By Priya Padmanabhan
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.
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