IPR: experiences of inventors

Abstract

Why is it that our young scientist-inventors, bursting with ideas, baulk at the thought of patenting them and choose instead the more ‘respectable’ option of publishing papers? How do they reconcile their basic instinct which believes that knowledge must be freely disseminated and that ideas blossom fully only when discussed with others, with the ground realities of ‘blocking the domain’ and competition from peers? What is the truth behind MNCs making a beeline for Indian teaching and R&D institutions to set up ‘co-operative ventures’? Young scientist-inventors Amit Kejriwal, M T Arvind of Sasken Technologies and Nithin Nagaraj of GE, and from the cutting edge teaching and research institutions the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore and the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, Sanjay Biswas, Professor and Chairperson, Dept of Mechanical Engineering, and Prof Kannan Moudgalya, Associate Dean, R&D, respectively, share their experiences.