– Mita Mukherjee

The West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences (NUJS) has received a grant of Rs one crore from the Union Ministry of Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) to set up an Intellectual Property Rights Facilitation Centre (IPFC) at the institute to promote innovation and create awareness about intellectual property rights in the MSME sector of Bengal, Nirmal Kanti Chakrabarti, vice-chancellor of NUJS said.

The Ministry of MSME has launched an initiative to provide Rs 298.55 lakh to set up eight IPFCs in different universities across India. NUJS has given the grant as a sub-component of the ministry’s project, the vice-chancellor said.

“One of the main objectives of the new centre is to enable the MSME sector of Bengal to strengthen their knowledge about protection of Intellectual Property Rights and offer them help to develop the expertise on marketing their products. This grant will further help the IPFCs to extend IP filing services such as filing of patents, trademarks, designs and copyrights in association with the National Patent Office/ Regional Patent Office and other national and international agencies,” Chakrabarti told EducationWorld.

In the Indian economy, the MSME sector is the second largest employment source after agriculture and acts as a backbone of the rural economy. A large part of the rural workforce is involved in the production of the goods, the vice-chancellor said.

He added that they are grateful to the ministry for selecting them to set up the centre because the aid comes at a time when the economy is grappling with the aftershocks of the pandemic.

“This grant will benefit those in learning who need to promote their socio-economic well-being and also utilised for the cause of the overall development of the rural sector economy and building a resilient and prosperous future. As a law university, the NUJS is committed to give protection to the intellectual properties of MSMEs. The university is dedicated to promoting legal academic scholarship. Through this project, our institute will also connect society in facilitating IPR filings and related matters and put West Bengal on the IPR map of India,” the vice-chancellor said.

The ministry has already sanctioned the funds and the centre is expected to start functioning from next month, he said.

NUJS offers IPR as an optional paper in its undergraduate course and the subject is taught as a special paper at the post graduate level.

“We have a number of experts in the field which will be an added advantage for the MSMEs who will attend our center,” the vice-chancellor said.

Some of the other institutes which have been selected for setting up the IP Facilitation Centers are University College of Technology (Autonomous) Osmania University, Tamil Nadu State Council for Science and Technology, International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, Guru Nanak Institutions Technical Campus (Autonomous) and Uttaranchal University.

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