IPR Policy of the Institute
1. INTRODUCTION
This Intellectual Property Policy Document (hereinafter referred to as the "Policy") is meant to provide guidance for academic and non-academic staff, students (undergraduate and postgraduate) and outside sponsors on the practices and rules of the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur-721302, India (hereinafter referred to as "the Institute") regarding intellectual property rights and obligations thereunder which includes the nature of intellectual property, its ownership, exploitation, technology transfer and confidentiality requirements.
This document discusses intellectual property issues in order to safeguard the principles of academic freedom, allocate a fair share of the benefits to all those involved in the creation of intellectual property, and encourage the drive to conduct research, transfer technology and benefit materially from the generation of intellectual property.
The policy laid down in this document is expected to further the commitment of the Institute to providing an environment where scholarship and innovation, including ideas, discoveries, creative and artistic works, tangible results of research and developmental work, can flourish, leading to development of intellectual property. It will also enable the Institute to make beneficial use of such developed intellectual property for the greatest possible benefit to the public, the Institute, and the creators involved.
2. OBJECTIVES
The objectives of the Intellectual Property Policy are:
2(a) to promote academic freedom and safeguard the intellectual property interests of all those who are involved in the creation of intellectual property at the Institute,
2(b) to further develop the environment, and enhance the incentives, for research, development, the discovery of new knowledge, and innovation, compatible with the educational mission of the Institute.
2(c) to set and make available a policy for conducting the dissemination of the Institute's intellectual property for commercial use, so that such use imparts the benefits of the intellectual property to the public while safeguarding the interests of the creators or licensees of such property, and in the process generates revenue for the Institute and the creators.
2(e) To set up and maintain an office to provide services to the employees and students for effective commercial utilization of intellectual property generated at the Institute in the interests of all concerned, and to oversee the fair distribution of the returns accruing therefrom in accordance with this policy and its amendments.
2(f) To provide legal support as the Institute deems necessary to defend and protect the interests of the Institute and creators of intellectual property against unauthorized use of such property.
3. DEFINITIONS
3a) Academic Freedom: The freedom of the academic staff of the Institute to conduct their own academic activities including teaching, research and development, choose their own research field, pursue self-directed research, and collaborate and communicate with others regarding their scholarly efforts in keeping with the Institute's academic mission.
3b) Intellectual Property: The term "intellectual property" used herein broadly means any property generated out of the intellectual effort of the creator, having proprietary value, and protected by statute. In the case of copyrightable works, it must be fixed in a tangible form, and the creator or rights-holder is empowered by law to prevent others from copying this form. Intellectual property includes:
3b(i) patents on new and useful scientific or technical advancement by way of inventions, discoveries, processes, computer hardware and software, unique materials, machines, devices, instruments, apparatus, circuits, plant varieties, semiconductors, etc.
3b(ii) copyright in industrial and architectural designs, models, engineering drawings, integrated circuit layout designs; computer software, animations and visualizations, information technology products and processes including hardware and software features, original innovative or creative or artistic works and their derivatives or adaptations, whether dramatic, musical, literary works, works of graphic or plastic art and cinematographic and animated films, teaching material for classroom and online courses such as courseware for distance education, original data and records of research, and undisclosed and/or unpublished information, etc.
3b(iii) trademarks, service marks, logos, etc.
3c) Work for hire: work for hire is defined for the purposes of this document as any work commissioned by the Institute, from a creator as defined by this document for a consideration or otherwise, or from an external agency. In all such cases the ownership of the resulting intellectual property shall be assigned to the Institute in a written contract between the concerned parties.
3d) Fair use: this is the amount of copying allowed by law so that copyright shall not be a stranglehold on the progress of human knowledge. Limited portions of a work can be copied without the rights holder(s)' permission for non-commercial and academic uses, although the exact permissible percentage may have to be determined by the courts. In general, use of a small part of a work which does not hurt the present or potential market for that work is allowed under fair use, but there are many grey areas where the law has to be decided on a case-by-case basis. Fair use in the classroom during regular teaching is understood more liberally than that permissible in teaching for distance education multimedia packages. This is because distance education packages are commercial products and hence permission has to be sought for the use of any intellectual property held by others which may be quoted or reproduced in the package. The possibility of fair use exists only in the case of copyright and does not apply to patents.
3e) Intellectual Property Officer. The Intellectual Property Officer will be responsible for protection, commercialization and development of intellectual property owned by the Institute and also ensuring the use of licensed software and the fair and just treatment of others' intellectual property by the Institute and its members.
3f) Commercializable intellectual property: Commercializable intellectual property is that intellectual property which can be transferred to a commercial organization through patent licensing or confidentiality agreements for the purpose of exploitation on the market. Such property is to be safeguarded either under patent laws or by secrecy as is relevant and practicable.
3g) Creator: "Creator" refers to an individual or a group of individuals at the Institute, who make, conceive, reduce to practice, author, or otherwise make a substantial intellectual contribution to the creation of any intellectual property. "Creator" includes an "inventor" in the case of inventions under Patent Law, an "author" in the case of works falling under the Industrial Designs Law and/or Copyright Law. In the case of intellectual property owned by the Institute as work-for-hire, the creator shall retain only the moral right to be identified as such, vide clause 3c. The special categories to be understood under the term 'creator' are as follows:
3g(i) Permanent and temporary academic staff on Institute payroll Academic staff may create intellectual property:
These provisions will also apply to professors who hold Chairs and emeritus professors. The ownership of the intellectual property they generate will be governed by clause 5.
3g(ii) Adjunct professors, short-term visiting academic staff and researchers other than those covered by 3g(i)
Adjunct professors are not eligible for usual Institute resources and therefore all resources used by them are Institute-supported resources. They shall therefore provide an undertaking at the time of joining the Institute whereby all intellectual property generated by them using any Institute resources will be assigned wholly to the Institute and/or co-workers among Institute staff and students, unencumbered by any other co-share.
3g(iii) All staff other than academic staff on Institute payroll
Such staff may participate in the generation of intellectual property:
For such staff employed in projects, the handling of intellectual property rights so generated will be guided by the terms of the contract with the sponsor of the project, vide clause 6(m).
3g(iv) Students:
The term 'student' applies to all those registered for courses leading to a degree at the Institute and scholars enrolled in doctoral programmes. Rights in intellectual property produced by a student, whether in fulfillment of the requirements for an academic degree or not, shall belong to the student concerned, except where the conditions of clause 6(o) are fulfilled.
3g(v) Institute research associates For the purposes of this document Institute research associates will be treated at par with academic staff.
3g(vi) Externally funded project staff This category includes research officers, project officers, research assistants, scientific officers, and staff appointed for externally funded project work. The handling of the rights in the intellectual property generated during the course of the project will be governed by the terms of the contract between the sponsor of the project and the Institute vide clause 6(m).
3g(vii) Institute project staff Intellectual property generated through Institute projects will be governed by the terms of the agreement between the Institute and the project staff.
3h) Usual Institute Resources: Usual Institute resources mean facilities such as office space, standard laboratory facilities, library, normal access to software, computers and networks, standard secretarial services, salary and perquisites.
3i) Institute-Supported Resources: Institute-supported resources mean special facilities and equipment, specific funding, intellectual property already owned by the Institute, requisitioning the time and labour of students and staff through Institute administrative channels, or at the Institute's instance and expense, and remission by the Institute of any or all of the normal duties of staff or students to provide time or resources for the purpose of generating intellectual property. It is the responsibility of the Departmental Administrative Committee to evaluate instances of resource use for the generation of intellectual property and determine if significant use of Institute-supported resources has occurred. The creators have an obligation to notify their Departmental Administrative Committee when they believe that their work involves more than usual use of Institute resources. In particular the following Institute resources will constitute Institute-supported resources as contemplated by this policy.
Financial Resources
3i(i) Financial support provided by the Institute over and above the regular salary/perks as per employment/enrollment/sponsorship contract or over and above the scholarship provided to students/research scholars. Exception: honour fellowships, awards, prizes, grants, assistantships and scholarships, and facilities built up with such funds, will not constitute Institute-supported resources. Use of infrastructure developed by creators using their own funds, like their own earnings through consultancy, royalty proceeds, etc will not constitute use of Institute-supported resources.
3i(ii) Funds provided by the Institute to maintain, secure and enforce rights in intellectual property;
3i(iii) Funds specifically provided by the Institute to the creators to scale up or reduce to practice a particular patentable intellectual property.
3i(iv) Funds provided to commercialize and/or exploit intellectual property;
3i(v) Sponsored research grants or contracts as per the terms of the contract;
3i(vi) Substantial funding by the Institute for the printing of books to be decided by the IPR Committee on a case-by-case basis.
3i(vii) Exemption from fees normally charged by the Institute for any specialized facility or equipment.
Intellectual Property Resources:
3i(viii) Pre-existing intellectual property owned by the Institute;
3i(ix) Explicit use of the name, insignia, logo, or trademark of the Institute in the creation and vending of intellectual property. However, statement of affiliation by academic staff constitutes legitimate self-representation and shall be regarded as use of usual Institute resources.
3j) Institute confidential information: Institute confidential information means trade secrets, technical know-how, confidential data and related information about intellectual property owned by the Institute.
3k) Trademarks and service marks: Trademarks and service marks mean distinctive words or graphic symbols or logos identifying the Institute as associated with, or as a source of, a product; or as a producer and/or distributor of goods or services. The use regulated by this policy refers to the identification, statement, or display of the Institute name, insignia, logo in any way that can reasonably be interpreted as implying endorsement, approval or sponsorship by the Institute or its officials.
3l) Sponsored research. For the purposes of this policy, 'sponsored research' shall be taken to mean a specific research project funded by an outside agency, whether non-profit or for profit, governmental or private, national or international. The term 'sponsored research' will not apply to funds awarded by an external agency to a student, scholar, fellow or trainee for the support of education or research.
3m) Individual scholarships, fellowships and grants. No individual scholarship, fellowship or training grant tenable at the Institute will contain any provision giving the awarding agency any right to intellectual property created by the recipient. Intellectual property generated by recipients of such funding will be governed by clause 6o.
4. APPLICATION
This policy as amended from time to time shall be deemed a part of the conditions of employment for every employee of the Institute and a part of the conditions of enrollment and attendance at the Institute for students, and shall be made available to staff prior to appointment, students on enrollment, and to all existing staff and students. It is also the policy of the Institute that all potential creators who participate in a sponsored research project and/or make use of Institute-supported resources shall be informed of this policy and shall accept the principles of ownership of intellectual property as stated in this policy unless an exception is approved in writing by the Institute. All creators of intellectual property shall execute appropriate documents required to set forth effectively ownership and rights as specified in this policy. [Forms to be provided in annexure.]
5. OWNERSHIP OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
5a) Copyrights:
The Institute will not own the rights in copyrightable works such as books, articles, monographs, lectures, speeches and other communications produced by staff in the course of research and teaching produced using usual Institute resources. In all other cases the Institute may accept assignment of the copyright in whole or in part depending on the degree of Institute-supported resources used in producing the copyrightable work.
The copyright in theses, dissertations, term papers, laboratory records and other documents produced by students in the course of study will belong to the student. The student will provide to his or her department a copy of the laboratory records, including software, of an investigation for a thesis or dissertation for use in teaching and research by the Institute.
Where copyright has not been assigned to the Institute, the Institute will be entitled to a non-exclusive, non-transferable license to use the work within the Institute for non-commercial educational and research purposes, or to possess a limited number of copies for such purposes, whichever is relevant.
Any copyrightable work generated as a work for hire will belong to the Institute as per the terms of the original contract.
5a1) Assignment of copyrights to the Institute: Copyrightable works which fulfill the conditions below will be assigned to the Institute:
5b) Patents and inventions:
This section refers to intellectual property that is patentable or protectable by confidentiality agreements.
5b(i) The Institute will not require to be assigned to it intellectual property created by creators where there is use of usual Institute resources only, vide clauses 3(h) and the Exception to clause 3i(i).
5b(ii) The Institute will require to be assigned to it such intellectual property as is created by creators
In the case of all such property the creator will retain the moral right to be named as such vide clause 6b2.
Royalty accruing or any type of payment received from the commercialization of Institute-owned intellectual property will be shared between the Institute and the creator vide clause 10.
6. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY ADMINISTRATION)
6a) Disclosure:
When the creators believe that they have generated patentable or commercializable intellectual property using Institute-supported resources, they shall report it promptly in writing along with relevant documents, data and information, to the Institute through the appropriate authority using the Disclosure Form provided by the Institute. The information shall constitute a full and complete disclosure of the nature, particulars and other details of the intellectual property, identification of all persons who constitute 'the creator' of the property, and a statement of whether the creator believes he or she owns the rights to the intellectual property disclosed, or not, with reasons. Where there are different creators of components that make up a system, the individual creators and their contributions must be identified and treated separately.
Having made the disclosure, the creator shall maintain confidentiality i.e. refrain from disclosing the details, unless authorized in writing by the Institute, until the Institute has assessed the possibility of commercialization of the intellectual property vide clause 6b4.
6b) Evaluation and Exploitation Decisions:
6b1) Evaluation of disclosed intellectual property. The Institute's Intellectual Property Officer will evaluate the disclosure made by the creator on the prescribed Disclosure Form, determine whether there is a good prima facie case for believing that the intellectual property is commercializable, and examine any other relevant information and applicable contractual commitments.
Within the deadline of 90 days from the date of disclosure, the Institute must determine which of the following conditions apply:
6b1(i) The Institute is unwilling to commercialize the intellectual property. In this case the Institute will merely record the fact of the creation of the intellectual property without prejudice to the rights of the creator, and hold all information communicated in this regard by the creator secret and confidential. The Institute will be entitled to a non-exclusive, non-transferable license to use the work within the Institute for non-commercial educational and research purposes.
6b1(ii) The Institute wishes to own and commercialize the intellectual property. In this case, the Institute will take steps to commercialize the property through patenting or confidentiality. Where a patent is applied for, the creator shall agree to maintain all relevant details of the intellectual property secret and confidential until the patent is sealed. In the case of protection through confidentiality the same information will be kept secret and confidential as long as the intellectual property has commercial value. The creator shall furnish such additional information and execute such documents from time to time as may be reasonably requested for effective protection and maintenance of proprietary rights of the Institute in the intellectual property.
6b1(iii) Ownership of the intellectual property is in doubt. In all such cases the issue of ownership shall be referred to the Institute Intellectual Property Committee for arbitration. The Committee must communicate its decision on the matter to the creators within one month of referral of the issue to the Committee. The decision will be final and binding.
6b2) Acknowledgement
The creators of Institute-owned intellectual property shall retain their moral right to be identified as such unless they specifically waive this right in writing.
6b3) Commercialization
All expenses for obtaining and maintaining statutory rights in Institute-owned intellectual property will be borne by the Institute. The Institute will take steps to commercialize all Institute-owned property according to the time schedule outlined below:
The creator should provide all necessary data and documents for filing the patent within 15 days of notice of the Institute's decision to patent.
Should the Institute fail to inform the creator of its decision within the said deadline, the rights in the intellectual property will be held by the creator without encumbrance.
At any time during the above process, the Institute will have the right to revert the rights in the intellectual property to the creator at a mutually agreeable date with notice of three months of its intention to do so. If the property is commercialized subsequently, the creator may be required to pay a royalty to the Institute as per rules to be framed (80 to creator and 20 to institute of net profit.)
6c) Informing creators of decisions: The creators of Intellectual Property will be informed of progress regarding filing of the patent, commercialization and/or disposition of the intellectual property by the Institute. The Institute and the creators shall maintain complete transparency in sharing information at all stages of the process. The creators shall keep the Institute informed of updates or development of the intellectual property which lead to tangible effects on the property.
6d) Licensing of rights in Institute-owned intellectual property for commercialization through third parties. The Institute will license at its discretion Institute-owned intellectual property for commercialization through third parties who may or may not be the creator through the grant of exclusive/non-exclusive licenses, or assign its ownership rights to third parties/creator safeguarding the interests, financial or otherwise, of the Institute. All such licensing agreements or assignments, in particular where the third party is also the creator, must be carefully examined by the Institute to determine that no conflict of interest will occur as a result of their ratification. The third party when interested in any such transfer of rights must demonstrate technical and business capability to commercialize the intellectual property. The costs of transfer of interest/right/ownership in the Institute-owned property by way of license, assignment or otherwise devolution of rights for such purposes will be borne exclusively by the licensee, assignee, person acquiring such rights. The Institute may under special circumstances retain a non-exclusive royalty-free license to use the property for teaching and research. The assignment or license may be subject to additional terms and conditions, such as revenue sharing with the Institute or reimbursement of the cost of statutory protection, when justified by the circumstances of development of the intellectual property licensed. If the Institute finds that the third party has not taken steps to commercialize the property within one year of acceptance of the license, the Institute will be free to revoke the license.
6e) Institute's acceptance of independently owned intellectual property. The Institute may accept assignment of intellectual property owned by other parties provided that such assignment is found to be consistent with the public interest and the Institute's academic mission. Intellectual property so accepted shall be administered in the same manner as other Institute-owned intellectual property.
6f) Institute's rights to update and maintain course materials. In all cases the creator of the original work is protected by the author's special rights under section 57 of the Indian Copyright Act 1994.
6f(i) Where Institute owns the rights. The Institute will be at liberty to update, revise, and/or translate (hereinafter 'revise') course material in which it owns the rights through assignment of copyright, provided that such revision does not damage the reputation or honour of the original creator. All such revision will be treated as work for hire. The creator will retain the right to be identified as the creator of the original work, and the Institute must clearly state on the derived work and related documents that the derived work is adapted from the original work. The question of whether the creator of the original work is to be paid a royalty, and if so how much, on receipts from the commercialization of the derived work, shall be determined on a case-by-case basis by the Institute Intellectual Property Committee, on the criterion of how extensively the alteration has been carried out. The following guidelines may be followed by the Institute in this matter:
6f(i)(a) If the cost and the extent of the revision/update are minor, the financial arrangements made with the creator of the original work will remain unchanged.
6f(i)(b) If the revision etc is significant in terms of cost and extent but not such as to drastically alter the original work, the Institute may charge the cost of revision against the royalty receipts or other fees due to the creator of the original work.
6f(i)(c) If the revision is such that the new version is almost a new work, then the creator of the original work may be offered a financial compensation package significantly lower than that specified in the original agreement.
6f(ii) Where creator owns the rights. Regarding course materials in which the Institute has licensed rights from the creator, the Institute shall give first refusal to the creator of the original work in producing derived works including updates, translations and revisions, regardless of whether the creator continues to be employed by the Institute or not. In order to enable the Institute to contact creators for this purpose, creators are requested to keep the Intellectual Property Officer informed of their current address at all times. It will be the responsibility of the creator to inform the Intellectual Property Officer of their consent or otherwise to undertake the revision proposed by the Institute within one month from the date of request by the Institute. The following cases will then apply:
6g) Statement by creators. The creators of intellectual property under the terms of this policy shall be required to determine and to state that to the best of their knowledge the intellectual property does not infringe any existing copyright or other legal rights of third parties. If any part of the work is not the original work or creation of the creators, the creators must show that the necessary permission for use has been obtained from the owner, or state their reasons for believing that such permission is not necessary as the use constitutes fair use, vide clause 3d. They will further certify that the work contains no libelous material nor material that invades the privacy of others. In case a third party alleges infringement of their rights by a creator and the Institute Intellectual Property Committee finds prima facie that the creator may have made false claims, the Institute will take immediate steps to dissociate itself from the said intellectual property. All agreements with creators should indemnify the Institute against all damages arising out of such litigation.
6h) Consulting agreements. Since consultancy comes to academic staff through Institute channels and is administered centrally, any intellectual property arising from consultancy should be assigned to the Institute in the interests of transparency and fair negotiation with consulting firms. The Institute will offer a first refusal option on the licensing of such intellectual property rights to the consulting firm, as with sponsored research as laid out in clause 6(m). However, in recognition of the fact that a percentage of the consultant's fee is paid to the Institute, the royalty arising from commercialization of intellectual property generated through consultancy will be in a ratio of 60% to consultant and 40% to the Institute. Creators engaged in consulting work or business have a responsibility to ensure that agreements governing such work or business are not in conflict with Institute policy or with the Institute's prior contractual commitments. Such creators should make their Institute obligations known to outside parties before they make such agreements and should provide such parties with copies of all applicable Institute policies.
6i) Institute Intellectual Property Committee: The Institute Intellectual Property Committee shall be constituted by the Chairman of the Senate from among the academic staff of the Institute. The Committee will have three members nominated by the Chairman of the Senate, in addition to the Institute Intellectual Property Officer as member and the Dean (SRIC) as Chairman. The nominees will serve a three-year term, and at least two nominees must have had extensive experience of generating and/or commercializing intellectual property. The Committee will administer intellectual property policy and such other relevant matters as shall be determined from time to time. The Dean (SRIC) will be responsible for overseeing the implementation of all such recommendations and decisions. In particular the Committee will arbitrate in cases where
6j) Responsibilities of departments. Each department will administer Institute policy as defined herein through its Departmental Administrative Committee. In particular each creator must maintain in his or her department records detailing his or her activities in generating intellectual property. Such records must be made available on demand to the Institute Intellectual Property Committee.
6k) Authority of Contracts. All Commitments, Agreements, Memoranda of Understanding etc. relating to commercialization or exploitation of Institute-owned intellectual property will be granted in the name of the Institute by the Dean (SRIC) on behalf of the Institute.
6l) First-refusal option for sponsors. Unless the Institute decides otherwise on the merits of the case, agreements governing sponsored research shall provide that all intellectual property developed as a result of the sponsored research project shall belong to the Institute. When the creator discloses the generation of such intellectual property to the Institute, the sponsor will receive first refusal on an option to license the resulting intellectual property on terms to be negotiated on a case-by-case basis. The sponsor has to either accept or refuse its first-refusal option within 90 days of the date of offer of the option by the Institute to the sponsor. If the Institute finds that the sponsor has not taken steps to commercialize the property within one year of acceptance of the option, the Institute will be free to revoke the license. Confidentiality agreements will continue to apply in that event. The Institute may at its own discretion contract with sponsors to allow them specific rights, whether exclusive or non-exclusive, in the intellectual property whose creation they sponsor, if in the Institute's opinion the granting of such rights will facilitate the commercialization of the intellectual property.
In all cases the terms of licenses or assignment shall be determined through negotiation between the sponsor and the Institute once the sponsor agrees to exercise his or her licensing option. Considerations that must be taken into account are:
6m) Special handling of theses, term papers and research by students. It is a requirement in academia that a student must own the copyright of the thesis (since it is his or her original work) which he or she submits as partial fulfillment of the requirements for an academic degree. However, the student will grant a non-exclusive, non-transferable royalty-free license to the Institute to use, in the course of non-commercial academic activity, the records and data generated in the course of the student's research.
Furthermore, it is possible that the research that the student carries out as part of the program of study may result in the generation of intellectual property other than the text of the thesis. Supervisors should advise students during the course of their work that certain kinds of research may lead to the generation of intellectual property which will require protection of its commercial value through confidentiality, for which the student will have to forgo publication during the period of sealing of a patent. Care should be taken at all stages to see that no conflict of interest arises between the student's academic activities and his or her generation of intellectual property.
This additional intellectual property will be assigned to the Institute if:
In all such cases the student will retain the moral right to be identified as the creator of the intellectual property as per clause 6(b2).
In the case of any intellectual property generated in the course of a student's program of study, it is the duty of the students and their supervisors to make sure that the publication/submission of such work does not violate any confidentiality agreement.
Where the thesis of a student contains details of commercializable intellectual property, the Institute and the student must agree to keep the thesis, in part or whole, and all relevant documents, confidential until the process of securing statutory protection for the intellectual property is complete. It should be noted that the submission of the thesis for examination does not violate confidentiality because the thesis remains confidential until the examination process is over. A sample agreement governing the handling of theses is attached as annexure 1.
It is to be noted that while retention of the hard copy by the Institute library is essential for the meeting of requirements for a degree, and the student must agree to allow the abstract of the thesis to be made available electronically, the student will have the option to refuse the releasing of the full electronic text of his/her thesis on any network. On the Institute's part, the library has a duty to ensure that the use of the texts of theses held by it is consonant with laws governing copyright and fair use, as well as sound academic practice.
7. RECORD KEEPING PROCEDURES
It will be the responsibility of the Heads of Departments/Centres/Schools or persons authorized by the Institute Intellectual Property Committee to ascertain for the purposes of this policy which facilities/resources used for the purpose of generation of intellectual property by a creator in a given Department should be construed as usual Institute resources and which should be construed as Institute-supported resources, and to maintain records of the course of development of intellectual property involving such resources.
All data and details generated by a creator in the course of creation of intellectual property should be systematically recorded in the concerned department as outlined below:
7(a) All laboratory records shall be entered in indelible ink in bound volumes marked "PRIVATE & CONFIDENTIAL" with all pages serially and permanently numbered, without mutilations or insertions.
7(b) All blank spaces between successive entries should be cancelled as if they were deletions and authenticated with the creator's initials and date.
7(c) Precise descriptions of all actions and experiments carried out should be provided. Ideas or suggestions should be headlined as such, so as to clearly differentiate them from work actually performed.
7(d) No abbreviations or terms, except where their use is standard practice in that particular discipline, should be used, unless clearly explained in a table at the front or back of the book.
7(e) Crucial data or descriptions of experiments which relate to valuable inventions or discoveries should be signed and dated by the creator, supervisor, or coordinator of the project.
7(f) Modifications, if any, should be made by drawing a line through the deleted matter and writing 'cancelled' beside it. The corrected data (clearly marked as such) should be entered immediately below, authenticated by the creator with initials and date.
7(g) Samples of new products or of products produced by a new method should be preserved if possible and photographed for the record. All photographs should be dated and signed by the creator on the reverse.
8. CONFIDENTIALITY REQUIREMENTS
The creators involved in the development of Institute-owned intellectual property should maintain strict confidentiality in dealing with all relevant information relating to the intellectual property concerned.
The following guidelines should be followed when dealing with confidential information in the context of third parties such as commercial organizations:
8(a) The amount of information given to prospective licensees before the signing of any confidentiality or secrecy agreement should in no case exceed or fall outside that which is set out in the Technology Profile Form for any particular intellectual property.
8(b) When a third party is interested in commercializing an item of intellectual property on offer after inspecting the relevant Technology Profile, they may apply on the prescribed form and with the deposition of the required fee for transfer of the technology. They will be required to demonstrate their capacity to commercialize the technology to the Institute's satisfaction. The Institute will then require the third party to sign contractual confidentiality or secrecy agreements undertaking to maintain the confidentiality of all information disclosed, before any further disclosure is made. The format of the Bilateral Secrecy Agreement in Annexure - II should be followed.
8(c) Third parties must obtain express authorization in writing from the Institute to commercialize/exploit the intellectual property. Confidentiality agreements will continue in force even if the commercialization process is aborted at any stage. However, it is recommended that no disclosure should be made if there is any doubt as to the outcome of the commercialization process.
8(d) If running royalties are to accrue to the Institute and the creator, the licensees must be bound by their contract to take adequate measures to protect that matter from becoming known to others through the licensee's practice, and thereby made available to others whose activities may adversely affect royalty returns.
8(e) Access to areas where Institute-owned intellectual property including confidential information is made available, seen or used, and to confidential documents, records, etc. is to be limited only to those who are creators or are bound by confidentiality agreements.
8(f) Creators and/or Institute personnel must take care not to disclose confidential details of Institute-owned intellectual property in their publications, speeches, or other communications.
9. LEGITIMATE USE OF THE INSTITUTE'S PRODUCTS AND SERVICES WHICH HAVE TRADEMARK VALUE
The authorities responsible on behalf of the institute and creators have the responsibility to ensure:
10. DISTRIBUTION OF PROCEEDS
The guideline for sharing the benefits generated from Institute-owned intellectual property will be as follows:
In case there is a third party (i.e. funding agency), the Institute's and creator's respective shares will be calculated on the net receipts after deducting the third party's share. The creator may opt for his/her personal share to be retained by the Institute e.g. to support his/her research, in which case the facilities so generated will be treated as under the Exception to clause 3i(i).
The creator's share will continue to be paid irrespective of whether the individual continues in the employ of the Institute.
11. RIGHT TO REGULATE POLICY
The Institute Intellectual Property Committee shall have the responsibility for interpreting these policies, resolving disputes concerning the interpretation and application of these policies and recommending changes to the policy from time to time as experience suggests the desirability of such changes. All changes to this policy shall have to be ratified by the Senate.
Annexure 1
HATD
Handling and Archiving of Theses and Dissertations
submitted to the
Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur 721302
Declaration by the Author of the Thesis or Dissertation
I, Sri/Smt/Kum Roll no registered as a Research Scholar or a student of programs such as B.Tech / B.Arch. / B.Sc. / M.Sc. / M.Tech. / MCP / MS / MMST / MBM or equivalent, (tick whichever is applicable) in the Department/ Centre / School of Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India (hereinafter referred to as the 'Institute') do hereby submit my thesis, title (hereinafter referred to as 'my thesis') in a printed as well as electronic version for holding in the library of record of the Institute.
I hereby declare that:
Signed:
(student) (supervisor)