Andhra University’s IPR centre files 97 patents in two years

NAAC committee appreciates Andhra University for its IPR initiatives

A view of Sir Cattamanchi Ramalingareddy vihara, the central administrative office of Andhra university in Visakhapatnam.. | Photo Credit: The Hindu

The NAAC committee has appreciated the initiatives of Andhra University in the area of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), which have led to the filing of nearly 100 patents by the university in the last couple of years.

The university authorities presented a report to the NAAC committee at an informal meet on the university campus on Tuesday.

The real momentum for filing and publishing patents from the university has come from 2020-21 after the DPIIT-IPR Chair Centre for Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) was established and the university IP policy was launched by the APSCHE Chairman.

“Andhra University filed nearly 100 patents in the last two years, and had licensed a patent from Biochemistry Department to establish a start-up for the first time in its 98 years of history. This is an indication of its dedication and relentless commitment of its quality researchers, faculty, innovators and the IPR team. This milestone underscores the university’s vision for excellence in advancing knowledge and pushing the frontiers of research and innovation,” said Vice-Chancellor P.V.G.D. Prasad Reddy.

“The faculty, research students and the IPR team have played a significant role in this achievement. The Centre for IPR at Andhra University was established in 2020 with sanction of DPIIT-IPR Chair by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry to Andhra University with the primary focus on building the culture of IP creation, protection and commercialisation among students as well as faculty and to safeguard the research and development efforts within the university,” said Registrar M. James Stephen.

Hanumanthu Purushotham, the DPIIT-IPR Chair Professor and Head of Centre for IPR, said that the university administration has envisioned the importance of IPR in academia and initiated several innovative academic programmes like establishing Centre for IPR and teaching IPR as a mandatory value added credit course to about 10,000 students at UG and PG level and launching university IP policy.

This had created a buzz in the university IP and innovation ecosystem and resulted in filing of 97 patent applications in the last two years. Out of this about 70% of the patents were filed by male and 30% were filed by female researchers and faculty. The university has around 1,500 research scholars and if each one files one IP it has a huge potential to file more IPs and could catch up with premier IITs in future, Prof Purushotham added.