Nalsar, Microsoft sign MoU for IPR scholarship programme

The National Academy of Legal Studies and Research (Nalsar) University of Law, Hyderabad, has signed a three-year MoU with Microsoft Corporation India Pvt Ltd to implement a scholarship programme.

Under the Microsoft Intellectual Property Scholarship Programme, three students from the final year batch of BA, BL (Hons) programme at Nalsar will be selected to undertake fundamental research and author papers on issues related to intellectual property rights (IPRs). Research scholarships will be provided by Microsoft to the students for this purpose.

At the MoU signing event, Bradford L Smith, senior vice-president, general counsel and corporate secretary, law and corporate affairs, Microsoft Corporation India, said, "Everywhere people are talking about India and its opportunities. India needs to convert all the IQ that it has into IP so that not just services but even products are exported. Therein lies a great opportunity for not only scientists and engineers but also lawyers in India."

On the software piracy rate, Smith said that in Singapore it is 42 per cent, in Japan it is 28 per cent, in the US it is 21 per cent, and in India it is 73 per cent.

"To tackle this challenge, we are not only trying to make our software affordable and easily available but are also working with the National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom) on promoting broad education on IP laws," he said.

Smith added that he would also like to see an expansion in the judicial capacity in India.

"While India has 13 judges for a million people, the US has 102," he said. Microsoft has 350 in-house lawyers and is looking at ramping up the number. The company also works with around 400 law firms across the globe.

In India, it has three lawyers working on anti-piracy issues. On the issue of open source software versus proprietary software, Smith said that both of these are here to stay.

Ranbir Singh, vice-chancellor of Nalsar University, said that Nalsar will be shortly establishing the National Institute of Cyber Law Advocacy and Research.