Indian Medicine (Siddha) College, Chennai

A way forward to resolving patenting request from faculty Page 1 Ver : 0.0, dated 15-01-2011








Indian Medicine (Siddha) College, Chennai

A way forward to resolving patenting request from faculty


Indian Medicine (Siddha) College, Chennai
A way forward to resolving patenting request from faculty Page 2 Ver : 0.0, dated 15-01-2011

Executive Summary

Dr. Ramkumar had invented a herbo-mineral product useful for coronary
atherosclerosis. He approached Dr. Narendran with a request for protecting his invention by
patenting it. IMC has never faced with such a request for patenting any invention by its
faculty. An attempt is made to evaluate the various choices available with the management
for reacting to this request. Options like going ahead with patent application, rejecting the
request outright, encouraging the faculty to apply for patent himself are are evaluated. Main
criteria for evaluation shall be associated financial gains & risks, helpfulness in promoting
research and propagating Siddha medicine. Based on the evaluation, it is recommended that
IMC shall apply for the patent and commercialize the same by charging a one-time License
fee.

Word count: 126


Indian Medicine (Siddha) College, Chennai
A way forward to resolving patenting request from faculty Page 3 Ver : 0.0, dated 15-01-2011


Table of contents


1. Background
2 The crux
3 Alternatives
4 Evaluation
5 Recommendation
6 Action plan
7 Exhibits
Exhibit-I : Expected returns from commercialization

Indian Medicine (Siddha) College, Chennai
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1. 0. 0 Background
Indian Medicine College (IMC) is established with the following objectives:
1) Providing education,
2) Medical care with Siddha system
3) Research on Siddha and
4) Promote the Siddha medicines.
Presently IMC is doing very well in education and medical care. Research and propagation
of Siddha medicine have taken a backseat and the management is focussed only in
education and medical care. Some faculty involved in the research work are interested in
validation of Siddha drugs by clinical trials and utilization of their achievement commercially.
Protection of intellectual property in Siddha medicine is viewed as an important milestone, as
the other systems of medicine are moving towards patenting. To establish the system of
validating and patenting the research, IMC need to start from somewhere.
Dr. Ramkumar has requested IMC to patent a herbo-mineral product which was
developed by him prior to joining IMC. Even though Dr. Ramkumar is an established Siddha
practioner, it is necessary to obtain sufficient data regarding type of experiments and
validation methods which he has conducted during the development of the product. The
information may also be useful for other similar researches.
2. 0. 0 The Crux
The crux of the issue is that how shall IMC respond to Dr. Ramkumars request for patenting
his research.
3. 0. 0 Alternatives
The following alternatives are available with the management to go ahead with:
1) Apply for patent
2) Do not apply for paten
3) Ask Dr. Ramkumar to go ahead with patent and reimburse the cost if successful
4) Defer the decision and refer it to the research committee
The above alternatives are analysed with respect to the following parameters
a. Encouraging research in IMC
b. Promoting Siddha Medicine
c. Financial gain and risk
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4. 0. 0 Evaluation
4. 1. 0 Apply for patent
a. Encouraging research in IMC: Patent application by IMC will give an implicit message
to other faculties that IMC is taking forward their efforts. If the patent is granted and
commercialized, financial gains and probable rewards will enhance their motivation.
b. Promoting Siddha: Setting the stage for patent application in the field of Siddha
medicine, will give recognition to Siddha amongst other systems. Validated
experiments of formulations will encourage other medicine systems to consider Siddha
as an alternative in some cases.
c. Financial gain and risk: Though there is a 10% chance of losing INR 25000, the
intangible benefits justify the risk. If the patent will be granted, there are multiple ways
of commercializing and recovering the cost. Refer to Exhibit-I. It is clear that option-1
(One-time license fee) is best suited for commercialization.
Applying for patent may instigate other faculty to demand the same for their research. Given
the benefits and financial gains of patent, some faculty may be more interested in research
than education or medical care. That can disrupt the regular work of IMC. It is also required
by IMC to thoroughly investigate and evaluate the research done by Dr. Ramkumar and to
verify the originality of the research. It shall be verified that the research is done by Dr.
Ramkumar alone, else get letters of no objection from other researchers involved in the
development of the subject formulation.
4. 2. 0 Do not apply for patent
a. Encouraging research in IMC: Turning down the request for patent application will
demotivate group heads, who are interested in commercialization of Siddha. Pace of
research work in IMC may remain same or even reduce.
b. Promoting Siddha: This option will maintain the Status Quo in the propagation of
Siddha. Growth will be at the same rate as it always was.
c. Financial gain and risk: Risk of losing INR 25000 will be avoided. But there is loss of
opportunity to earn by commercialization of the product. Risk of somebody else
patenting the same product and restriction the use by IMC is there.
In future, if another faculty comes up with more valuable product and demand patenting, IMC
will face the same dilemma again. There are considerable chances of that happening since
other faculty are also conducting independent research.
Indian Medicine (Siddha) College, Chennai
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4. 3. 0 Ask Dr. Ramkumar to go ahead with patent application and reimburse the cost if successful.
Commercialization will be done by Dr. Ramkumar.
a. Promoting research in IMC: There will be a mixed reaction to this decision. Some of
the faculty may be motivated by the reward of good work. Others may be disappointed
due risk of losing money in patent application. So researches with less chance of
success, however important they may be, will be slowed down.
b. Promoting Siddha: Commercialization benefit will go to a researcher and hence he will
be more interested in spreading the product, which in turn will spread Siddha.
c. Financial gain and risk: There is no financial gain to IMC in this option. In fact IMC will
be spending INR 25000. But making profit is not a declared mandate of IMC.
In future other faculty may be more interested in doing research than education or medical
care.
4. 4. 0 Defer the decision and refer it to the research committee.
The outcome of this decision shall be more or less similar to that of second option (do not
apply for patent)
5. 0. 0 Recommendation
Based on above evaluation, it is recommended that IMC should apply for patent after
obtaining all the information from Dr. Ramkumar. Referring to the findings in exhibit-1, if the
patent is granted, IMC shall commercialize the product by selling the license to manufacturer
for one-time license fee.
6. 0. 0 Action plan
The details regarding the research shall be obtained from Dr. Ramkumar by organizing a
meeting with him along with all the other experts in IMC. The research committee shall be
involved in the patenting process and verification of research. They shall also be given the
task of verifying the commercial viability of the formulation.

Word Count: 979

Indian Medicine (Siddha) College, Chennai
A way forward to resolving patenting request from faculty Page 7 Ver : 0.0, dated 15-01-2011
7. 0. 0 Exhibits
Exhibit-I : Expected returns from commercialization
Evaluating each Option
Option 1 Option 2 Option 3
One-time
license fee
Sub-contracting the
manufacturing
Royalty on
Gross sales
Staff and Expertise required
for implementation
Low High Moderate
Monitoring performance of
joining pharmaceutical unit
Low High High
Expected Return/NPV (at
10%)
INR 32500 INR 19505 INR 18434