Bangalore: IT consulting and services major Infosys Technologies Limited believes that the value of its corporate brand "Infosys" has gone up by more than Rs 1,880 crore in a year.

The Bangalore-headquartered, NASDAQ-listed company says while it had a market capitalisation of Rs 24,654 crore as on March 31, 2002, the value of "Infosys" brand alone is estimated at Rs 7,256.80 crore.

"The corresponding figures for market capitalisation and brand value of Infosys as on March 31, 2001 and March 31, 2000 were Rs 26,926 crore and Rs 5,376 crore, and Rs 59,338 crore and Rs 5,246 crore respectively," according to the company's 2001-02 annual report.

The Infosys management has adopted the generic "brand-earnings-multiple" model (given in the article on "Valuation of Trademarks and Brand Names" by Michael Birkin in the book "Brand Valuation", edited by John Murphy) to value its corporate brand.

Meanwhile, Infosys said it has obtained registration of "INFOSYS" as a trademark in India and in the United States.

It noted that the laws of India do not protect intellectual property rights (IPR) to the same extent as laws in the US and pointed out India does not grant patents for software applications or products.

"In the future, litigation may be necessary to enforce our intellectual property rights or to determine the validity and scope of the proprietary rights of others," the company observed. "Any such litigation could be time- consuming and costly."

On recruitment, Infosys said during 2001-02, it received 193,640 applications, interviewed 6,730 applicants and extended job offers to 1,710, of whom 1,550 accepted.

PTI