13/07/06

Indian patenting drive raises questions over value

US patent seal: India's CSIR was granted more US patents in 2002-2006 than its counterparts in France, Germany and Japan combined Copyright: US Patent and Trademark Office

We encourage you to republish this article online and in print, it’s free under our creative commons attribution license, but please follow some simple guidelines:

You have to credit our authors.
You have to credit SciDev.Net — where possible include our logo with a link back to the original article.
You can simply run the first few lines of the article and then add: “Read the full article on SciDev.Net” containing a link back to the original article.
If you want to also take images published in this story you will need to confirm with the original source if you're licensed to use them.
The easiest way to get the article on your site is to embed the code below.

For more information view our media page and republishing guidelines.

The full article is available here as HTML.

Press Ctrl-C to copy

<div class="article-wrap">
<div id="article-introduction">
<h1>Indian patenting drive raises questions over value</h1>
<h4></h4>
</div>
<br />
<br />

<div id="article-body">
<p><P>India’s largest publicly funded scientific agency was granted more US patents between 2002 and 2006 than its counterparts in France, Japan and Germany combined, but critics say this has largely been a waste of money.</P><br />
<P>The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has been patenting new findings regardless of whether or not it plans to commercialise its them, says its chief of patents.</P><br />
<P>Filing each US patent costs the agency US$25,000, and then a further US$4,000 per year in maintenance.</P><br />
<P>Responding to critics, the CSIR’s director Raghunath Mashelkar says this is not a waste of resources. He says it is too early to expect financial returns on the investments, pointing out that only about three per cent of US patents are ever licensed.</P><br />
<P>The former director of the CSIR Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, A.V. Rama Rao, says the agency should set up an independent division to identify research findings worth patenting.</P><br />
<P><em>Raghunath Mashelkar is a trustee of SciDev.Net.</em></P><a  href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v442/n7099/full/442120a.html" target="_blank" onclick="pageTracker._trackPageview('/tracking/external/'+this.href);" rel="noopener noreferrer">Link to full article in Nature<BR></A><BR></p>

</div>
<div class="quick-links-wrapper">
<h3>You might also like</h3>
[related-articles]
</div>
<p>This article was originally published on <a href="https://www.scidev.net" target="_blank">SciDev.Net</a>. Read the <a href="https://www.scidev.net/global/news/indian-patenting-drive-raises-questions-over-value/" target="_blank">original article</a>.</p>
<script type="text/javascript">
(function(e,t,n,r,i,s,o){e["GoogleAnalyticsObject"]=i;e[i]=e[i]||function(){(e[i].q=e[i].q||[]).push(arguments)},e[i].l=1*new Date;s=t.createElement(n),o=t.getElementsByTagName(n)[0];s.async=1;s.src=r;o.parentNode.insertBefore(s,o)})(window,document,"script","//www.google-analytics.com/ga.js","ga");var _gaq=_gaq||[];var _gaq=_gaq||[];_gaq.push(["_setAccount","UA-3223906-8"],["_trackEvent","article interaction","republished","https://www.scidev.net/global/news/indian-patenting-drive-raises-questions-over-value/",null,true])
</script>
</div>

India’s largest publicly funded scientific agency was granted more US patents between 2002 and 2006 than its counterparts in France, Japan and Germany combined, but critics say this has largely been a waste of money.

The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has been patenting new findings regardless of whether or not it plans to commercialise its them, says its chief of patents.

Filing each US patent costs the agency US$25,000, and then a further US$4,000 per year in maintenance.

Responding to critics, the CSIR’s director Raghunath Mashelkar says this is not a waste of resources. He says it is too early to expect financial returns on the investments, pointing out that only about three per cent of US patents are ever licensed.

The former director of the CSIR Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, A.V. Rama Rao, says the agency should set up an independent division to identify research findings worth patenting.

Raghunath Mashelkar is a trustee of SciDev.Net.

Link to full article in Nature