August 25: Emboldened by the India's victory in quashing the patent given on turmeric by the US patent office, the industry ministry has chalked out a Rs 50-crore scheme to protect new technology developed in the country by strengthening and modernising patent offices all over the country.

The step, sources said, would be of importance to industry and science and technology (S&T) institutions in their goal to become technologically self-reliant. It would, on the one hand, facilitate availability of technology to the industry and on the other, help sell technology almost off-the-shelf.

The scheme is likely to benefit industry and S&T institutions by enabling them to earn hundreds of crores a year by selling technology as also saving forex by making technology available on a platter.

The ministry's plan also includes keeping a watch on the patents granted all over the world so that traditional systems were prevented from being patented. It plans to equip patent offices in Delhi, Mumbai, Calcutta and Chennai with the latest electronic storing facilities and connect them to national and international online network to keep a tab on any possible infringement of indigenous technology.

The plan has the approval of the prime minister' office, which has forwarded it to the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) for a detailed study. CSIR has been asked to suggest improvements and also check any possible lapse in the scheme.

CSIR director general R A Mashelkar has suggested documentation of traditional knowledge and making available the latest patents and other literature and articles on CD-ROMs.

The industry ministry, sources said, prepared the document after consultations with experts from various fields. Experts from almost all walks of scientific streams had been consulted. They included those from the fields of pharmaceuticals, chemical technology, petroleum sector, metallurgy and belonged to CSIR, department of space, department of science and technology, Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and even the industry. Some politicians from the Left parties, Janata Dal and BJP, who have made significant contributions to the intellectual property regime and WTO debates were also consulted to understand their views as also to enable the Indian patent offices to have a foolproof record keeping.

An interesting finding of the ministry has been that some individual officers in patent offices have a storehouse of knowledge and were able to vet any proposal in minutes. But these were not documented and were in their memory. The ministry is devising ways to benefit out of this knowledge.

The libraries of the patent offices were also ill-equipped. Record keeping was done in a manner, which was hardly scientific.The buildings that housed the offices were also found to be in shambles. The new plan envisages rectification of all these defects.

It also aims at making the office updated so that any industrialist or technologist looking for a patent does not have to spend much time and which could be found on CD-ROMs and other electronic gadgets.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.