The Institution’s Innovation Council (IIC) organized a One-Day Workshop on creating Awareness on Intellectual Property Rights(IPR) on 12th February, 2020. The Resource Person was Ms. Shalini Menezes, Founder of SimSim Advisory Pvt. Ltd. and an alumnus of IIT Kharagpur holding Masters Degrees in Physics, Biophysics and Law. She is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Valuation of IP.
After the welcome address by the Vice Principal Dr. Rodney D’Silva, Ms. Sweta P. Shet Verenkar, Asst. Prof. in Computer Science, introduced the Chief Guest.
Ms. Menezes has considerable experience in the field of patent search, filing, drafting (Indian and international), company law matters (India, U.S., Australia) and other related legal matters. Her work in the IP field includes copyright, design, patent and trademark search and advisory reports, IP Management, IP prosecution, compliance and maintenance. She provides advisory services in IP litigation matters. Ms. Menezes also serves on multiple committees to assess Intellectual Property and guide institutions and individuals to grow an IP portfolio.
Ms. Menezes spoke about Introduction to Property, Intellectual Property, Copyrights, Trademarks, Patents, Trade Secrets and Commercialization of Intellectual Property. 32 Students from all streams benefited from the workshop.
Ms. Menezes explained about Property and Intellectual Property by interacting with participants considering examples from the students and mentioning the right towards property for each individual. Copyrights and Trademarks were also explained. Students were informed about the Do’s and Don’ts while deciding on Trademarks. The benefit of having a copyright or obtaining a trademark was elaborated visually. Further the participants were informed about the step by step patent filing process with many examples.
The participants were made to understand that patenting should involve an inventive step having an industrial application. Participants learnt that a patent obtained in one country is only applicable within that country.
The Resource person encouraged the participants to look forward to their IPR and mentioned that obtaining a patent, which took 5-6 years earlier, takes as little as one and half year now. Participants gained an insight into basic knowledge of IP, IPR, Copyrights, Trademarks, Patents, Trade Secrets and Commercialization of IP. Case Study of Coca Cola and Martins Corner Masala were mentioned as an example of a Trade secret.
Further Ms. Menezes highlighted the importance of IPR to the students from various domains like Commerce, Management and Computer Science. Ms. Menezes mentioned how a student working at a company can add value to the company by managing IP and being an asset to the company. Ms. Menezes also urged the students to not only come up with innovative projects but also protect their innovation through IPR.
The Vote of Thanks was proposed by Ms. Sweta P. Shet Verenkar.
