CUHP organises 2nd Annual IPR Workshop on making innovative ideas Patentable

Chitkara University Himachal Pradesh, has been actively involved in IPR activities since 2015. So far we have filed 47 Patents in Indian Patent Office (IPO) and our first Patent was granted to us in the year 2018. In 2017, a DST sponsored IPR Cell was set-up at Chitkara University H.P. by Himachal Pradesh Council for Science Technology and Environment (HIMCOSTE) and we have been doing numerous IPR awareness activities under the IPR Cell.

The 2nd Annual IPR workshop was jointly organised by IPR Cell, Chitkara University, H.P. and Office of Patent Facilitation, Licensing and Consultancy (OPFLC), CURIN on February 19, 2019, at the university campus. The theme of the one-day workshop was “Make Your Innovative Ideas Patentable”. Today, with emphasis on innovation, a lot of new technical ideas are being generated by students, researchers and faculty in academic & research institutions. It is important for the innovators and inventors to know how to protect their IPs by filing patents. The objective of this workshop was two folds – to make the participants aware about the patent process through hands-on exercises and to motivate & encourage students and young researchers to convert their projects and research into patentable inventions. The workshop was attended by around 100 participants from Chitkara University as well as from neighbouring institutions in the region.

The workshop was conducted in the backdrop of the five-day E-Summit – SURGE 0.1 organised by Chitkara University. SURGE 0.1 aimed to bring together the region’s startup ecosystems and subsystems, venture capitalists, new age entrepreneurs, the academic community, and the region’s success stories to a common and interactive platform.

Speakers & Sessions
The workshop was delivered by resource persons – Mr. Yogesh Kullar, Principal Associate (Patents), Khurana & Khurana, Advocates and IP Attorneys; and Dr. Man Singh, Dean (Chemical Sciences), Central University of Gujarat. Mr. Yogesh is a registered Indian Patent Agent and has over 7 years of experience in IP related services. He is an expert in Prior Art Search, Patent Drafting, Response to Examination Reports, Attending Hearings, FTO/ROU Studies, Validity/Invalidity studies, Claims Charting, Product Mapping, Patent Portfolio Analysis, Landscape Analysis etc. Dr. Man Singh is an inventor who has several Indian, US and Singapore Patents to his credit. Some of his patents are commercialized into products and one such patent is SURVISMETER (commercialized by Borosil). He is presently working as Dean, School of Chemical Sciences and Coordinator of Centre for Nano Sciences at Central University of Gujarat.

The morning half the workshop was delivered by Mr. Yogesh. He started with the fundamental concepts of IP and patents and discussed in detail how assessment of the patentability of an idea is done through Novelty, Inventive Step and Industrial Applications. He discussed these three aspects through examples and sections of the Patent Law in India. This was followed by hands-on activity on prior Art Searches in various free and paid patent databases including Espacenet, Google Patents, WIPO, CSIR India patent database etc. He also touched upon best practices of Patent drafting and software Patents in India.

In the afternoon of the session, which was delivered by Dr. Man Singh, the importance of coming up with new ideas, nurturing them and converting them into something meaningful, was discussed. He presented numerous peculiar examples of Ideas from the history that changed the World. Through his own inventions like Survismeter (commercialized by Borosil), Oscosurvismeter, Vision Meter, Friccohesity, Man Singh equation he discussed how new and non-obvious ideas could lead to the generation of new scientific knowledge, benefit the inventors & economy commercially and impact society at large.

The speakers were felicitated by Dr. Varinder S. Kanwar, Vice-Chancellor, Chitkara University, H.P.; and Dr. Archana Mantri, Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Chitkara University, Research and Innovation Network (CURIN), toward the end of the workshop.

Feedback & Conclusion
Both speakers visited Chitkara University, Himachal Pradesh, for the first time and they appreciated the efforts of the University in spreading IPR awareness in the region. They commended Chitkara University’s intellectual environment and beautiful infrastructure. Participants, especially from outside Chitkara University, gave excellent feedback of the workshop conducted, as for most of them it was their first exposure to IPR and Patent-related concepts. Our internal participants particularly appreciated the hands-on session conducted by Mr. Yogesh on prior Art Search-best Practices and Dr. Man Singh’s session on ‘Challenges of Commercialization after acquiring a Patent’. The workshop was coordinated and executed by Mr. Sagar Juneja, Asst Dean (IPR Cell), Chitkara University, Himachal Pradesh.