Intellectual property rights (IPRs) awareness to information technology sector and cyber space

Event report

[Read more session reports from the WSIS Forum 2018]

The session was moderated by Ms Prity Khastgir, international strategist and CEO, Tech Corp and dealt with the awareness of intellectual property rights (IPRs) in cyberspace. The session featured Mr Rakesh Lingappa, professor, head of the Department of computer science and engineering, Jain Institute of Technology.

Lingappa explained that intellectual property (IP) refers to ‘creations of the mind’ such as inventions, artistic works, and designs, and he showed how the idea of IP has evolved from ownership rights to copyright, patents, and trademarks. He added that there are four types of IPRs relevant to software:

• Patents

• Copyrights

• Trade secrets

• Trademarks

Lingappa emphasised that software patents are powerful economic tools as they can protect features of a software program, such as its ideas, systems, algorithms, and functions, and bestow exclusive rights on its owner to copy, modify, or distribute to the public by license, sale, or otherwise.

Ms Khastgir gave a presentation on intellectual property in cyberspace and the Internet. She called for working in a holistic manner to identify problems, set deadlines, and solve problems using innovation, and evolving from there. She focussed on the word ‘IDEA’ as bearing on the four phases of creativity and innovation:

1. Initiate

2. Develop

3. Evolve

4. Act

Khastgir then explained the steps in patent searching which involve signing a non-disclosure agreement (NDA), determining relevant international patent classifications (IPCs) and providing a patent report, with opinions regarding the novelty of the invention.

She also clarified the types of patent search, which range through novelty search, state-of-the-art search, infringement search, right-to-use search, validity search, clearance search, and competitor patents search.

On big data, Khastgir urged the need to identify valuable data and then work on enriching it to create businesses, and address issues in a particular country. She also mentioned that the ‘Industry4Era’ is based on: artificial intelligence (AI) for data-based learning, big data for the capture, storage and analysis of data, and the Internet of Things (IoT) for data collection.

On blockchain, she shed light on its advantages, such as accelerating learner logistics in global trade, improving transparency and traceability in supply chains, and automating commercial processes in logistics using smart contracts.

Khastgir concluded with presenting a technology life cycle business model involving a problem solving approach, leading to inventions, filing patents, and researching and developing markets.

The panellists also invited the audience to take part in an exercise which involved filling in an invention declaration form, with participants suggesting an invented connected device to trace kidnapped children.

By Ines Hfaied