Intellectual Ventures in pact with IIT-Bombay

US-based invention investment company Intellectual Ventures and Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay today signed a MoU to license and commercialise inventions of students and faculty of the institute.

The MoU, signed by Ashok Misra, chairman, Intellectual Ventures (India), and Krithi Ramamritham, Dean R&D of IIT-B, is expected to result in the wider dissemination and practical utilisation of inventions generated by IIT-B faculty, students and staff.

Intellectual Ventures (IV), a pre-venture capital company, will both license IIT-B inventions accepted under this program and work on a number of possible

commercialisation strategies for them, Misra told reporters.

"IV will pay IIT-B fees for such licensing and also bear the cost of patenting associated with these inventions," he said.

IV will also set up an intellectual centre within a year at IIT-B in an area of 4,000 sq feet to hold workshops and interact with faculty and students, Misra said.

The engagement between IIT-B and IV is expected to enhance the atmosphere for invention at the institute and also encourage more innovators to address important technological problems, Ramamritham said.

IIT faculty members said the agreement demonstrated how IV's unique business model can enhance the creation, dissemination and use of technological inventions coming out of the institute.

The eight-year-old company with its global network and 500 experts will be able to protect ideas as well as expand the ideas to their logical conclusions, Barry Stolzman, licensing director of IV, said.

"By accessing IV's global network of world leading companies, universities and research institutes, we can bring unique problems needing solutions to IIT-Bombay," Misra said.

"We take a long term view of technology and are searching for solutions that will be useful five to ten years in the future," he said.

The goal was to find excellent collaborators to help us develop the best solutions for the global marketplace of the near future, Misra said.

Last year, IV expanded its presence in India to work on the development of new inventions with leading Indian inventors and top institutions across the country, he said.

IV, which has a portfolio of over 20,000 patents and patent applications, has a global team to look into patenting of ideas and also other processes related to it, Misra said, adding the firm had returned over $1 billion to its investors so far.