The present batch is the second batch recruited under the Women Scientist Scholarship Scheme launched by the Department of Science & Technology in 2002 for bringing back women scientists, who have been away from the mainstream for social and domestic reasons, to mainstream of science and technology. The long term perspective is that such trained women scientists will, in due course, practice from their houses along with their day to day responsibilities. The first batch had 15 women who are now actively practicing in the area of IPR in law firms.

It is an excellent example of public private partnership between law firms and the government. It is a win win situation for both; the government succeeds in achieving its broad objectives and law firms are able to get services of scientists with domain expertise. Most of the 28 women have been placed with the leading IP firms of the country such as Anand and Anand, Lakshmikumaran & Shridharan, K & S Partners, S. Majumdar and Co., Lall Lahiri and Salhotra and Subramaniam, Natraj & Associates. The other candidates are getting training with PFC, CSIR, ICMR and Patent Information Center (PIC), Punjab, an outfit of PFC.

As a part of the training all the candidates were given a solid foundation in IPR through a 3 weeks orientation programme held in January 2006 with the help of national and international experts in all areas of IPR. The topics included WTO Agreements, evolution of IPR system, introduction to IPR, international IPR treaties, Indian Patent Act, novelty and non-obviousness, Patent Cooperation Treaty, protection of new plant variety, protecting IC layout designs, protection of undisclosed information, copyright management, Trademark Act, introduction of geographical indications, industrial designs, copyright in digital environment, patenting of microorganisms, biotechnology patents, patenting in chemicals, infringement and revocation, patent searches, software and business method patents, management of IPR portfolio, Introduction to European Patent Office, European perspective on novelty and inventiveness, IPR licensing, patent drafting, European perspective on opposition proceedings, protection of traditional knowledge, protection of pharma patents, enablement of claims, introduction to US patent system, searching STN database, patent mapping and technology scan reports and challenges faced by women scientists. There were as many as 45 lectures. Hands on training on patent searches was one important component of the programme

PFC was lucky to get the services of national and international experts. The list of international experts included Dr. L a Fieler, ex official of EPO, Dr. Christopher Schoen, Patent Attorney from Munich, Dr. Ramesh Shukla, ex official of EPO, Dr. Tom Paul, Patent Attorney, USA, Mr. John Callahan, Patent attorney, USA, Mr. Paul Krieger, Patent Attorney, USA, Judge Prof. Michael Fysh, UK and Baroness Dr. Susan A. Greenfield, UK. The list of Indian experts included Shri H. Subramaniam, Shri S. Majumdar, Shri D.C.Gabriel, Ms. Pratibha Singh, Ms. Rajeshwari, Shri Vikrant Rana, Dr. Indira Banerjee (IPR attorneys) and other experts like Dr. Malathi Laxmikumaran, Dr. L. Balasubramaniam, Dr. P.Ganguly, Shri R.K.Gupta (CSIR), Dr. Sudhir Kochar (ICAR), Shri K.S.Chari (MIT), Shri B.P.Singh (Patent Office) and Dr. K.Satyanarayana (ICMR).

There were a few lectures by inventors who had gone through the patenting exercise in real life and these were delivered by Dr. Matapurkar and Dr. Pratibha Jolly.

It is hoped that this initiative of PFC would help building up a large work force of women scientists having expertise in different domains of knowledge to handle conceptual, operational and management issues related to IPR in days to come.