: Nearly 45,000 patent applications are filed in India in a year; of them, 17,000 are filed from Chennai, said R.Devan, Deputy Controller of Patents and Designs, Patents Office, Chennai here on Wednesday.

Inaugurating a workshop on Patents and Designs organised by University Business Collaboration Centre and Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotions, Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Mr. Devan said ever since the Patents Act and Rules came into existence in 1970, 2,16,000 patent applications have been filed in India. The Act was amended in 2005.

Many patents were from the field of computer science and engineering. However, more awareness should be created among people, particularly researchers regarding the need to file patent applications. Patent was given to a technical invention or a technical solution to a problem. Those who want to patent their products or inventions should do a patent search first to know whether or not any product or invention like it had been patented, he said.

Gopinath Ganapathy, Coordinator, University Business Collaboration Centre, Bharathidasan University, presided.

M. Ravichandran, Registrar of the university, spoke.