Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and Tamil Nadu State Council for Science and Technology (TNSCST) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to protect academic and industrial bio-medical research and development projects through intellectual property filings and patent.

Under the agreement, ICMR and TNSCST would jointly protect the exclusive rights of biomedical innovations originating from academic institutions and initiate seamless technology transfer, a press release stated. They would jointly facilitate the process of intellectual property rights filing related to biomedical innovations covering patentability search reports and patent drafting and filing through the Medical Innovations Patent Mitra initiative of ICMR. They would also collaborate to connect inventors with potential investors to enable effective technology transfer and commercialisation of biomedical patents.

The MoU was signed by S. Vincent, Member Secretary, TNSCST, and Rajiv Bahl, Secretary, Department of Health Research, and Director General, ICMR.