Capitalizing globally on innovation requires its global protection. A technology company operating in one country automatically competes with firms from the rest of the world. Mediating the effects of this competition requires the right tools to protect a company’s technological assets in the right markets.
Whilst Europe and India are major trading partners and important sources of innovation, technology owners from both regions are relatively inactive when it comes to protecting their inventions in each other’s markets. In the long term, insufficient protection may impede the competitiveness of European and Indian firms, as they will not be able to claim their rights over their inventions in relevant markets.
Against this backdrop, under the Cooperation agreement to work in India and with a view to supporting the Indian Government’s ‘Make in India’ initiative, the European Business and Technology Centre (EBTC) and the European Patent Office (EPO) in association with The Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCC&I), conducted a technical workshop on “Using Patent Information for Business Intelligence and IPR Commercialization” on 1st June 2015 at ITC Sonar, Kolkata. The workshop was well attended with more than 130 participants from industry, academia, legal fraternity, researchers, academicians, MSMEs, etc.
A drawback of using traditional channels of technology transfer is the lack of information with respect to understanding the technology, ownership, and its commercial use. To overcome this, the workshop organized in Kolkata highlighted the use of patent information systems to search for clean and green technologies which could then be transferred to India to meet the requirement of the fast expanding Indian economy.
The EPO provides free access to databases which Indian companies can quickly search to identify technologies required. EBTC can then facilitate and act as an interface for transferring, localizing and adapting these technologies into India on behalf of European SMEs. This model can significantly increase access to technology, and boost EU-India partnerships in clean technology.
Eastern India has immense untapped potential, and has a large cluster of government, non-government, and research institutions. In addition to this, the region also has a patent office operating out of Kolkata. Amongst other industries, mining activities in Orissa presents interesting opportunities for European organizations to innovate, collaborate and transfer technology.
The technical sessions provided hands-on training in conducting searches on EPO’s databases such as Espacenet and Global Patent Index (GPI). EPO experts demonstrated different ways to search for technologies, and a discussion of the EP register allowed participants to understand the legal status / ownership details of patented technologies. A very practical event, participants were also encouraged to search and identify technologies of interest.