Intellectual Property Rights for Entrepreneurs

Dr. Nithyananda, was invited to deliver a lecture on “Intellectual Property Rights for Entrepreneurs” at the BECH – Bharatidasan University on 18^th September 2019.

Intellectual Property Rights or IPR is a common term used to refer to patents, trademarks, copyrights, designs, trade secrets, geographical indications, farmer’s rights, semiconductor protection and others. Entrepreneurs typically start their business with innovative ideas, but because of the lack of knowledge about IPR, they do not protect their innovative ideas or inventions. This causes long-term damage to the entrepreneurial venture, especially once they start becoming successful. As part of their business plan, entrepreneurs should have a strategy for protecting their IPRs.They should be protecting their venture and the innovative idea under multiple IP rights like patents, trademarks, designs, and copyrights. This would help them protect their business against infringers and counterfeiters. Not only that, they would be able to earn enhanced revenues by using IP rights to structure business models, which would ensure the long-term sustainability of the venture. The Government of India, as part of the Startup policy, has provided financial assistance to startups and MSMEs to register their IPR at subsidized charges. Also on 16^th September, it has planned to reduce the charges on a lot of IPR related activities including registration, examination, prosecution, etc., for many of the IPRs. Also as part of the National IPR Policy of India, it is proposed to use IP rights as a collateral security to raise loans from banks. Using this policy, many prominent companies like Aircel and Dawaat have raised crores of Rupees as financial assistance from financial institutions. In addition to this, the IPR policy also talks about a provision of setting up an exchange or a marketplace for IP rights or IP assets, which could further enhance the potential value of the IPRs held by entrepreneurs and MSMEs. With all these benefits, entrepreneurs should focus a little bit of their attention towards protecting their business using intellectual property rights.

Prof. M. Ravichandran, Director i/c, Bharathidasan University Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Career Hub (BECH) of welcomed the gathering and Dr. N. Prasanna, Dy. Director i/c, Bharathidasan University Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Career Hub (BECH) proposed the vote of thanks. The talk was attended by a great number of students and faculty from various departments of the university.