IIT Kharagpur, George Washington University in IPR pact

Bangalore: The George Washington University (GWU) and IIT Kharagpur have signed a technical collaboration agreement today.

Prof Probir K Gupta, dean of the Vinod Gupta School of Management, while signing the TCA on behalf of IIT Kharagpur, along with Dean Frederick Lawrence of GWU Law School, said, "In recent years we have witnessed an increasing convergence between IP law and business. The business school will greatly benefit from the establishment of the law school in IIT Kharagpur."

The Law School of GWU is counted amongst the best in the world and is credited to be the first to commence IP education and practice in the world. IIT Kharagpur has built a formidable brand equity in higher technical education and research in engineering technology the sciences.

It was the first IIT to set up a business school with an endowment from its alumnus Vinod Gupta, who has pledged an endowment of Rs1 million to enable it to set up the first school of intellectual property law in India, which the ministry of human resource development would like it to. The school has been named as the Rajiv Gandhi School of Intellectual Property Law (RGSOIPL).

The school will start its academic courses from the commencement of the current academic year in July 2006. The starting programmes will be a 3-year, 6-semester, full time, residential course leading to a degree in 'bachelor of law in technology and intellectual property law.

It will also offer a one-and-a-half-year, 3-semester, part time, non residential course at Kolkata and Bhubaneshwar leading to a post graduate diploma in intellectual property law.

The eligibility for both the courses are a degree in engineering or technology or a post graduate degree in any branch of science or an MBA. The admission announcement will be made in March 2006.

Later course introductions will include 5-year and 6-year integrated dual degree programmes in engineering or technology along with IP law and MBA and IP law; master of IP law and doctoral (Phd) degree in IP law. A number of short term courses will provide specialised training in IP Law for working executives and law professionals.

Prof Kalyan Chakravarti, the project leader of the task force for the setting up of the school of law, said, "This technical collaboration agreement with GWU in the areas of curricula, syllabus design, faculty training, teaching, research, etc, will help greatly in quickly bringing up the law school of IIT Kharagpur to world class standards".