AICTE TO STRENGTHEN PATENTING WITHIN AFFILIATED ENGINEERING COLLEGES

AICTE TO STRENGTHEN PATENTING WITHIN AFFILIATED ENGINEERING COLLEGES

AICTE has recently joined hands with the Office of Controller General of Patents Designs & Trade Marks(CGPDTM) to strengthen the patent filing process in the engineering colleges. The Ministry of Education (MoE) has set up Institutional Innovation Council (IIC) along with AICTE to systematically foster the culture of innovation and startup ecosystem in engineering colleges. The collaboration with CGPDTM will help increase the patent filing process, which has not picked up pace so far.

AICTE and CGPDTM will jointly encourage students to actively participate in innovation and entrepreneurship related activities such as ideation, problem solving, proof of concept development, design thinking, IPR, project handling and management at preincubation/incubation stage, etc, so that the innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem gets established in HEIs.

The National Intellectual Property Awareness Mission (NIPAM) and AICTEs Kalam Programme for IP Literacy and Awareness (KAPILA) initiated in 2021, helped boost innovation in HEIs which led to an uptick in filing of patents in the engineering domain. Engineering colleges in Punjab and UP have been proactively filing patents, thanks to growing awareness. Colleges in Gujarat have always prioritised the patenting process.

Unnat P Pandit, controller general, Office of Patents, Designs & Trade Marks, says, The patenting ecosystem in the engineering educational domain has a huge potential to create Intellectual Property (IP). The patent culture can be strengthened by nurturing the engineering students to design innovative solutions and prototypes for grassroots challenges of the country. IP protection must be given to students for the inventions that they create.

Limited awareness

The awareness about intellectual property and patent filing in engineering colleges is not substantial, thus the teachers and students must learn more about its potential. The latest collaboration with AICTE will catalyse the process in approximately 10,000 AICTE affiliated engineering and pharmacy colleges, Interestingly, approximately 20-25% of the projects that are undertaken by engineering students have the potential for IP protection, but they are not proactively filing the patent.

Hence an IP awareness training needs to be given to the students. Similarly the role of faculty to facilitate the IP creation and promotion will create a vibrant patenting culture in engineering col-leges. Most of the academic institutions only focus on publication of journals and are ignoring the patenting process, adds Pandit. CGPDTM has been running NI-PAM since December 2021 and has conducted training programmes IPR in 2,500 colleges.

Post-2018, there has been an increase of 247% in the patent filing by HEIs. In 2023, about 23,586 patents were filed, where ITs have taken the lead, adds Pandit. Buddha Chandrashekhar, chief coordinating officer, AICTE, says , We have included the provision of patenting in the latest AICTE approval roval process handbook of 2024-25 to 2026-27.

Due to the advent of new technologies, strengthening the patenting ecosystem within the engineering domain is critical for the academic and professional interests of students. Through the KAPILA programme, students can submit their patent application at a very low cost. MoU with CGPDTM will ensure that patents are routinely filed in engineering colleges, adds Chandrashekhar.

Published on - Times of India

Date - 05/02/2024