In order to ensure that students from polytechnics do not get cheated of their ideas, the MSBTE has offered to foot the expenses of patenting them.
According to officials, while it is the responsibility of the principal/ institution head to forward patent proposals to MSBTE, students have also been given an avenue to directly apply to the regulatory body to get their ideas patented.
Speaking about the initiative, Dr P.M. Khodke, director, MSBTE said that the regulatory body has decided to use surplus funds for the benefit of the student. “We realised that students from polytechnics and Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) pursuing diploma courses in various fields had concept ideas and had made prototypes that either got neglected or were misused by vested interests. Hence, we decided to step in and help students,” Dr Khodke said.
A panel consisting of experts from IIT, L&T and other such corporates will first verify the feasibility of the concept; if found practical, the panel will give a go ahead to MSBTE to start the process of patenting the idea. To make the idea known and popular among the students, MSBTE has asked the principals and institute heads to inform their students about the same as well as put up posters about it at prominent locations in the institutes with details for methodology to apply for a patent.
The cost of patenting an idea can vary from anywhere between Rs 50,000 to Rs 1 lakh depending on the verification expenses that the Indian Patent Office will have to bear to complete the procedure.