The economic growth of a country depends upon creation of new products and processes through technological innovation. However, India lags behind due to a variety of reasons such as low level of commercialisation, lack of funding from industry, and government control of the right to intellectual property developed in research institutions through public funds. This Bill seeks to boost research and development in public funded research institutes by permitting the sharing of the right to intellectual property with the institutes and scientists who created them.
The salient features of the bill are given as below:
- The Protection and Utilisation of Public Funded Intellectual Property (PFIP) Bill, 2008 seeks to provide incentives for creating and commercialising intellectual property from public funded research.
- The Bill requires the scientist who creates an intellectual property to immediately inform the research institution. The institution shall disclose this information to the government within 60 days.
- The institution is required to inform the government of the countries in which it proposes to retain the title to the PFIP. The title in all other countries will vest in the government.
- The scientist shall be paid a minimum of 30 per cent of net royalties received from the PFIP.
- Failure of the scientist to intimate the institution, and of the institution to inform the government carries penalties, which include fines and recovery of the grant funds.