As many of you may be aware, I organised a series of intellectual property and innovation lectures last term at the National Univeristy of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata (NUJS). We’ve christened them as the VIP series (Venting Ideas on Intellectual Property). Some of the key speakers included:2. Justice Arjan Sikri, a renowned judge of the Delhi High Court spoke on “Injunctions vs Damages in IP Cases”
3. Prof Avi Choudhuri, a reputed professor at McGill University on “Anti Counterfeiting: Techno-legal Solutions”
Most of the speakers were kind enough to travel at their own cost (or were otherwise sponsored)–and we were therefore able to rope them in and contribute to the generation of more IP related knowledge.
Many of you requested that these talks be webcast, recorded etc. I tried very hard to pursue University funding and funding from the government–but to no avail.
For those good samaritans out there who are willing to support such activities that aim to create more awareness around IP issues, would you please consider supporting these IP activities in some way? If you’re willing to contribute something, please send me an email at shamnad[at]gmail.com.
Indian Bayh Dole Conference
We’re also currently looking to do a conference around the Indian Bayh Dole Bill later this year. Listed below is the brief conference proposal and the issues that it seeks to tackle:
“In January 2009, the government introduced the “Protection and Utilisation of Public Funded Intellectual Property Bill, 2008” in the Rajya Sabha.
While the purported aim of this legislation (which is modelled on the lines of the Bayh Dole Act in the US) is to help stimulate more patenting and thereby technology transfer between university and industries is laudable, any such move should come with safeguards so as to optimally balance “public interest”. For one, patents created using tax payer money must be worked in the “public interest” and therefore must be subjected to greater safeguards than normal patents obtained by private entities. To this end, the government must ensure greater prospects of non-exclusive licensing of such inventions.
It bears noting that while the US Bayh Dole legislation has been praised by many, it has been subject to scathing criticism by others. This conference aims to bring together the evangelists of this legislation as also the critics with a view to determing which aspects to borrow and which to shed. The conference will also explore university industry knowledge transfer policies and their efficacy in detail.”
If any of you are willing to support this conference, please let me know.
And lastly, if any of you are travelling to Kolkata and wish to be a part of our VIP (Venting Ideas on IP) series, please drop me an email. This might be an excellent platform for you to bounce off any deas on intellectual property that you might have, generate more debate and hope to promote better IP and innovation policies.
Thanks very much.
