The Andhra Pradesh Industries and Commerce Department could look at partnering with academic institutions to create greater awareness on intellectual property rights (IPR). “We have not tapped the educational institutions to create awareness on IPR issues. We are only working with industries, but to create large scale awareness involving educational institutions is important,” Mr Neerabh K. Prasad, Commissioner of Industries, Industries and Commerce Department Government of Andhra Pradesh, said during a seminar here on Saturday. Mr Prasad, speaking at a CII-DIPP Nationwide Awareness Campaign on IPR said the State Government currently has two schemes for technological development. The campaign is part of the follow-on activities of the National Campaign launched on April 26, 2008 the IP Day, by the Department of Industry Policy & Promotion (DIPP) under the Union Ministry of Industry & Commerce.

Scheme scope

“The scheme that we will be launching shortly is about technology development in the existing small scale industries, which has been developed with the Indian School of Business (ISB) and the Andhra Pradesh Technology Development and Promotion Centre (APTDC),” he said. Mr Prasad added that under the scheme small scale industries in a particular sector are identified, the technology and processes are studied and the processes followed by a well-developed industry are researched, then the gap is identified after which the ISB or APTDC will help the company overcome the technological gap. The second scheme is facilitation of IPR of existing industries, which is already under utilisation. Earlier, Mr Ramesh Datla, Chairman of CII National SME Forum, and Managing Director of ELICO Ltd, in his opening remarks said the objective of the campaign was to create awareness in the industry about the intellectual property system or the protection it can provide for their inventions, brands, and designs. “Also it aimed to address insufficient information on the relevance of IPRs in day-to-day business, high costs associated with obtaining and enforcing IP rights and finally to demystify the knowledge on creating and protecting one’s IP,” he added. – www.thehindubusinessline.com