SVKM
The Shri Vile Parle Kelavani Mandal- SVKM to thousands of alumni- epitomises the new progressively widening horizons. Established in 1934, the Trust has achieved excellence in the field of education and has established over 22 educational institutions/ colleges in Mumbai covering various streams of Arts, Science, Commerce, Law, Management etc with student strength of over 28,000 students each year. Based on a solid foundation, the Trust continues to act as a catalyst in providing education relevant to the "new economic age" scenario.

The Establishment of the WTO in 1995 has led to a major metamorphosis for global trade in the new millennium. The WTO is bringing about sweeping changes in both composition and complexity of international trade and development. There is visible global inter-dependency for establishing trade links and creating a strong web of global integration.

Intellectual Property is one of the most important aspects of the WTO regime and it has far reaching implications. Agreement on Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights - better known as TRIP's- to which India is a signatory, is an integral part of WTO and it will have an enormous impact on Indian business and trade partnerships.

The need for awareness of Patent Law
While India has entered the global patent regime, awareness and expertise on the subject of IPR in India is still highly inadequate. Present skills do not extend towards protecting indigenous inventions or understanding the implications of patents granted to competitors. Further, the ability to read or write patents is grossly lacking when viewed in the context of global practices. Indian industry and businessmen cannot afford to be indifferent to these new requirements. India's knowledge-based industries will be looking at filing international patents and their skills in filing, reading and exploring patents will be very crucial in the years to come.

In consonance with its tradition of keeping pace with the changing times SVKM recognised this and set up the Institute of Intellectual Property Studies in Mumbai.

The Institute
The Institute was set up with the objective of developing programmes in various forms of Intellectual Property Rights: Trademarks, Copyrights, Designs and the like. It presently offers a Post Graduate Diploma in Patent Law and Practice and a Certificate Course in Intellectual Property. The Diploma is a one-year, weekend program while the Certificate Course is of four months duration. The faculty comprises of eminent patent experts, lawyers, patent agents and consultants wherein the experts from various specialisations conduct interactive classroom sessions based on case studies.

With this program we commit ourselves to catering to the country's needs by training prospective patent lawyers, agents, managers, consultants and experts to industry and government who will make India a worthy member of the global patent regime.

Shri Amrish R. Patel
President, SVKM