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Intellectual Property Facilitation Centre of Federation of Indian Micro and Small & Medium Enterprises (FISME), with the support of Department of Electronics and Information Technology, Ministry of Communications & IT, New Delhi, Government of India, organized a workshop on IPR on January 9, 2013 in Mangalore. 

The programme focused on innovators, MSMEs, and Electronics & IT and other industries on the possibility and importance of Intellectual Property Rights for the success of their business. It aimed at promoting entrepreneurship and projects to improve the market access for MSME. Intellectual Property Facilitation Centre (IPFC) is sponsored by Development Commissioner, MSME, Ministry of MSME. 

In his inaugural address, Mr Mohammed Ameen President, Kanara Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI), said, “Knowledge about Intellectual Property (IP) is must for manufacturing sector.” Not being aware of IP would affect this sector because “they may have the best products on offer but they will fail unless there is proper marketing and protection of IP,” he said. 

An online portal where micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) can trade licences for patented products will be launched in April, informed Mr Karamjeet Singh Saluja, Deputy Director, Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), FISME - IPFC.

MSME would get concessional rates for trading on the portal, a mechanism for IP exchange that had been created by FISME in collaboration with the British High Commission, he said. 

Mr Saluja said that the awareness of IP among MSME was limited. “That is a fact and must be acknowledged in order to improve.”

He said there were different IPR instruments, and entrepreneurs should know which instrument should be used when. He spoke about patents, copyrights, trademarks, geographical indication (GI) tags, and trade secrets and how they were used.

Mr Kalai Socrates, Deputy Director, MSME Development Institute, Mangalore was the special guest on the occasion. Other dignitaries included Mr K Jayaraj Pai, President, District Small Industries Association, Mr M J Shetty, President, Kanara Small Industries Association, Mr Prasadraj Kanchan, President, Udupi Chamber of Commerce & Industry, and Mr Mukesh Kalra, Joint Secretary –International Trade, FISME. 

 Miss Poornima Ganesh, Patent & Trademark attorney, Mr Navneet Bhushan, Crafitti Consulting, and Mr Philip Cherian, Indus Techinnovations, were the in-charge of technical session.  They discussed the importance and challenges of IPR for different industries, especially in the sector of Electronics & IT.