be encouraged for knowing that there is IP in your work. Yes, yes. Protect it. Yes sir. So, that is very informative sir and also what we have done is through Kapila we have been jointly working with you on IPAM program along with that you also helped us in developing an IPA course for under graduate course for the students and students. And from there last year we had more than 13,000 participants registered and this year again we have got 10,000 registration for the IP course. Along with that course we have for a school students we have a school innovation ambassador program. We have a 15 hour module on IP which have been made that where students given more awareness. Now, having a students trained through different courses now we have been working with department of school education that the additional secretary had came forward and mentioned to us that they are going to fund the for patent of the students in the school level. So, they said to start with they will be funding up to for 1000 patents they will be funding for the filing fee and examination fee. So, now it is a as you said a system is created a pipeline is been created from awareness to patent filing. I want to have a very basic question sir which should be useful for the school students and college students who are looking in that. Who can apply for patents sir and what is the process of it? See under the IP Act any citizen can apply for the patent at any person he is entitled to protect their IP right and when I am answering I am not just biased with the patent I am answering on behalf of all the different provisions in the IP. So, an inventor must see that there is some amount of IP in their work and they can they should protect it and patent application filing basically it is a techno legal document in patent. So, whatever the technical work which they have done it is legally required to be drafted and this is a skill where the IP Mitra is going to help them and this drafting of a specification is supported by the experimental work which they have done in their lab and the results which they have found it. Many times students and faculty see that this this is the failure fail experiment and they they want to show only success. Sometimes failure is also required and friends again do not discard your LNBs laboratory notebooks because failure is also required for the patent filing. When we are trying to protect the IP we also need to show that this is a negative result this is not working and this is working this proves that whatever the amount of resources which you have used in your research where the success is and this success need to be claimed in the patent filing and this will be protected and this will also be examined it will be useful for your application that this is not working and this is working and why this is working need to be answered which will be proving that your work is a novel inventive step and having the industrial applicability. So, this is something which is going to be useful and certainly it should not fall under the section 3 which is referred as a non-patentable invention. So, this is very much required to learn and for this I think the basic course is going to be useful under the Kapila scheme. And also before the basic course I think Nipam program will be also be useful it is going to be online soon. So, that of this program register for this and there will be a basic understanding or basic screening will also be done and if you have passed through the screening you will get the e-certificate also for this particular program and certainly this will help you to create your own foundation for IP and then of the IP program under Kapila scheme. And once you have obtained this program you can later on utilize the benefits under Kapila and IP Mitra to protect your IP. Yes that is good sir you said your friend is there in your office to help us and there were different schemes are there through both the ministry. Just want to answer like you said like for filing is been done within 10 days it is been published now. What is the processing time from filing to granting now sir? See earlier as I have mentioned that it used to be a 58 months. But now there are provision for the academic institutions as I have quoted in rule 24 C for expedited examination and practically we are examining all the application in 15 different class of a subject domain and among this 15 subject domain we have broadly classified grouping them into the four groups. So currently if I see as on date chemistry and biotechnology which is the flagship and hotbed sector. If any applicant is filing their IP they will get their examination report in within the four months in normal course. If somebody need to further expedite file the form 9 and form 18A and then you will your application will get published in seven days and within 45 days you will receive the examination report. Once you receive the examination report you have to respond this in a time bound manner. Sooner is better if you respond to the examination report clarifying all the doubts which has been raised for your invention. Then from that day reply received it will again within the three months it will get disposed. So this is the fastest in chemistry and biotechnology. For engineering we are having a higher number of a patent filing and the people are desperate to protect the IP. So for that they may need to use the expedited examination route if they wants the early grant. In other case also this will get granted in 24 to 30 months. So this is the benchmark which we want to achieve in the by end of this current financial year. That is a good milestone sir. I am sure and you will achieve this milestone in the stipulated time. What are the obligations of the patentee after the grant of patents? See patent is a negative right and whatever you have protected it is disregarding others from using this patented invention without your permission. So as a patentee we need to think that we are designing the solution which is useful for the society number one. Number two if the patentee has designed the solution for these societal challenges it is a moral duty of a patentee also to use this solution for the betterment of society. And while we are doing it so it is important that the fruits of the public funded research is reaching to the society. I think that is the most important and another obligation once you have filed the patent then you should be submitting the statement of working under form 27. This is a legal provision with legal binding each patentee is having and currently every year they have to submit this form 27. And if you are not submitting this and somebody wants to use it then there is also a provision and of a compulsory licensing under section 84 of the Indian patent act. So somebody may ask for a compulsory license if you are not commercializing it and nothing harm in giving the license or rather than arising into that situation each patentee need to explore out licensing this IP and identify the potential commercialization opportunity. By chance if somebody is using your intellectual property without your knowledge then in such case there is a potential infringer who is using your IP without your approval. And there are legal remedies also which is in the act and through this remedies you can take the legal action against such infringer. So there are benefits of a patent filing and one thing for sure you will also show that you are a proud inventor to your next generation. That is the joy of creating something new. Yes sir. So this was a very you know inspiring and motivating for the young innovators sir. Majority of the innovators they file the patent and you know they do not follow up many still it granted that. So I want to also know from user what are the rights of a patent once the patent is granted so that they will feel and follow up with that they will also follow up still it is granted with the patent. See the patentee can file form it for getting the name of inventor in the patent certificate and this is required to be filed allow while responding the FIR first examination report and subsequent examination report. So that before grant under the legal provision you are intimating to the IP office that you want the each and every inventor's name appearing as such in the patent certificate and then this certificate is available and recognizing the efforts made by the inventor and the form it will help the IP office to know that the applicant want their inventor's name as such published in their certificate. So this is a right of each and every inventor and each and every inventor need to use this provision effectively. So that in form 5 they are submitting the declaration of inventorship but after that the real inventor who are real innovating the work research work and addressing the societal challenges or technological challenges they are not getting recognized by while we are awarding the IP certificate. So applicant's name is mentioned. So I think this corrective action required to be done and this is the action which is triggering at the academic institution level. That is a useful information sir because every student once they file the patent they will also follow up still it been granted with that. That would be a message which you convey to them so that they will follow up with the patents which they have filed. So the last question true user is the Indian patent database searchable. How can one find out whether any invention is already patented or not? Indian patent database is searchable and beside the Indian patent database whenever any applicant wants to file their patent they must review the literature journal publication as well and for patent beside the Indian patent database which is available through ipindia.gov.in there is a public search link and there they can use the keyword to get the relevant patent applications and granted patent as well but beside the Indian patent database they should also search the world intellectual property organization patent scope database European patent office database and USPTO patent database. They are grossly covering the what is the landscape of an IP in the subject specialty or in the research work which one wants to claim as their own intellectual property. Now the Japanese patent office and Chinese patent office are also offering the English translation. So there is a no depth of information or a knowledge. I think we need to learn this and under Kapila program also we can capture the how to search a patent and that program can also be captured so that we can teach when the baby is new born the baby does not know how to crawl or how to stand stable and take a few steps in the in the life and how to walk and run we hand hold and offer them the support likewise in IP journey the researcher need to hand hold we will offer this learning how to read this patent specification how to search the relevant prior art how to draft the patent specification and how to capture the best available information in the technological specification and last but most important is to claim the invention many a time the students and academicians the narrow the invention to such an extent it difficults the enforcement of this IP. So we should not lend up to such a situation so all these are the training which one must acquire and we are here to support hand hold and offer you the training as well the kind of an IP filing which is increasing it is to such an extent that it is further giving us the energy that how we can further amplify the growth of IP filing and grant from the academic institution and that would be the real contribution in the journey of Amrithkal we all want that Bharat should be the developed country but in Vixit Bharat 2047 what is the contribution of each and every academic institution what is the contribution of each and every faculty what is the contribution by each and every students of a masters or doctoral studies or even the B Tech and B studies you are going to design the faith of a Vixit Bharat what kind of a Bharat we collectively want and what is individual contribution into this journey I think we need to plan and decide we need to take an oath today that what with what kind of a steps I am going to make in the next 5 years or 10 years of my professional journey and what will my intellectual support in the technology and knowledge embedded economy that would be the real contribution by an individual in Amrithkal and this is required to be realized by each and every students youth and the faculty in the country that would be the true dedicated support to the country in achieving the developed status recognition which India is well deserving India is a Vishwaguru in knowledge economy and intellectual work but true results true fruits will come out as a collective efforts by each and every student youth and faculty of the country yes it is fantastic sir we have overrun by the answers you are given to us we are happy to hear your 30 years experience you have been squeezed and expressed in 30 minutes so it is an fantastic and we thoroughly enjoyed it and thanks for you are sharing your valuable time also the contribution you made for the patent system so the drastic change with 270 percent of increment in the growth of patenting and the courses you introduced the awareness program you made you are covered from school kids to postdoc person by covering all aspects of patent it is a really thank you sir and from bottom of art from ministry of education innovation cell AICT and Kapila team we thank for your time sparing with us and answering all the questions which rise by the participants who are watching this program and I also thank on behalf of all the students and faculty members who are seeing this program across the country thank you sir thank you