New Delhi (PTI): The new bill proposing a share for scientists in Intellectual Property Rights of study they conduct in state-run laboratories has acquired legal teeth to check possible fraud by researchers.

The Law Ministry has suggested addition of certain penal clauses to the Public Funded R&D (Protection, Utilisation and Regulation of Intellectual Property) Bill - 2007 which is expected to empower state-funded institutions to commercialise their research.

"The original bill did not contain any penal clauses which prompted the Law Ministry to suggest incorporation of such measures to the draft bill," official sources said.

The law would be "infructuous" without any penal clauses, was the opinion of the Law Ministry, they said.

Modelled on the Bayh-Dole Act of the US, the draft bill is being piloted by the Department of Biotechnology in the Ministry of Science and Technology.

It seeks to encourage public sector research organisations to patent their inventions and offer them to the industry for commercialisation on a revenue-sharing basis.

The bill proposes to share 30 per cent of the revenue from the use of the innovation with the inventor and 10 per cent for the research lab to upgrade infrastructure.