Andhra University reaches milestone of filing over 100 Patents for its inventions
Visakhapatnam: According to the press release by the Andhra University, the University has filed 119 patent applications. The University had published 4 patents in 2017-18 and 3 in 2018-19 and 3 in 2019-20. The real momentum for filing and publishing Patents from the University has come from 2020-21 after the DPIIT-IPR Chair Centre for Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) was established and University IP policy was launched by the APSCHE Chairman.
“Andhra University’s commendable achievement of surpassing 100+ Patent filings and publication in a span of about 2 years and licensing a Patent from Biochemistry department to a Start-up for the first time in its 98 years history is a clear testament to the unwavering dedication and relentless commitment of its quality researchers, faculty, innovators and the IPR Team. This remarkable milestone underscores the University’s vision of excellence in advancing knowledge and pushing the frontiers of research and innovation” said Prof P V G D Prasad Reddy the Vice-Chancellor of Andhra University.
“Both the faculty, research students and the IPR Team have played a significant role in this achievement. The Centre for IPR at Andhra University was established in 2020 with sanction of DPIIT-IPR Chair by Ministry of Commerce and Industry to Andhra University with the primary focus on building culture of IP creation protection and commercialization among students as well as faculty and safe guard the research and development efforts undertaken with in the university contributed to the commendable bench mark” said Prof M James Stephen Registrar of the University.
Prof Hanumanthu Purushotham the DPIIT-IPR Chair Professor and Head of Centre for IPR said “the University leadership has envisioned the importance of IPR in academia and has initiated several innovative academic programs such as establishing Centre for IPR , teaching IPR as a mandatory value added credit course to about 10,000 students at UG and PG level, launching University IP policy, launching MOOC on IPR, organising various awareness programs and workshops on IPR have created a Buzz in the University IP and innovation ecosystem and reflected in filing over 119 patent applications.
Out of this about 70 percent of Patents are filed by male and 30 percent were filed by female researchers and faculty. He has further said that making a first century in filing Patent applications is very thrilling and it ignited the IP culture in the University. Filing 100+ patents is just a tip of the iceberg as the University has about 1500 research scholars and each one files one IP it has a huge potential to file more IPs in the time to come and can catch up with premier IITs”.
Elaborating further, Prof Hanumanthu Purushotham said “23 Patents were published in 2020-21, 34 patents were published in 2021-22, 53 in 2022-23 and 44 in 2023 -24 up to second November. 10 international Patents 4 Indian Patents and 3 Copyrights and 3 Design Registrations were granted so far to the University.
Due to lack of clear University IPR Policy until the DPIIT-IPR Chair was established most of the IP applications were filed on the name of the individual researchers and faculty as the owners of IP which is contrary to the best practice elsewhere. Now with the introduction of University IP Policy this practice has been dispensed with and now all the patent applications are being filed on the name of the University and the University takes care of the Patent filing and maintenance cost..
DPIIT-IPR Chair, Centre for IPR has been a great integrator of the IPR activities in the University as Patent filings are currently happening with rapid speed from 16 departments from Engineering, Science and Pharmacy Colleges and the top four departments filing Patents from university are Computer Science, Civil Engineering, Chemical engineering and Zoology”. The recently visited NAAC Committee appreciated the innovative initiatives of the University in the area of IPR.
