THE ANNUAL REPORT OF THE MINISTRY OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT (MHRD) INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS (IPR) CHAIR AT THE INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY MADRAS (IITM) 2015-2016 Dr. Feroz Ali MHRD IPR Chair Professor, IIT Madras This Annual Report covers the activities conducted by the Intellectual Property Rights (“IPR”) Chair instituted by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (“MHRD”) at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (“Institute”) from 1 April 2015 till 31 March 2016. During the said period the Chair was involved in a wide-range of activities including conducting research, participating in workshops and conferences, rendering policy advice both within the Institute as well as to various government departments, serving as a member in expert committees and working groups on IPR, conducting various IPR awareness programmes and courses, advising the Institute on various aspects of IPR management, guiding research scholars and publishing research articles.

Workshops/Conferences/Talks Participated

The Chair participated as a Speaker at the 5th Annual Intellectual Property Teaching Workshop held at National Law University, Delhi from 31st March to 1st April 2016. The Chair participated as a Speaker and spoke on ‘Introduction to Pharmaceutical Patents’ at the National Seminar on “Unveiling New Horizons in Pharmaceutical Science,” organized by College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Government Medical College in Calicut on 17th March, 2016. The Chair participated as the Speaker and spoke on ‘Patentability Criteria and Ever-greening’ at the Regional Expert Consultation on Access to Affordable Medicines, Diagnostics and Vaccines, UNDP, UNESCAP and UNAIDS held in Bangkok during 15th-16th March, 2016. The Chair participated as a Speaker and spoke on ‘A Comparative Study of the Law and Policy on Standard Essential Patents in China and India’ at the Visionary Intellectual Property Professors (VIPP) for Asian Intellectual Property Round Table held in Hong Kong during 5th-6th March, 2016. The Chair participated as a Speaker at the Workshop on Patent Oppositions organized by Lawyers’ Collective held in New Delhi during 27th-28th February, 2016. The Chair participated as the Chair at the LITCON Conference on IP Litigation organized by the Confederation of Indian Industries in Chennai on 19th February, 2016. The Chair participated as a Speaker at the 4th Global Congress on Intellectual Property and Public Interest held at National Law University, New Delhi during 15th-17th December, 2015. The Chair participated as a Speaker at the Workshop on Claim Construction organized by the InterUniversity Centre of Intellectual Property Rights Studies at Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT), Cochin on 14th November 2015.

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Policy Advice By its order 10/22/2013-IPR-III dated 6 May 2014, the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), Government of India identified the Chair as a resource person under the category “Patents & Designs” of the IPR Resource Centre. The Chair has been in touch with various departments of the Government in rendering assistance whenever required. The Chair gave feedback to the Government in the form of comments on the Draft Patent Rules 2015. The Chair is currently working on a Report on ‘Standard Essential Patents’ (SEPs) for the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

Expert Committees/Working Groups The Chair was appointed as a Member of the Committee on the Functioning of MHRD IPR Chairs in 2014. The Chair has been participating in the deliberations of the Committee in framing rules of procedure for the functioning of the MHRD IPR Chairs. The Chair was appointed as a Member of the Executive Committee at the Inter-University Centre of Intellectual Property Rights Studies, Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT), Cochin (2015-present). The Chair was appointed as a Member of the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) IPR Advisory Committee, Chennai (2015-present). The Chair was appointed as a Member of the Visionary Intellectual Property Professors for Asian Intellectual Property Project conducted during August 27-28, 2015 in Singapore. The Chair was appointed as a Member of the Patent Sub-Committee Meeting (International/ PCT Filing of Patents), Indian Institute of Technology Madras (2014-present). The Chair was appointed as a Member of the Patent Sub-Committee Meeting (Indian Patents), Indian Institute of Technology Madras (2014-present). The Chair was appointed as a Member of the Patent Award Committee, Indian Institute of Technology Madras (2014-present).

IPR Awareness The Chair, in co-operation with the Intellectual Property Management (IPM) Cell at IC&SR, IITM conducted Open Forums on Intellectual Property Rights at the IC&SR, IITM. The Open Forums, which were open to participants beyond the IITM, were attended by a wide-variety of participants including inventors, aspiring entrepreneurs, and by persons interested in knowing more about IPRs. The Open Forum usually begin with a talk by the Chair on a contemporary issue on IPR, followed by a presentation by the IPM Cell on the IPR policy, procedures and resources of the institute to support Faculty and students. The Open Forum usually ends with a Q&A session.

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IPR Management The Chair, being a practising lawyer specialized in patent law, has been involved in advising the Institute on various matters pertaining to patent filing, prosecution, legal matters pertaining to IPRs, policy and guidelines on IPRs etc. The Chair notes the assistance provided by the members of the IPM Cell at the IC&SR, which has been the focal point for the Chair’s interaction with the Institute on IPR matters. The Chair attended various committee meetings of the IC&SR, particularly the Patent Sub-Committee Meeting (Indian Patents) on the management of Indian patents, the Patent Subcommittee Meeting (International/ PCT Filing of Patents) on the management of International Patent applications and the Patent Award Committee Meeting. The Chair routinely counseled students, research scholars and faculty on various IPR issues.

Research The Chair appointed two Research Assistants, Devika Agarwal and Radhika Agarwal in September 2015. Both the Research Assistants have been actively helping the Chair in fulfilling its activities. The Chair is currently supervising one Ph.D candidate, Mr. Mohammed Aslam, in the Department of Management Studies. The Chair is also conducting empirical research on the decision of the Indian Patent Office.

Online Internship under the aegis of the MHRD IPR Chair This year, an online internship/research programme was successfully conducted during the months of February and March. 285 internship applications were received from law students all over India out of which 70 interns were selected. Over a period of 50 days, the interns prepared summaries of about 200 patent office decisions; these case summaries would be helpful in developing further research in the area of patent law. The internship programme also served as an outreach programme; it exposed the interns to various issues in patent law. The interns showed a lot of enthusiasm towards learning patent law by reading the cases thoroughly and asking for feedback on the completed assignments. The Chair gave individual feedback to the interns to help them improve their understanding of patent law. This internship programme was one of its kind since it brought together 70 interns from 36 law schools across India to be a part of a bigger project of conducting empirical research on the decisions of the Indian Patent Office. The programme was managed by Radhika Agarwal.

Academic and Training Programmes Courses Taught The Chair taught the following courses to the students at IIT Madras:   

Intellectual Property for Entrepreneurs and Managers (MS 5212) Legal Aspects of Business (MS 5210) (includes specific classes on IPR) IPR Issues in Biotechnology (BT 4280) (self-study course co-taught with Prof. Hamsa)

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Publications Book Published

Feroz Ali, The Access Regime: Patent Law Reforms for Affordable Medicines, Oxford University Press (2016). Law Review Articles Published

Feroz Ali, Technical Speech: Patents, Expert Knowledge, and the First Amendment, 17 Minnesota Journal of Law, Science and Technology, 277 (2016). Forthcoming

Feroz Ali, Picket Patents: Non-working as an IP Abuse, Indian Journal of Law and Technology (2016). Devika Agarwal and Radhika Agarwal, Indian Patent Office rejects Saxagliptin Compulsory Licence Application, Oxford Journal of Intellectual Property Law and Practice (2016) Devika Agarwal and Radhika Agarwal, Competition Commission of India Issues Probe Order against Monsanto, Oxford Journal of Intellectual Property Law and Practice (2016)

Blog posts Published

Feroz Ali and Radhika Agarwal, Transplanting India’s Patent Laws: Access to Affordable Medicines in a Connected World, Oxford University Press Blog (22nd March 2016) available at http://blog.oup.com/2016/03/transplanting-indias-patent-laws/ Policy Papers/Proposals Feroz Ali, Proposal on Open Prosecution: Towards Ex Ante Validation of Patents, United Nations Secretary-General’s High-Level Panel on Access to Medicines, http://www.unsgaccessmeds.org/inbox/2016/2/28/feroz-ali

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