India has been edge for the offshore outsourcing of the IT, financial services, business process outsourcing (BPO), because low cost manpower with higher education, neutral accent English speaking capability. In spite of these the India is emerging as new hub for KPO (knowledge process outsourcing), having large pool of knowledge workers in various sector. The India has been ranked the most preferred KPO destination.

KPO deals with executing standardized processes, involves higher-end services which require advanced analytical and technical skills. knowledge process outsourcing involves Legal works carried out at law firms like patent document writing, global filing, search, trademark search, trademark registration, prior art searches, legal advise on infringements, invalidation search, freedom of use search, etc. The prior art search for a patent, drafting and filing of patent in the US is very expensive. According to a recent study by researchers at the University of California at Berkeley, legal assistants and paralegals working in India on behalf of U.S. law firms earn, on average, between $6 and $8 per hour. That's about one-third of what their counterparts in the United States are paid.

According to a report by GlobalSourcingNow, the Global Knowledge Process Outsourcing industry (KPO) is expected to reach USD 17 billion by 2010, of which USD 12 billion would be outsourced to India. In addition, the Indian KPO sector is also expected to employ more than 250,000 KPO professionals by 2010, compared with the current figure of 25,000 employees. A report by Evalueserve predicts that India will capture more than 70 percent of the KPO sector by 2010. Apart from India, countries such as Russia, China, the Czech Republic, Ireland, and Israel are also expected to join the KPO industry.

The competitiveness of the market demands that trailblazing entrepreneurs protect their innovations in order to profit from them, the KPO is becoming the high valuable interests of companies for their business strategies and protection of intellectual property rights. Some of the challenges involved in KPO will be maintaining higher quality standards, investment in KPO infrastructure, the lack of talent pool, requirement of higher level of control, confidentiality and enhanced risk management.

More than half a dozen companies in India have also set up facilities to provide IPR-related services. These include SciTech Patent Art Services, IP Matrix, Patent Matrix, Evalueserve.

Ramesh Verma
Knowledge Scientist
Scitech Patent-art, Hyderabad
vermaramesh@gmail.com