National and Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) IP Policies: Comparison of Indian HEIs’ IP Policies from a Global Perspective

Abstract

Until the end of the eighteenth century, Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) were restricted to generate knowledge for free access to industries which they use for making commercial products. Though HEIs have the potential to contribute to the national economy from their creative and commercially viable R&D output through commercialization of research and Intellectual Property Rights, it was not given the needed importance due to lack of supportive policies. In many developed countries, innovation strategies, Science, Technology, and Innovation (STI) and national Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) policies provided opportunities to HEIs to own and commercialize knowledge they generate. National IPR policy and formulation and implementation of HEI IP policies became crucial for effective implementation, promotion of innovation, generation, and protection of IP in the HEIs. Efficiency of HEI in commercializing research is dependent on national IP policy framework aligning vision and goals of HEI IP policy with national IP policy, objectives, ownership, and revenue sharing mechanism. These are the key indicators for comparing the institutions’ innovation and IP capacity. This paper uses these indicators to discuss the impact of different countries’ (developed, developing, and least developed) national IPR policy frameworks on top-performing HEIs of those countries and to address the research question, how national and HEI IP policies have worked in achieving envisaged economic growth by improving innovation output of the HEIs. It further compares Indian HEI IP policies with global HEIs. We found that there is a greater need for local governments and HEIs to make their incentive strategies and policies in line with their corresponding national frameworks for facilitating the collaboration and commercialization of innovations. Implementing a robust IP policy framework at state/region and HEI level plays a pivotal role in creating an innovation ecosystem supportive to envisaged national economic growth.