According to a new Science and Technology Bill, the scientists working on the projects funded by the Central government, would be able to get a healthy share of the monetary benefits arising from the projects. The Science and Technology ministry has been drafted the bill that would tell the universities and institutions to share almost 30% of the royalty or licensing fees with those scientists who were involved in the research.
It happens with the scientists at Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) who get a 40 per cent share in the monetary benefits. But, in case of other universities and institutions, there is nothing like that in practice.
The Bill would be proved as a good incentive as well as boosters for good work and would definitely encourage the scientists of the country. They would work hard to obtain patents for their research to get the possibility of being put to commercial use.
Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal said:
The idea is to incentivize original research and lay claim to intellectual property rights on them.
The Bill further says that there should be proper guidelines for institutions in matters of patenting and there should be the use of standard procedures in the research. Currently, only a small quantity of original research actually claims for intellectual property rights. The bill is aiming to change and enhance the capability of the scientists and institutions to change the style of working.
Former Director-General of CSIR RA Mashelkar, said:
Research, once published, cannot be patented. The scientists need to be encouraged to file the applications for patent before publishing their research.
He said further that a recent study had found many Japanese and European companies had filed for patents. Those were based on research papers published by Indian scientists. India has been lost thousands of patents in the fields of life sciences, nanotechnology and others. Indian scientists do not apply for patents.
The bill would play a significant role to bring awareness among the Indian Scientist community.
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