First approved in meeting of the Board of Governors under agenda no.17 dated 29-08-2020 &

Amended in meeting of the Board of Governors under agenda no. 24 Dated 30-03-2024.

1. General

The Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) policy provides a transparent framework for the ownership, control, and transfer of IPRs of IPs that are partially or fully generated and owned by Panipat Institute of Engineering and Technology, Samalkha, hereinafter referred to as PIET. The policy is to support and protect the invention or creation of the original research work of students, faculty, and other staff members of PIET.  The policy is designed in a way to develop, provide, and sustain an encouraging as well as potentially competitive environment within the PIET campus and to foster collaborative research with other Govt. and/ or private universities, institutions, organizations, associations, etc.

2. Objectives

The IPR policy of PIET is focused on protecting the outcomes of scientific and innovative efforts of the researchers including faculty members, students, and other staff members of PIET alone or in collaboration with other Govt. and/or private agencies, organizations, industries, etc. in creating the potential IPs. Furthermore, the IPR cell shall organize awareness sessions to sensitize the faculty, students, and other staff members of PIET about intellectual properties and the respective rights to protect the same.

3. Applicability

IPP policy applies to all faculty members, students, and staff of PIET involved in the invention/ research and creation of any kind of intellectual property such as patent, copyright, trademark, design, etc. The application(s) of any IP generated must be filed through the IPR Cell.

4. Ownership and Cost of Filing and Protection

1. All IPR obtained on any IP generated as a result of in-house research/ invention carried out by faculty members, scholars, students, or any other person affiliated with PIET by ‘utilizing the institute’s resources’ shall be owned by PIET. The institute will meet the entire cost of filing and protecting the IPR subject to a maximum five number of inventors involved. The IP shall be owned by PIET with the researcher(s) name(s) as the inventor(s) and the institute will be the applicant.
   The expression ‘utilizing the institute’s resources’ includes the use of duty hours, funds, laboratories, other premises, equipment, etc.
2. In a case, IP is created as a result of research/ invention carried out ‘without utilizing the institute’s resources’, then the IPR shall be owned by the inventor and the entire cost for filing and protecting the IPR will be borne by the inventor.
3. The IP generated as a result of the research/ invention carried out in case of ‘sponsored projects’, funded by external agencies such as industries, Govt. or Non-Govt. organizations, etc., shall be owned as per the mutual agreement between the institute and funding agencies or as per the guidelines of funding agencies enshrined in the sanction or approval letter. The entire cost of filing and protecting the IP will be borne accordingly. If no such clause is contained in the agreement or, for that matter, in the sanction letter, or the funding agencies do not come forward to file the IPR, then the following clause shall be applicable with respect to the cost of filing and protecting the IP. The institute shall apply for obtaining IPR with absolute ownership, and the entire cost of filing and protecting the IPR will be borne by the institute, subject to a maximum five number of inventors from PIET.
4. In case, IP is generated as a result of ‘collaborative research/ invention’, the IPR shall be owned jointly by PIET and the collaborating organization. The collaborating organization shall be requested to equally bear the cost of filing and protecting the IPR with the researcher(s) name(s) as the inventor(s). However, if the collaborating institute does not come forward to file the IPR, PIET shall file the IPR with absolute ownership and the name(s) of the inventor(s) of the collaborating institute shall be retained in the IPR but the revenue or royalty (if any) earned in this case via this IP will not be shared with the collaborating institute or its inventors involved in this research/ invention. In such a case, PIET will bear all costs of filing and protecting the IPR, subject to a maximum four number of inventors from PIET. In case of joint/ collaborative research/ invention with other organizations, the faculty, staff, students, or any other member of PIET need to get prior permission from the competent authority to commence the research project.
5. Furthermore, if any faculty, staff, student, or any other member of PIET engaged in the invention or research carried out in another institute, only by sharing his/ her intellect (without utilizing the PIET’s resources) which creates an IP but the other institute or faculty, staff, students involved do not come forward to file the IPR then PIET shall file the IPR with absolute ownership. In such a case, the name(s) of the inventor(s) of other institutes shall be retained in the IPR but the revenue or royalty (if any) earned via this IP will not be shared and PIET will bear the entire cost of filing and protecting the IP subject to a limit of maximum six number of inventors involved and at least half or a greater number of inventors must belong to PIET. In such a case, the inventor of PIET needs to obtain and submit a ‘No Objection Certificate’ from the inventor of other institutes involved in the research/ invention to the IPR cell, before applying for IPR. The inventor shall provide the necessary inputs, data, and information about the invention/ research, for filing an IPR application, to the institution.

5. Commercialization

The institute, PIET, shall attempt to market the IP based on the market potential for the IP to which it has ownership or joint ownership. The creator(s) are expected to support this process. If the institute is not able to or does not intend to commercialize the IP in a reasonable time frame (mutually decided), the inventor(s) may approach the IPR cell for reassignment of the IPRs. However, the inventor(s) need to reimburse the patenting and other fees (if any received) to the institute in lieu of the same. Furthermore, the inventor(s) with a mutual agreement with PIET can commercialize the IP and also help in technology transfer.

6. Revenue/ Royalty Sharing

The revenue/ royalty, arising out of the commercialization of the IP, shall be shared between the inventor(s), PIET, and the supporting staff (as recommended by the principal inventor) in the ratio of 50%, 40%, and 10% respectively, in case of in-house research/ inventions.  If multiple inventors are involved, every inventor shall get an equal share unless otherwise agreed upon mutually between the principal inventor and co-inventor (s).

For IP owned by both PIET and funding agency or any other external organization(s), as in the case of collaborative research, sharing of revenue/ royalty will be as per the terms mutually agreed upon.

If PIET, on request of the inventor(s), reassigns the IPR on any IP to the inventor(s) then the inventor(s) shall reimburse the costs of filing, protection, maintenance, etc., incurred by PIET.

A student shall not be entitled to any share in the profits accruing from the exploitation of a patent, even if he/she is an inventor but if such work is in partial or complete fulfillment of the prescribed requirements of the award of a degree/ diploma; the Institute is, however, free to allow the student any share it considers appropriate.

7. Rewards

On grant of a patent, INR 6,000 (in case one or two inventors from PIET) and 8,000 (in case more than two inventors from PIET) shall be equally distributed among the inventors. The granting of a design patent shall not be entitled to the above-mentioned reward. Furthermore, the additional rewards for any successful technology transfer and commercialization of IP shall be subject to the market potential and commercial value of the project and as mutually agreed upon between inventor(s) and PIET.

Notes:

1. All financial matters shall be subject to the prevailing income and other tax policies stipulated by the Indian Government.
2. In case of any conflict, or grievance regarding ownership of IP, processing of IP proposals, procedures adopted for implementation of IPR policy, and interpretation of various clauses of IPR policy, any aggrieved person can appeal to the Director of PIET to resolve the issue. In case the appellant is not satisfied with the decision, he/she can approach the management of PIET.
3. PIET shall bear the cost of filing and protection of an IP only in case IPR proposal(s) is(are) routed through IPR Cell.