» Intellectual Property Management

About

The Foundation for Innovation and Technology Transfer (FITT) is responsible for managing the Intellectual Property operations at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IITD). FITT receives information, conducts analysis and due diligence, and processes the invention disclosures for formal IP registration. FITT is responsible for overseeing the entire process, although the actual filings, prosecution, and further processing of the IP application are outsourced to professional IP law firms. The entire process is carried out in accordance with the formal IP registration protocols established by IIT Delhi.

Types of Intellectual Property

All Intellectual Property(IP) generated at IIT Delhi can be protected in the form of patents, copyrights, designs, and trademarks. Each of these differs from one another on the basis of scope of protection.

Patent

Patent is a right conferred by the Government of a Country for an invention to an inventor to exclude all others from making, using, or selling the invention within the territories of the Country, for a period of 20 years from the date of filing the patent application.

Trademark

A trademark is a word, name, symbol or device or any combination used by an organization or person to identify and distinguish its products from products of others. A trademark has a term of 10 years and is renewable

Copyright

Copyright is an exclusive right given to the creator to reproduce the work, prepare derivative works, distribute by sale or otherwise, and display or perform the work publicly.

Design

An industrial design focuses solely on the visual aspects of shape, configuration, pattern, ornamentation, or color applied to any article, irrespective of dimensionality or production method, judged solely by visual appeal, excluding construction principles, mechanical devices, and trademarks.

	PATENT	TRADEMARK	COPYRIGHT	DESIGN
Protects	Technology, product or process or both	Logo, phrase	Literary work, software	Aesthetic look of product
Criteria	Novel, non-obvious & industrial application	Distinctive and non-deceptive	Original	New & original
Term	20 Years	10 Years	AGE + 50/60 Years	10 Years +5 Years

Roles of IP Management Team at FITT

The IP management team at FITT oversees and administers the entire process of managing intellectual property rights (IPR).

General Information

Any information provided regarding IP filing will be kept confidential.
It is not advisable to disclose or publish your invention before filing the patent application, as your paper or other invention-related display can serve as a “prior art” for the invention.
IIT Delhi associated inventors include faculty members, staff, visiting faculty, and students. IITD holds the sole ownership of any/all IP generated by the Faculty, students, and Staff unless agreed upon in a separate agreement. The creators of the invention will be acknowledged as the inventors in the IP.
The IIT Delhi faculty member is the Principal Investigator (PI) and primary point of contact for FITT. In case of more than one faculty member, a primary point of contact may be designated for communication with the FITT Team.
An expert committee will review and evaluate all foreign IP filings, including PCTs and convention filings, in accordance with the IPR norms of the Institute.

IP filing procedure for IIT Delhi

Invention Disclosure Forms

The IDF is not a legal document, nor does it accord protection to the invention unless filed with the concerned patent office. To initiate the process of IP filing through FITT, fill out the Invention Disclosure Form (IDF) and mail it to iprfittteam@gmail.com.

All inventors must sign the complete forms along with the supporting documents. Incomplete forms or forms without signatures will not be processed. Inventors associated with institutions other than IIT Delhi must provide the required NOC/MOU documents along with the IDF form

FITT aims to use the information disclosed in IDF to evaluate the patentability and potential of the invention. Thus, a complete and detailed disclosure will assist the IP team in proper and quicker assessment.

Links for the IDFs

In case, the IP has been filed without FITT’s involvement (directly by the faculty member or by associated organizations), the information for the same has to be provided for Institute records at iprfittteam@gmail.com

IPR Filed directly by Faculty

XLSCOUT IP SOFTWARE

FITT had a subscription for XLSCOUT IP SOFTWARE since 2023 to assist in patent and non-patent searching and analytics. Members of the IIT Delhi (Faculty, Students, and Staff) can take advantage of this tool to conduct prior art searches, understand competitive technologies, appreciate the novelty of inventions as well as explore white spaces in the technology domain.

How to access the XL SCOUT tool?

Visit the XL Scout website through this link https://next.xlscout.ai/
The tool can be accessed using Institute login IDs. It is OTP-based for a limited period and a limited number of simultaneous logins.

The detailed user manuals to understand the assessment flow for each module are available at the Manual Link. We will also be organizing sessions on how to use the platform for interested members.

Intellectual Property Management