DST to use social media for IPR awareness

April 28, 2015 12:00 am | Updated 05:54 am IST - Thiruvananthapuram:

The Patent Facilitating Centre (PFC) under the Union Department of Science and Technology (DST) is gearing up to expand its digital footprint by utilising social media services to create better awareness about Intellectual Property Rights (IPR).

The programme is primarily aimed at using IT tools to reach out to the younger generation, PFC head Yashawant Dev Panwar told The Hindu . The PFC is a unit of the Technology Information, Forecasting and Assessment Council (TIFAC), an autonomous body under the DST. Mr. Panwar was here on Monday to participate in the first meeting of the reconstituted advisory committee on IPR under the Kerala State Council for Science, Technology and Environment (KSCSTE).

“The idea is to tap the social media space used by technology-savvy youngsters to share information and content on IPR and related issues. TIFAC has already created a Facebook page and efforts are on load it with information. A Twitter profile is also being generated.”

Draft policy

The draft national IPR policy, now in circulation, stresses the need for public awareness about IPR to accelerate development, promote entrepreneurship, enhance employment and increase competitiveness.

Mr. Panwar stressed the need for State-level Patent Information Centres (PIC) to work on using patent information as an input to enhance the output of research and development institutions. “We will have to create a culture and develop standard techniques for the purpose.” He said the campaign for IPR awareness had enabled many academic institutions to become independent of PFC-PIC mechanism for processing patent applications. “IPR cells have been established in 70 universities across the country. Over time, we hope to incorporate IPR in the course curriculum from the school level.”

Mr. Panwar said the PFC was working on a project to create a large pool of trainers on IPR.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.