My imagination really caught fire when I joined the 2nd IP Manthan hosted by the Indian Intellectual Property Office. As an ordinary business person, one vaguely knows that there is a link between IP and our everyday commerce. The most common area is copyright of movies, books, music yet there is a paucity of awareness of the financial impact in our daily life.
First a quick recap of a few points from the Budget 2023 and Amrit Kaal Vision for 2047 that I think will have a great impact.
- Budget is the statement of intent of the government
- This year’s budget / Amrit Kaal has the longest time horizon of 2047 [for when independent India will be 100] and 2070 [for the compliance to the Paris Accord for Climate action].
- Digitalisation – India will be driving its growth by leveraging technology. States such as Karnataka have a Karnataka Digital Economy Mission where their stated goal is to have $300b of the $1.2trillion of the Indian digital economy. Govt of India has committed to digitalising 10 Lakh ancient manuscripts …many of which could be mined for further research in AYUSH area for a holistic healthcare approach.
- Healthcare is vital for a country of our size. We already have ~150 medical colleges by adding 137 nursing colleges it will enable us to provide a holistic health support. Cowin portal was the start of the country wide digital healthcare effort. With greater AI, our Digital Healthcare can help boost healthcare delivery.
- Knowledge economies need Libraries; and physical libraries become not just centres of learning but also centres of community activity – local institutions which can become drivers of change. The budget has made special mention of this.
- Laboratory grown diamonds – IITs and others can create the seeds and this can move to the diamond industry.
- Labs for 5G, AI, to come up and promote applicative side of innovation.
As a businessperson my interest is sparked by the promises of the budget, as it closes the loop on innovative transformation. I will use two examples from my role as a startup mentor to point out how IP will play a bigger role in the next two decades.
I have been involved with a startup which was initially creating block-chain ledgers to manage professional contract workers in the global supply chain. We discussed the need for IP registration [the international team of 22 people with 15 nationalities] felt that it should be open-source and not restrictive. Due to the Ukraine situation they pivoted to circular economy ie. Coconut shell to charcoal. Initially it was for local use but when a global order from the UK came through, it became a serious business activity. We looked at all the coconut producing countries globally and saw the numbers were significant. At this point the team decided to get an IP for production and distribution.
I was confused – why would a simple business process spark the desire to register IP while block-chain did not - what evokes value? What are the unintended consequences here – the ash from charcoal in India is used to wash dishes and now this is even sold on Amazon India!
The budgets referred to fishery and I was really happy as I am involved with a small NGO Jal Jeevika. 10 years ago, during a severe drought the founder was in Bundelkhand and saw water bodies which had been created 5-600 years back which are still functional. He has been working to revive water bodies using practices which are sustainable and he linked this effort to Food Security 25 years from now. His ask is a mere INR 1 crore ! We need to be on a mission mode across the country for efforts like this. There is GI opportunity, job creation, food security in the longer term.
Western doctors are asking patients to do the Pelican pose [Parivritta utkatasan]. While we would want the world to use it would be nice to be acknowledged. This is just one example of our cultural practice finding acceptance and the continued expansion of the potential of AYUSH.
We all intuitively know that there is value in IP but the actual commercial implication is not clearly understood. Internationally there are countries and companies which call out their GDP / Revenue contribution from the IP they have created. Maybe we need to start getting India to report this. Including IP which supports the larger good. It need not be IP in just pure commercial terms.
- For business reporting of IP can be one of the parameters Govt asks for; and this ties into the R&D spend
- For non-business IP we will need to identify value in other ways.
- E.g. for the fishery effort, if there are local methods of fishing that are captured as part of GI tagging, then further research may unlock value.
- Commercialisation of GI tagged items – Research needs to be done on how economic value could be created. e.g. Moa ladoos from Joynagar normally has a shelf life of 36 hours, with proper packaging [dry ice, speedpost ] it is 7 days now they are looking for slightly longer shelf life for exports.
- Academic institutions that create IP should have commercial experts to ensure it is commercialised.
The unintended consequences of IP – Threats: In the recent past, bulk of the AI patents filed internationally are from the US, China and Europe – this implies that as India grows in the field of AI we will be stuck with having to pay the patent owners.
Just one IP Manthan sparked so many ideas. Post the session I was so excited I was sharing this with a person who supports Startups, FinTechs and has an accelerator, his reaction was encouraging. As an IP Mitra I am truly excited about the possibility of what IP can do for India !
This IP Wave is written by Ms. Sandhya Vasudevan. She was MD of Deutsche Bank Group as well as served in senior leadership role with Thomson Reuters. She has been on Boards through her entire career including Axa and TVS Group. These are her personal views.