Covering Patent Infringement Risks in Technology Transfer Agreements

A clear trend is visible in industry-institute co-operation in India. They are on the upswing. A good number of them end up with transfer of technology from lab to industry. Technology transferred may be patented by the lab or not, but in all cases the lab is required to take the responsibility for any patent infringement liability. No lab would willfully sell another's patented technology as their technology, but in the era of submarine patents and software backed patenting strategies, the risk of infringement is real. How prepared are we? How far away is the 1st suit against our lab? Considering the amounts decided by the US courts, even a small (by US standards) penalty could financially cripple an average Indian R&D institute. This article analyses the emerging scenario; closing gaps between Indian lab transactions and state-of-art, liberal interpretation of patent infringements by US courts, aggressive patenting strategies of MNCs, globalisation of operations by Indian licensee's and advocates a mechanism to convert uncertainty into risk and covering of risk with insurance