TPCI Flagship Conference

India IP Advantage Summit 2026

Turning Innovation into Business Advantage

Thursday, 6 August 2026 • New Delhi • Trade Promotion Council of India

About the Conference

From Make in India to Own in India

India’s patent filings have surged — yet the economic value captured from those filings remains thin. The next leap in India’s growth story is not just about manufacturing capacity, but about who owns the technology, the design, and the brand.

The India IP Advantage Summit 2026, organised by the Trade Promotion Council of India (TPCI) — India’s apex trade promotion body under the Foreign Trade Policy, notified by the Department of Commerce — brings together policymakers, industry leaders, innovators, legal experts, and creative economy professionals to ask a single, urgent question: is India’s IP infrastructure moving fast enough to match its innovation ambitions?

Across a plenary session and four parallel programme blocks, the summit examines enforcement, commercialisation, AI-era authorship, IP-backed financing, sovereign IP in defence and space, and the ownership crisis in India’s creative and knowledge economy. It is a forum for those who build, protect, and monetise intellectual assets — and for those who set the policy conditions that determine whether India captures the value it creates.

Objectives

What the summit focuses on

• Sharpen the IP ownership agenda: Move India’s IP conversation from filing volumes to value capture, commercialisation, and economic impact.
• Bridge policy and practice: Enable direct dialogue between policymakers, legal experts, and industry on enforcement gaps and reform priorities.
• Unlock IP as a commercial asset: Illuminate pathways for licensing, IP-backed finance, patent collateralisation, and technology transfer.
• Address the AI and digital IP crisis: Examine emerging questions around AI inventorship, software ownership, data rights, and the Trade Secrets Bill.
• Strengthen sovereign and strategic IP: Explore IP in defence, aerospace, and space — where IP is not just commercial but a national capability question.
• Build a sustained IP leadership community: Bring together innovators, creators, legal minds, investors, and policymakers needed to build a strong, self-sustaining IP ecosystem in India.

Who Should Attend

This summit is designed for

• Senior executives from IP-intensive sectors — pharma, biotech, defence, manufacturing, IT, and media.
• Deep-tech and startup founders navigating IP strategy, fundraising, and M&A.
• IP attorneys, patent agents, and licensing specialists.
• Technology transfer offices and academic research commercialisation teams.
• Senior government officials and policymakers overseeing IP, innovation, and trade.
• Investors, PE/VC funds, and IP-backed financing institutions.
• Entertainment, music, publishing, EdTech, and digital content industry leaders.
• Defence and aerospace ecosystem players — PSUs, iDEX startups, and DRDO technology transfer recipients.
• Semiconductor, EV, green hydrogen, and industrial design innovators.
• Trade bodies, industry associations, and IP policy think-tanks.
• MSMEs & business owners seeking to protect their brand, product, and process innovations.

Speaker Categories

Voices that shape the conversation

• Government & policy leaders: Senior officials and policymakers from government bodies overseeing IP, innovation, trade, and technology.
• Corporate IP chiefs: Chief IP officers, heads of R&D, and technology licensing heads from large industry.
• IP law practitioners: Leading IP attorneys, patent agents, and trade secrets specialists.
• Deep-tech & startup founders: AI, biotech, defence-tech, and semiconductor founders with live IP challenges.
• Academic & research leaders: Technology transfer experts, IP economists, and academic publishing reform advocates.
• Defence & space innovators: Defence ecosystem leaders on sovereign IP and classified contracts.
• Creative & entertainment industry voices: Film, music, OTT, EdTech, advertising, and design economy leaders.
• Investment & finance experts: IP valuation specialists, PE/VC investors, and patent-backed financing institutions.

Key Areas of Discussion

What the programme covers

Opening Plenary — From Make in India to Own in India

Keynote address and moderated panel examining whether India’s IP infrastructure is moving fast enough to match its innovation ambitions — covering enforcement, commercialisation, AI-era authorship, and the link between IP ownership and investment climate.

Track I — Industrial Innovation Economy

• I-1 | Life, Science & the Patent: From biosimilars and CRISPR therapeutics to AI-driven drug discovery — examining whether India’s patent framework is fit to support the move from generic manufacturer to innovation originator.
• I-2 | The Frontier of Ownership: AI inventorship, quantum computing patents, trade secrets vs. patents, and IP as financial collateral — exploring IP strategy where the playbook for deep-tech startups is still being written.
• I-3 | Classified, Sovereign & Strategic: IP in defence, aerospace, and space — DRDO technology transfer, iDEX startups under classified contracts, and the legal vacuum around space IP as India’s commercial space sector accelerates.
• I-4 | The Future Factory: Semiconductor circuit layout rights, EV battery and green hydrogen IP, industrial design protection, and chip design rights — turning India’s manufacturing ambition into durable IP ownership.

Track S — Creative & Knowledge Economy

• S-1 | Code, Data & the Algorithm: Software ownership, AI copyright, Draft CRI Guidelines 2025, the ANI vs. OpenAI case, and the Trade Secrets Bill — mapping the IP ownership crisis at the heart of India’s IT sector.
• S-2 | The Price of Knowledge: Who owns the lecture, the research paper, the AI-revised curriculum? EdTech content rights, Section 52 digital fair dealing, academic publishing reform, and the collapse of authorship in AI-generated education.
• S-3 | Streams, Screens & Stolen Voices: Section 31D’s inapplicability to OTT streaming, AI voice cloning without consent, sports media rights, and the IP frontier of India’s most culturally visible industries.
• S-4 | The Business of Aesthetics: Architect moral rights, AI-generated building designs, deepfake endorsements, and the IP of advertising and design — protecting India’s aesthetic economy.

Practitioner Briefs: Each parallel block includes focused 20-minute practitioner briefs on patent landscape intelligence, IP as capital in industrial M&A, digital asset IP valuation, and trade secrets governance — practical, applied, and directly relevant to IP decision-makers.

Key Takeaways

What delegates will take home

• A clear read on India’s IP policy direction: Where enforcement, reform, and India’s position in global IP norm-setting are heading — from the officials shaping it.
• Strategies for IP-led competitive advantage: How to build, protect, license, and finance IP assets across pharma, deep-tech, manufacturing, defence, and creative industries.
• Clarity on AI and emerging IP frontiers: Practical guidance on AI inventorship, software ownership, data rights, and the implications of India’s Draft CRI Guidelines and Trade Secrets Bill.
• A framework for sovereign and strategic IP: How defence, space, and semiconductor IP works differently — and what India’s industrial players need to know about classified contracts and technology transfer.
• IP valuation and finance tools: How patents are used as collateral, how IP portfolios are evaluated in M&A, and how to structure licensing for commercial scale.
• A high-value network of IP peers: Direct connections with policymakers, legal experts, innovators, investors, and creative industry leaders — all in one room.
• Actionable policy inputs: Structured outcomes and recommendations that inform India’s IP policy agenda going forward.

Contact Information

For speaker opportunities, delegate registrations & and sponsorship opportunities, contact:

Virat Bahri,
Joint Director — Trade Promotion Council of India
Ph: +91 9667182697
Email: virat.bahri@tpci.in
Website: www.tpci.in