Assessment of knowledge, attitude and practice regarding intellectual property rights among dental task force attending private dental colleges in Navi Mumbai: a cross-sectional study

Intellectual property rights such as Copyright, Trademark, Patents and Trade secrets etc. help us to gain some protection against certain inventions by acknowledging the founder. In today's industry it is agreed that Intellectual Property Rights has a big role to play. This current study envisages the knowledge, attitude, practice regarding Intellectual Property Rights among dental task force attending private dental colleges.The survey was conducted among students of which were Interns, Post Graduates, faculty members and other dental surgeons attending private dental colleges in Navi Mumbai. The subjects of this study comprised of a total of 1020 students, faculty members and other dental surgeons from five different private dental institutes. The survey includes closed ended questions. Data analysis was performed using SPSS software version 17. Explaining calculations were used to summarize all the answers. A total of 889 students, faculty and other dental surgeons from private dental colleges responded. Results showed that about 83.5% believe the statement “Articles and other publications are protected by copyright.” 66.6% of participants would select trademark in order to protect their clinic or organization name. About 38.7% were aware of the term Intellectual Property Rights. It also suggests that only 10.9% have attended any seminar/conference pertaining to IPR. The students and faculty members have an overall sense of eagerness to learn and gain more knowledge based on IPR. Thus conducting more workshops and seminars based on IPR should be encouraged.