As per the news published in the Economic Times on Oct 19, 2014, Delhi University(DU) is in the process of drafting an Intellectual Property(IP) policy in order to facilitate registration of patents, copyrights and trademarks by its students and teachers. The policy is intended to focus on patents or trademarks ownership pattern, IP rights of students, teachers and visiting professors, copyright policy, licensing policy, patent funds, division of payment structure, IPR issues in digital domain, patentability assessment, invention disclosures and plagiarism etc.
Though DU already has an IP cell established in 2008 but proper guidelines and policy would provide clarity on the patent process involved and would encourage the students and teachers to take up constructive research and get them patented, specified Dr. Rekha Chaturvedi, MHRD IPR Chair Professor (Technical).
She mentioned that it would be helpful for the students to be aware of how to go about any research which leads to patentable work and precautions to be taken to prevent loss of patentability. She also said that efforts would be made to get the patent filed through other funding agencies such as DBT, NRDC and DST (TIFAC) as patenting is expensive.
According to the university records, there are168 patents registered by DU.
Patents under prosecution: 71
Granted patents: 35
Lapsed (Granted patents): 10
Lapsed (Patent Applications): 52
As a step towards spreading IP awareness, a workshop was conducted by Delhi University on 2nd November in association with Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and Indian Patent Office where Ms. Lucy Rana, Managing Associate Advocate of S.S Rana & Co. delivered a lecture on Basic Concepts, Importance & Advantages of Intellectual Property Rights.