Not long ago, ICRISAT signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) with the European Patent Office (EPO) based in the Hague, Netherlands. This MoA enables ICRISAT to disseminate knowledge of its research products in the EPO’s Non-Patent Literature (NPL), which is in line with ICRISAT’s strategy of making its intellectual property rights (IPRs) “prior art”, approved by its Governing Board in September 2004 (“prior art” is the legal term used for all previous inventions in the field of an invention for which a patent is being sought. Prior art is used by the Patent Office to decide whether the invention is sufficiently unique and nonintuitive to qualify for patent protection).

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based in the Hague, Netherlands. This MoA enables ICRISAT to disseminate knowledge of its research
intellectual property rights (IPRs) “prior art”, approved by its Governing Board in September 2004 (“prior
intuitive to qualify for patent protection).
In line with its
commitment to deliver
international public
goods to its stakeholders,
ICRISAT effectively
manages its intellectual
property rights on
research products by
placing them in the public
domain and making them
prior art, thus preventing
others from infringing on
publishing is carried out
and/or conference
papers in internationally
are several publications
(both external and
internal) that ICRISAT
produces, such as
Technical Reports, Annual
on a trial basis in January 2006 for evaluation, which were successfully downloaded by the EPO and included
which paved the way for periodical sharing in future.
When this development was shared with CGIAR donor representatives from the EC, Belgium and Ireland in
informal presentations on ICRISAT activities by Dr Dyno Keatinge (DDG Research) in July 2006, it resulted in
favourable comment from the donors – it was seen as a cost-effective and innovative way for a member of
the Alliance of CGIAR centers to help protect their IPRs.
ICRISAT is grateful to Dr Victoria Henson-Apollonio of the CGIAR Central Advisory Service (CAS) who
Working Methods at the EPO” in April 2005, which laid the foundation for this historical collaboration.
Protecting our Research Products