The draft National Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Policy, submitted recently by the IPR Think Tank to the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), has recommended to the government to establish a national level Institute of Excellence to strengthen and expand human resources, institutions and capacities for teaching, training, research and skill building in IP.

The proposed Institute of Excellence will provide thought leadership in IP; conduct policy and empirical research; examine trends and developments in the field of IP at the national and international level; support the government in strategic development of IP systems and international negotiations; establish links with similar institutes and experts in other countries for exchange of ideas, information and best practices; and suggest approaches and guidelines for inter-disciplinary human capital development, the Policy says.

It will strengthen and empower RGNIIPM, Nagpur to conduct training for IP administrators and managers in industry and business, academicians, R&D institutions; IP professionals; inventors and civil society; train the trainers and develop training modules; develop links with other similar entities at the international level; and set up state level institutions which will work with RGNIIPM.

The proposed Institute of Excellence will also energise IP Chairs in educational institutes of higher learning to provide high quality teaching and research; and develop teaching capacity and curricula and evaluate their work on performance based criteria. It will introduce IP courses/modules in all major training institutes such as Judicial Academies, National Academy of Administration, Police and Customs Academies, IIFT, Institute for Foreign Service Training, and Forest Training Institutes.

Besides, the Institute of Excellence will create IPR cells and technology development and management units in such institutes; make IP a compulsory subject in all legal educational institutions, NIDs, NIFTs, agricultural universities and management institutes; and progressively introduce IP teaching in schools, colleges and other educational institutions.

The IPR Think Tank in its Policy said that the proposed Institute of Excellence will facilitate industry associations, inventors and creators associations and IP support institutions to raise awareness of IP issues and for teaching, training and skill building; encourage formulation of institutional IP Policy/Strategy in higher education, research and technical institutions; link IP teaching as part of accreditation mechanism in institutes under the purview of UGC, AICTE/MCI as well as IITs/IIMs; develop distance learning and on-line courses on IP for all categories of users; and strengthen IP teaching, research and training in collaboration with WIPO, WTO, other International Organisations and reputed foreign universities.

Earlier in November this year, the DIPP had constituted the IPR Think Tank headed by Justice (Retd) Prabha Sridevan. Other members of the IPR Think Tank include Pratibha M. Singh, Narendra K. Sabharwal, Punita Bhargava, Rajeev Srinivasan and Dr. Unnat Pandit.