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Intellectual property rights and informal sector innovations: Exploring grassroots innovations in India
Author(s) -
Sharma Gautam,
Kumar Hemant
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
the journal of world intellectual property
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.334
H-Index - 8
eISSN - 1747-1796
pISSN - 1422-2213
DOI - 10.1111/jwip.12097
Subject(s) - grassroots , intellectual property , incentive , informal sector , business , curiosity , public relations , marketing , economic growth , economics , political science , market economy , psychology , law , social psychology , politics
The primary driver for innovations in the formal sector is credited to the institution of patenting. Intellectual property rights (IPRs) as the extrinsic motivational factor have supported innovations by firms and industries which have a large market and resources to commercialise their products. Grassroots innovations, on the other hand, represent a culture of individual innovators outside formal sector who innovate out of adversity, curiosity and needs. Most of the innovators have cited intrinsic motivation behind the innovation and are unaware of IPR. However, there is a paucity of literature on the relation between IPR and innovations in the informal sector. Drawing on the literature on IPR and innovations in the formal sector, we examine whether the same theories and rationales apply to a different nature of innovations in the informal sector. This is an exploratory study and to map the current scenario of patenting for grassroots innovations secondary data were collected from the National Innovation Foundation (NIF) website. To understand the innovators’ perception, we interviewed them through various means and on different sites. The study finds that although there was no initial intention to innovate for extrinsic incentives like patenting, there is an increasing trend in filing patents for grassroots innovations by the NIF in India.