What is the Patent Manufacturer?

'Patent or die'could function as the mantra of Ragunath Mashelkar, head of India's biggest widely funded scientific agency. In the last decade he's turned the 40 approximately labs below his control directly into a patent factory. "Our labs have more patents in the United Claims than all Indian inventors combined," boasts Mashelkar innovation collaboration, who directs the Council of Medical and Commercial Study (CSIR). "To be recognized, you'll need a account of patents."

Although not everybody is impressed patent portfolio. Authorities are accusing the council of squandering citizens'money by patenting a huge choice of spurious inventions which are never exploited.

The strategy of the CSIR has been to file a patent on any new discovering that meets certain requirements, whether the agency desires to commercialize it, claims R. K. Gupta, the CSIR's primary of patents. That technique has truly succeeded when it comes to quantity. Between 2002 and 2006, the CSIR was given 542 US patents — more in comparison to total quantity awarded for their competitors in France, Japan and Germany combined.

A lot of money is taking place the drain.

But based on Suresh Chandran, who handled biotech patents in India before getting certification manager for ES Cell Global in Singapore, "A lot of the patents aren't even value the paper they are produced on." He highlights that each and every US patent prices the CSIR US$25,000 for filing and $4,000 annually for maintenance. "Perhaps it is a passing phase, but I could inform you that people waste a lot on this work," he says.

A good example given by experts is a cow urine acquire that the CSIR patented in the United States in 2002, claiming so that it enhanced the game of antibiotics. Their state is however to be reinforced with a peer-reviewed book and the CSIR admits that number drug business indicates interest. "We had an excellent giggle whenever we read about this, and that has been it," says a spokesman for a number one drug organization in New Delhi, who requested never to be named.

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Masheklar disputes that the patents really are a waste of income, venturing out a lot of three US patents on a potential anticancer molecule has been registered out to an Indian entrepreneur in the United Claims for approximately $100,000. Considering that no more than 3% of US patents are ever certified, it's too soon for the CSIR to anticipate huge results, he says.

Experts table that although strategy of patenting everything has established attention among researchers of the potential value of these discoveries, it's time to be sure that patents create services and products and wealth, not merely statistics. A. V. Rama Rao, former manager of the CSIR Indian Institute of Chemical Technology in Hyderabad, needs the CSIR to create an unbiased team to choose which developments are value patent applications. "A bundle is happening the drain in the title of patents," he says.