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Start-up to help Indian SMEs in IP services

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CIOL Bureau
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By Priya Padmanabhan

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BANGALORE: While filing for patents is part of the business ethos of

global IT corporations, Indian companies and SMBs in particular have been slow

to realize the merits of filing IP (Intellectual property) and patents.

To help such companies and especially those working in areas

like R&D, telecom, biotech and IT, Brain League, a recent start-up

incubated by NS Raghavan Center for Entrepreneurial Learning, IIM Bangalore

provides a host of specialized services. These include helping out with the

patent process, developing a program to integrate IP into a company's workflow

and audits. Unlike law firms, Brain League claims to work with technology

experts and looks at IP and related services from a management perspective.

“There are not many firms that cater to the needs of SMEs.

This segment, being small, cannot afford IP departments of their own unlike the

biggies in the market, the main reason being managing additional overhead

expenses. It is also possible that since they are in a start-up mode, they

would not possess any IP. Still, they would need to prepare proactively for the

future to guard against competition, ”said Brain League Consultants MD Arun K

Narasani.

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He further opined that apart from protecting their knowledge

assets, patenting would be useful for companies in terms of valuation for

business decisions such as mergers and acquisitions, investments or sell-offs

and also in cases where competitors indulge in “evergreening” of patents.

Evergreening refers to a situation where a manufacturer (especially pharma drug

industry) builds on patent protection by obtaining separate 20-year patents on

multiple characteristics of a single product.

Brain League plans to create awareness on the importance of

patents through seminars and workshops. Typically, it costs companies around

$75,000 for a US patent and around Rs 50,000 for an Indian patent. Brain League

claims that it can bring down the cost of processing the US patent by 50

percent -60 percent.

Some of Brain League's clients include Bangalore Genei and

St Johns Medical center, Bangalore.

- CyberMedia News

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