Mission

The Intellectual Property Group at NCL is a service group that aims to help scientists and students strategize, protect, secure, valorize and extract value from intellectual property emerging out of their work while also championing the cause of inventions, inventors and the spirit of invention within NCL.

Scope of activities

• Patent administration (Receiving house for disclosures, patentability assessment, drafting, preparation of forms, prosecution support, correspondences with IPMD)
• Records, databases, business process automation (Records, databases, tracking sheets, generation of reports for Director/CSIR-HQ/ IPMD/ PSC,ICT systems, ERP)
• Research support (Reports for planning IP and research projects – such as patent landscapes, freedom-to-practice, infringement assessment, prior-art reports)
• Portfolio and investment management (Decisions – should we file? Portfolio planning & focus. Where should we file? How much will it cost? Maintenance decisions)
• Policy, strategy and institutional mechanisms (IP policy, strategic framework for the organization)
• Awareness, training and promotion (Awareness and education campaigns, workshops, lectures, etc, prizes and recognitions)
• Marketing, valuation and licensing (Publicity and active marketing, negotiations, valuation and pricing, licensing agreements)
• Material transfer agreements (Receiving house for in-bound and out-bound requests, IP-related approval, signing authority)

Current patent portfolio (FY 2007-2008)

• Chemicals sector
  
  • Petrochemicals
  • Bio-active molecules, drugs, pharma intermediates
  • Catalytic materials
  • Fine chemicals
• Materials sector
  
  • Polymers in specialty applications
  • Polymerization and polymerization catalysis
  • Nanomaterials
  • Controlled release
  • Membranes, separations
  • Polymer additives, compounds, blends, composites
• Biotechnology and agriculture sector
  
  • Industrial biotechnology and enzymology
  • Agrobiotechnology, agrochemicals
  • Biocontrol, biopesticides
• Other sectors:
  
  • Environment, sustainability
  • Energy, petroleum
  • Surfactants
  • Software and embedded algorithms

Trends in new invention disclosures (FY 2008-2009)

• Value addition of bioresources; Renewable polymers
• Controlled delivery of active agents using polymeric materials
• Nano-structured and micro-structured materials
• Other specialty applications of polymers (membranes, enzyme immobilization etc)
• New organic and bio-organic molecules as potential drugs, antifungal agents etc
• Alternative energy
• Agro-biotechnology

Areas of patent licensing successes (Last 10 years)

• Polymer manufacturing
• Fine chemicals
• Membranes
• Agrochemicals
• Pharmaceuticals
• Lubricants
• Bioresource value addition
• Signal processing and process control

Contact information

Head, Intellectual Property Group
head.ip@ncl.res.in