IIT

New Delhi, Mar 4 (UNI) Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur and Vinod Gupta, CEO of InfoUSA today signed the agreement for setting up the country's first School of Intellectual Property Law.

The school, named Rajiv Gandhi School of Intellectual Property Law (RGSOIPL), will fulfill the immediate need for a large number of Indian lawyers well-versed in Intellectual Property Law (IPL).

The school will receive a donation of the value of 1 million dollars from Vinod Gupta, to build the initial infrastructure of the school. The academic programmes will start from the academic year of IIT Kharagpur commencing in July 2006. The project, including buildings, classrooms, laboratories, library and moot court would be completed by next year-end.

Professor Shishir K Dube, Director of IIT Kharagpur, said "it is a very welcome step to locate the first School of IPL at IIT Kharagpur, which is a powerhouse for generation of intellectual property and is in close proximity with the headquarters of the Indian Patent Office at Kolkata.'' The services of lawyers specialising in Intellectual Property are needed to protect the vital intellectual property being generated by Indian scientists, engineers and technologists in the sunrise sectors of industry, such as biotechnology, nano-technology, bio-informatics, information technology and computer software, a release of IIT Kharagpur, said.

In view of this, Vinod Gupta's proposal has been accepted by the Ministry of Human Resource Development and IIT Kharagpur to commission this specialised Law School, which will be an integral part of IIT Kharagpur, on a fast track basis.

Vinod Gupta, an alumuni of IIT and life fellow of IIT Kharagpur, set up the Vinod Gupta School of Management (VGSOM) School of Business Management in IIT Kharagpur in 1991. He made an endowment of 2.0 million dollars and the School started functioning in IIT Kharagpur from 1993. Today, VGSOM of IIT Kharagpur, is among the top business management schools of the country.

''An agreement with George Washington University will quickly place RGSOIPL within the top Law Schools of Intellectual Property Law in the world'' Prof Dube added.

UNI ARB SD RK2005