The European Business and Technology Centre (EBTC), the European Patent Office (EPO), and The Bengal Chamber of Commerce & Industry (BCC&I) co-branded a Seminar on “Searching Green Technologies with Global Patent Index and Complementary Services”, on 30th May 2014 at The Park Hotel, Kolkata. The objective was to introduce companies and researchers in West Bengal to the use of online patent databases and search tools to find information about clean energy technologies. This seminar was the first in a series of events across the State aimed at helping Indian businesses and research institutes to mine patent information to better identify climate change mitigation technologies that have the potential to be transferred to India. It was a part of the series of seminars held also in Bangalore and Hyderabad.

Global economies are increasingly turning towards clean energy sources as an answer to the environmental, political and societal problems which are linked to the use of fossil fuel. This has led to a boom in the green technology sector, including greatly increased research and development activity, encouraged by the Kyoto Protocol and in many countries by policy. In parallel, the Technology Mechanism of the UNFCCC is establishing mechanisms to support innovation in green technologies and related technology transfer on a global scale.

Greater R&D activity has also resulted in an increased number of patent applications, in particular in developed countries, and has also questioned to what extent the patent system presents a support or a barrier to the transfer of clean technologies from one country to another.

In light of this, the EPO has developed a classification scheme (Y02 and Y04S) for climate change mitigation technologies (CCMTs), which has enabled patent landscaping and analysis of global scenarios, and production of evidence to support policy. Two studies have been produced which highlight the global and African patenting trends of CCMTs, and a third study on Latin America is in the pipeline. These studies indicate that patenting of green technologies in developing countries is very limited.

The EPO’s patent information systems, including the Y02 and Y04S classification schemes for CCMTs, also provide access to all patent related information such as new and existing technologies, clean tech companies and rights holders. The free online search facilities provided by the EPO, such as Espacenet, as well as advanced patent search facilities such as the Global Patent Index (GPI) are ideal search tools for mining this database as well as for global patent information in general. Some 2 million patent documents make detailed technical information relating to CCMTs readily available via the internet, as well as information on potential suppliers.

Mr. Arun Kumar Singh, Joint Secretary, Biotechnology Department, Government of West Bengal was the Chief Guest. The speakers were Mr. Patrick Le Gonidec, Electronic Publication and Dissemination, EPO and Mr. Arvind Chopra, Head IPR, EBTC.

The programme was a grand success with about 120 invitees from industry, academia, legal fraternity and others. The feedback received from the invitees suggests it was a very relevant programme.