Indian Universities: Patents vs Research Publications

Research publications are the bread and butter for universities globally. They are integrated so deeply into the university ecosystems that researchers and professors completely rely on their numbers, impact facts, journals, etc. to get more visibility among the academic fraternity. Also, it is more academically rewarding to have a research publication and contribute to the increasing knowledge of humanity. Most researchers are in a hurry to file research publications as they believe in the publish or perish culture. Researchers would choose to publish a paper as it is much quicker to publish and much easier to write. Further, in India, for academics, the university/college management has fixed “Journal Publication” as a yearly target for self-appraisal and all.

However, the research publication doesn’t give you any monetary benefits or ownership rights on your research. In fact, it makes the research publicly available to use, with no right to stop anyone from using the research.

When it comes to patents, they are more valuable as patents confer ownership rights. One can further license or commercialize their patents to companies to gain monetary benefits. Patents are like virtual property that can give you benefits when there is a transfer of certain rights (exclusive or non-exclusive).

For filing a patent, it must be:

• Novel
• Non-Obvious, and
• Useful

For a researcher, patent rights seem not to be motivating enough to lure them into filing a patent application over a research publication. One of the main reasons for less interest in patents is that researchers need professional help when deciding whether to file a patent application for their new research. Due to a lack of expertise, low awareness, and inefficient processes, most of the time, researchers are discouraged from filing patents.

Interestingly, some of the top universities in India are now adopting AI (Artificial Intelligence) technologies (XLSCOUT’s Novelty Checker) to democratize innovation and provide easy access to AI technologies to all researchers. The idea is for them to use the AI platform themselves to compare their research to whether it meets the three main criteria for getting a patent before approaching the IP department or attorney. Novelty Checker assists in conducting a novelty search to help you ensure that your innovation is unique. Additionally, it generates a novelty search report in 10 minutes with just a few clicks.

The Advantages of the AI Platform (XLSCOUT) are:

• Platform is simple to use—anyone can use it
• It gives a patentability search report in 10 minutes (top 10 matching documents)
• It compares with both global patents and literature in real-time
• Innovation triggers and dynamic industry focus reports to align research and innovate better

The Indian government is promoting university innovation these days. Commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal recently said:

“I think it is quite unfair that this is restricted only to innovation coming out of government institutions. So, I would like to make an announcement that this 80% fee reduction in patents costs (India or abroad) will now apply to all recognized educational institutions whether it is government (owned), government-aided, or private institutions irrespective of whether these institutions are situated in India or anywhere in the world”.

Connect with XLSCOUT to know how other Indian universities are democratizing innovation and fostering a patent culture in the universities.