india ip & innovation forum 2013india ip & innovation forum 2013 managing ip 2 speaker...

India IP & Innovation Forum 2013 Managing IP

1 Speaker profiles

Keynote speaker


2 Speaker profiles

Justice Prabha Sridevan, IP Appellate Board

Justice Sridevan elevated as Judge of the Madras High Court on 2nd

March 2000 and retired on 8TH

August, 2010.

She was appointed in 2011 as Chairman, Intellectual Property Appellate Board, having jurisdiction all

over India in regard to Intellectual Property disputes (Patents Trademarks and Geographical

Indications).

Justice Sridevan’s is a High Court Judge and her judgments include cases dealing with child rights. illegal executive detention

orders, gender equality, disability rights, protection of water bodies and environment, rights of the depressed classes, regulation

of mining and sand quarrying, right to education, right to information, protection of heritage buildings and worth of the

homemaker’s work.

Her other judgments as Chairman IPAB include decisions on Business Method Patents, Locus standi of an NGO in patent matters;

the duty of truth with regard to trademark user; compulsory licenses; the duty of disclosure in Patent matters; divisional

applications – procedure and GI registration –procedure.

Justice Sridevan has written on gender issues and human rights of the different marginalized groups of people.

She is also a resource person at the National Judicial Academy, Bhopal on gender, poverty, social exclusion etc.


3 Speaker profiles

Tarbez Ahmad, Manufacturers’ Association for Information Technology (MAIT)

Attorney & Director IP Policy, Microsoft Corporation & Chairman IPR Committee, Manufacturers’

Association for Information Technology (MAIT).

Tabrez Ahmad has over 20 years of diverse experience in law, business and public policy in India

and abroad. Currently, he is responsible for IPR programs for subsidiary revenue and wider public

policy issues. He champions policies on intellectual property, technology, competition and standards.

During his stay at FICCI, he headed the IT, Telecom, Electronic Hardware, E-Business & BISNET departments and contributed to

policy making/enactment process including IT Act, National telecom policy, Innovation policy, Data protection and privacy, Number

portability, Double taxation treaties, Withholding tax and Intellectual Property laws.

Tabrez also led CEO delegations to Japan, ASEAN countries, Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi, Oman, Kuwait, Latvia, UK,

Germany, France and Sweden with federal ministers to promote Indian industries.

He taught online brand and intellectual property management at Indian Institute of Foreign Trade and Indian Institute of

Information Technology-Allahabad. He also did research assignment with the prestigious IP division of the George Washington

University in US.

Tabrez has completed MCA, MBA and LLM from premier universities in India and America.


4 Speaker profiles

Speakers

Pravin Anand, Anand and Anand

Pravin completed his law studies in New Delhi in 1979 and since then has been practising as an

advocate and a patent and trademark attorney. He has been a counsel in several landmark IP cases

involving the first Anton Piller Order (HMV cases); the first Mareva Injunction Order (Philips case); the

first Norwich Pharmacal Order (Hollywood Cigarettes case); right of privacy (Bandit Queen case);

dilution in trademarks (Glenfiddich case); recognition of market survey evidence by judiciary (Time

Warner case); domain names (Yahoo! case); punitive and exemplary damages (Time magazine) phishing (NASSCOM); the

compulsory licensing cases filed against Pfizer and Roche under the Doha Declaration.

He is the chairman of the IPR promotion advisory committee (IPAC), constituted by the government of India, and the IT committee

set up by FICCI, and the past president of the Asian Patent Attorneys Association(APAA India). He was director on the board of

INTA from 2006 to 2008 and is currently president of the AIPPI (Indian group). He has appeared as an expert witness before

parliamentary committees to give evidence on amendments to trademark, patent and copyright laws. Recently he has been

appointed as one of the vice presidents of The Society of Indian Law Firms.

Pravin is a co-author of the two volumes of Halsbury's Laws of India on Intellectual Property and serves on the editorial board of

several international IP journals including IP Asia, Entertainment Law Review and Computer & Telecommunications Law Review.

He has spoken extensively at various forums including WIPO, AIPPI, INTA, LES, IBA, LAW ASIA and the UN Conference on LDCs

in the Digital World. He has served on several international and national expert groups and committees, including the patent law

drafting committee for revising and recommending changes to law.

Pravin is ranked amongst the top ten Patent Law Legal Experts in India Legal Expert Guide; ranked under the Gold Category- IAM

Patents 1000; The only Indian lawyer to feature under the Patent Law category in The Best of the Best 2012; ranked under the

Gold category by WTR1000; ranked as a Band 1 Lawyer- Chambers and Partners (Asia-Pacific) 2012; ILO Client Choice Award

2012.


5 Speaker profiles

Harsh Arora, Perfetti Van Melle India

Mr. Harsh Arora is an alumni of Shriram College of Commerce. A qualified Chartered Accountant,

Company Secretary and a law graduate from Delhi University. He is engaged with Perfetti Van Melle

India, a subsidiary of Perfetti Van Melle S.p.A., Itay, as an Executive Director on the Board of the

company. As a functional Director, Mr. Harsh Arora is responsible for ensuring compliance to all

external laws and regulations and internal policies and procedures.

He has a wide experience of working with the Corporate Sector. He is also a Director on the Board of other companies of the

‘Perfetti Group’.

Presently, Mr. Arora is also the President of “Indian Confectionery Manufacturers’ Association” (ICMA), New Delhi, which has all

major confectionery manufacturers as its members.

Being engaged in an FMCG company, he has witnessed onslaught of counterfeit activities of their well-known brands; Center

fresh, Big Babol, Alpenliebe, Mentos, Chlor.mint and others. With conscious knowledge that brand building is a global exercise,

curbing the menace of such counterfeiting activities has been at the forefront of the group. Resultantly, the company saw much

reduction in these counterfeits. He brings rich experience of strategizing to check such fake FMCG products.

Mohamed Aslam, Havells India

Mohamed Aslam was called to the Bar of the Madras High Court in 1984 and was also the senior

consulting advocate for top IP practice DePenning. After several years of practise he ventured into the

corporate world with Eagle Flask.

His main area of specialisation is to incubate systems and processes in the corporate legal departments and transform them into

inhouse counselling and advisory centres. He has successfully done so in many companies like Burroughs Wellcome, Asian

Paints, Castrol India, Godrej, ITC and Havells, market leaders in their respective industries. A special area of Aslam’s expertise

has been to install comprehensive Brand Development and IP Protection measures by knitting together the R&D Marketing and

Sales efforts of companies with the incubated IP teams of inhouse and external lawyers spanning several countries.

Aslam has for the past several years been engaged in the emerging IP area of taxation of intangible fixed assets and its

implications on licensing. His experience with a Chartered Accountancy firm in the past and with the strong legal skills of ITC in

indirect taxation stand him in good stead in his current interest of blending taxation and IP. He has developed models to avoid

service tax and stamp duties on licencing and mergers.


6 Speaker profiles

Currently Aslam is the Legal Advisor for Havells India Ltd and advises this group on harmonising and synergising their global IP

work. Aslam has specific expertise in dealing IP issues in emerging markets and production bases in China for brands owned by

companies in developed economies and in India.

Aslam is married to a Retail Professional, Tara. They have 2 daughters in school. Aslam aspires to research law and play an

advisorial role for companies eventually from Chennai where his family has extensive business and educational interests.

Arvind Chopra, Eurpoean Business & Technology Centre India

Head-IPR at European Business and Technology Centre (EBTC), Arvind is involved in managing all

aspects of Intellectual Property (IP) for European SME’s interested in bringing clean and green

technologies to India. At EBTC, he is engaged in technology commercialization projects related to

EBTC’s core sectors of focus - energy, transport, environment, and biotechnology,. He also runs EBTC’s

IPR-India helpdesk to facilitate and guide European SMEs for IPR related activities in India.

Arvind has rich, hands-on experience in all aspects of IP, with a complete 360 degree exposure to IP asset management. With

experience spanning 10 years, he was worked on search and analytics, IP portfolio management, IP strategy, innovation

management, technology commercialization, IP licensing, prosecution strategy for patents, creation of patent families for

technology picket fencing.

Matthias Geitz, Loth & Spuhler

Matthias holds a degree in law from University of Würzburg, Germany, and has practical working

experience in Australia and Japan. He has also worked as an industrial electronics technician with

Robert Bosch GmbH.

His strength lies in trademark and industrial design prosecution and litigation as well as in infringement

disputes regarding domain names and other signs, copyright and unfair competition. In addition, he

specializes particularly in licensing and software agreements.

His clients include both domestic and foreign companies for which he undertakes a wide range of intellectual property work. He

also has significant experience advising these companies in strategizing their intellectual property.


7 Speaker profiles


8 Speaker profiles


9 Speaker profiles

Rajeev Gupta, Finnegan

Rajeev Gupta, a partner with Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner, LLP, focuses his

practice on patent litigation in the U.S. district courts and the U.S. International Trade Commission

(ITC), strategic patent prosecution, and client counseling. He has considerable experience in

telecommunications, optics, semiconductors, and in areas pertaining to fabrication and characterization

of nanodevices. His nanodevice experience includes physics of nanomaterials, laser manipulation of

atoms, high-resolution optical Fourier transform spectroscopy of nanomaterials, quantum computing,

quantum devices, and use of synchrotron radiation and other vacuum ultraviolet sources for characterization of materials and

detectors for microlithography.

Dr. Gupta has broad experience in all aspects of patent litigation, including examining and cross-examining fact and expert

witnesses at trial, taking and defending depositions, and managing day-to-day litigation activities. He has tried cases before

administrative law judges at the ITC.

In addition to his litigation practice, Dr. Gupta advises clients on a wide variety of patent matters, including licensing and strategic

prosecution matters.

Prior to joining Finnegan Dr. Gupta served as a staff scientist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, where his

research activities covered a wide array of topics, including, nanofabrication of one and two dimensional magnetic and non-

magnetic arrays; microlithography with the use of excimer lasers and radiation from synchrotron sources; development of deep

ultraviolet optical sensors; and high accuracy characterization of optical materials for optical microlithography.

Vaibhav Khanna, Moserbaer

Shukadev Khuraijam, Remfry & Sagar

As a patent attorney, Mr. Khuraijam has an all round and in-depth experience of around 9 years in

various facets of patent practice- prosecution, opposition and litigation. He is well nuanced in the

intricacies of the Indian Patent law and regularly advises a diverse clientele across varied areas of

the profession-prosecution & opposition practice, appeals, patentability opinions, freedom to operate

opinions, interpretation of Indian Patent law, litigation strategy etc. He has diligently prosecuted

hundreds of patent applications to successful grants before the Indian Patent Office and has

represented various pharma companies in numerous opposition proceedings before the same forum.

Mr. Khuraijam has handled high profile contentious matters before various forums including the Intellectual Property Appellate

Board, High Courts and Supreme Court. Mr. Khuraijam is also well versed in Design law and has overseen many invalidation and

infringement proceedings before the Design Office and the Courts.


10 Speaker profiles


11 Speaker profiles

R. Lakshminarayanan, Samsung India

Mr. R. Lakshminarayanan heads the IPR Dept. of Samsung India Software Operations at Bangalore,

and is responsible for creating IPR vision, strategy and achievement of IPR goals for Samsung in

India. Mr. Lakshmi manages a portfolio of over 1000 patents in the area of Mobile software, printers

and memory at Samsung.

Prior to joining Samsung, Lakshmi has held various positions in the IPR Departments of multinational companies such as, Nokia,

GE and IPVALUE and also as a partner with a leading IP Firm in India.

Lakshmi has Degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Institution of Engineers (India) and also LLB from Karnataka State Law

University. He is also registered to practice before the Indian Patent Office since year 2002.

Lakshmi is an active member of In-House IP Counsel’s Forum in India and also member of Japan Institute of Invention and

Innovation.

Ranjan Narula, RNA

Ranjan founded the specialist IP law firm, Ranjan Narula Associates, in 2004, and is now its Managing

Partner. He has twenty years’ post qualification IP experience, both contentious and non-contentious,

working in-house in the legal department of Burmah Castrol (now BP) for more than three years, and as a

partner of leading international IP consultancy, Rouse, for 10 years, heading its India practice. This

combination of in-house and international experience has given Ranjan both an acute awareness of the

need for commercial solutions and an understanding of the highest levels of international IP service. He has worked on over 500

civil and criminal actions for clients in various industries including the IT, telecom, apparel, FMCG, confectionery, beverages

(alcoholic and non alcoholic), and finance industries. Currently, he advises a wide range of IP holders on IP management issues,

providing strategic advice in relation to IP clearance, acquisition, protection, exploitation, and enforcement.

Ranjan is a regular contributor to various IP journals and has served on the editorial board of the leading international trade mark

publication, Trademark World. He is also a panelist for the ‘.in’ domain Registry


12 Speaker profiles


13 Speaker profiles

Nilesh Puntambekar, Emerson Innovation Centre

Nilesh Puntambekar, an innovator, is Manager- Innovation & Intellectual Property at Emerson Innovation

Center- Pune. Emerson Electric co is fortune 500 US multinational.

Nilesh holds Bachelor of Engineering (B.E.) & Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Pune

University & is working for more than 12 years in R&D and New Product Development,

Nilesh takes care of Strategic Innovation Initiatives, Idea Generation through Knowledge Collaboration, Intellectual Property

Identification & Protection,

He is also responsible for managing intellectual property for Emerson’s all Indian Units.

Nilesh is inventor for multiple patents.

Adarsh Ramanujan, Lakshmikumaran & Sridharan

Adarsh Ramanujan has been associated with Lakshmikumaran & Sridharan (L&S) since 2009 and

has completed his LL.M in Intellectual Property and Antitrust from the University of California, Berkeley.

He is presently a Principal Associate at L&S.

Adarsh recently qualified the California (USA) Bar Examination as well the Patent Agent Examination in

India.

He handles litigation in all practice areas of IP law, including patents, copyright and trade marks. He regularly practices

before Indian High Courts as well as before the Customs for enforcement of IPRs. His litigation practice also includes practice

before the patent office and the Intellectual Property Appellate Board, dealing with issues relating to validity of IPR.

Apart from litigation, Adarsh also actively provides consulting services in IPR, including assistance and due-diligence-related

work for compliance with regulatory mechanisms, handling IP transactions and the formulation of IP strategies. Adarsh also

advises on overlapping areas of tax and IPR, as well as on competition law and IPR.

Apart from IPR, Adarsh is also part of the WTO-Trade law team of L&S and is a general practitioner in public international law,

particularly specializing in the TRIPs, subsidies and countervailing measures.

Adarsh has authored or coauthored more than 20 publications on diverse topics including tax, public international law and IPR,

in various reputed national and international journals.


14 Speaker profiles

Nick Redfearn, Rouse

Nick worked with an Australian law firm and a London commercial law practice before joining the

London office of Rouse, where he worked for two years until 1997. Since then, he has worked for

Rouse in China, Indonesia, Vietnam and Dubai, as well as helping set up our businesses in Thailand

and Philippines. Nick ran our Hong Kong office from 2003 – 2010 and the Guangzhou office in 2004.

Nick managed Rouse’s Indonesia business from 1999-2003 and again since 2010. He is now also a

Board Director, co-head of the firm’s client development team and has a regional Asian business

development role.

His experience includes managing international intellectual property rights (IPR) enforcement programmes for multinationals in

various jurisdictions throughout Greater Europe and United Kingdom (UK) intellectual property (IP) litigation, principally in

trademarks and passing off (including the Chocosuisse v Cadbury reported English case). Nick has also run anti-counterfeiting

and anti-piracy in Asian jurisdictions (especially Hong Kong, China, Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam); trade mark, patent and

design filing in Asian jurisdictions; complex IP litigation in Asia, including cross border disputes, and has managed IP litigation in

China.

Nick is very experienced in management of Asian based IP portfolios and advises Asian companies on patent and trade mark

protection around the world; commercial IP agreements and deal structuring including, IP M&A and financing; devising and

implementing intellectual asset management strategies to align IP with business goals.

His clients include multinationals in the green tech, pharmaceutical, electronics, tobacco, banking, motor, entertainment and food

and beverages sectors, as well as copyright industry associations, luxury brands and IP rich Asian SME businesses and start-ups.

Nick writes on IP including his IP Komodo blog, and is on the editorial board of Managing Intellectual Property. He has been a

speaker at conferences and events run by INTA, The New York State Bar Association, Managing Intellectual Property, the UK

Department of Trade & Industry, the ASEAN IP Association, Indonesian IP Association, the Singapore Corporate Counsel

Association, Indonesian IP Society, the Singapore Law Society, Hong Kong IP department, and Malaysian IP Association.

He is active in the following organisations: INTA and AmCham.


15 Speaker profiles

Nigel Sanderson, Harrison Goddard Foote

Nigel’s practice is balanced between chemistry and mechanical and engineering subject

matter. Nigel has experience in organic and inorganic chemistry and pharmaceuticals including

formulations and over-the-counter (non-prescription) medicines, together with fast moving

consumer goods such as hard surface cleaners, laundry products, depilatories and air

fresheners. Nigel also deals extensively with consumer electrical appliances, packaging, printing,

offshore engineering technologies such as wind turbines and articulated vehicle tracks.

Nigel particularly enjoys working with academic institutions and companies seeking to grow and develop a patent portfolio. Nigel

also works extensively with larger companies where he specialises in assisting clients to build and pro-actively manage and

exploit effective patent portfolios.

Nigel graduated from the University of Bath (UK) with a degree in Chemistry after which he entered the profession with a private

firm in the north of England, where he qualified in 1993. Nigel took the opportunity in 1995 of joining the patents group of a major

UK based multinational, as Deputy Head of the group. In 1998, Nigel moved to one of the larger UK law firms and in addition to

patent prosecution, was heavily involved in IP litigation support.

In 2000, Nigel joined Harrison Goddard Foote as a partner.

Viswanathan Seshan, Philips Electronics

Dr. Viswanathan Seshan holds the position of IP&S Manager Healthcare and is a member of the

Management Team of the Healthcare Business Group of Philips Intellectual Property and Standards. In

this role, he manages teams of IP Counsels that work on value capturing activities for Philips’

Healthcare IP portfolio globally and counsel the Healthcare business on various types of negotiations

and contracts in specific jurisdictions.

Prior to this, Dr. Viswanathan Seshan headed IP&S India, an integral arm of Philips Intellectual Property & Standards, consisting

of around 25 IP professionals involved in a range of activities such as IP analysis, business counselling, formal regulatory and

standards, patent drafting and prosecution, business intelligence, paralegal support, IP scouting and brand protection. In addition,

he was a member of the Management Team of Philips Innovation Campus, Bangalore, where he also headed the Technology

Innovation Management function, which focuses on fostering and celebrating innovation at PIC. In addition to his general

management duties, he continued to work as an IP Counsel in the Healthcare portfolio, counselling the Philips Healthcare

business in the APAC region on contract negotiations, performing due diligence for M&A, conducting risk analysis for new product

introductions, etc.


16 Speaker profiles

Dr. Seshan holds a Doctorate degree in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center,

Dallas, Texas, USA, with a specialization in Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy & Imaging, and a Bachelor of Technology degree

in Instrumentation & Control Engineering from the University of Calicut, Kerala, India. He is a certified Patent Information

Specialist (GO/WON, The Hague, The Netherlands) and is a registered Indian patent agent. He serves on the Board of Directors

of the Licensing Executives Society, India.

Anand K. Sharma, Finnegan

Anand Sharma, a partner with Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner, LLP, leads the firm's

mechanical practice group. He has experience in all aspects of patent law, with a particular emphasis

on U.S. district court and U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) Section 337 litigations, as well as

strategic client counseling. His practice has covered many technology areas, including smartphones,

medical devices, neurosurgery navigation systems, locomotives, engine after-treatment systems,

multi-wire cable fabrication, semiconductor probe card assemblies, DRAM, well-site drilling equipment,

and consumer appliances and electronics.

Mr. Sharma has extensive experience with managing the day-to-day operation of patent litigations and in developing and

implementing patent litigation strategies. He has considerable experience in trial practice, including taking and defending

witnesses at deposition and trial, preparing and arguing discovery, Markman and summary judgment motions, and participating in

settlement and mediation negotiations. Mr. Sharma has drafted numerous patentability, validity, and infringement opinions; as well

as patent applications. In addition, he counsels clients on strategic patent planning in areas such as patent procurement, licensing,

and pre-litigation considerations.

A frequent lecturer on patent-related matters, Mr. Sharma has lectured at conferences sponsored by various industry and legal

associations, including the National Bar Association, the Confederation of Indian Industry, and the National Association of

Software and Service Companies. He has authored articles on IP topics related to India and has often been quoted in Law360. Mr.

Sharma serves as an adjunct professor at Howard University, teaching patent law at the College of Engineering and at the Law

School.


17 Speaker profiles

Swati Sharma, Anand and Anand

Swati has a significant experience in contractual and commercial exploitation of Intellectual Property.

Swati has valuable experience in drafting various commercial Agreements and has advised various

companies in relation to establishment of their business in India. Swati has actively participated in close

association with the Franchising Association of India as a speaker in workshops related to Franchising in

India and how it affects different sectors.

She has extensively advised companies in relation to adoption, protection and increasing visibility of brands in the capacity of a

brand strategist. Swati has experience in giving opinions relating to packaging and labelling laws, advertising laws. Swati has

extensively advised on IP takeover transactions, mergers and acquisitions and joint ventures for Fortune 500 companies.

Swati has been with Anand and Anand since January 2007. She has attended International Conferences, such as International

Trademarks Association (INTA) conference 2009 held in Seattle, INTA 2011 held in San Francisco, INTA 2012 held in Washington

D.C., MIDEM held in Cannes in 2010, and various National Conferences such as the INTA India Round Table Conference (2008,

Mumbai), seminars organized by the Confederation of Indian Industries (2008, Mumbai).

Thakur Kiran Singh, Maruti Suzuki

Thakur Kiran Singh is dealing with various legal issues for more than a decade in various industries.

Currently, he is responsible for Planning/Execution of Company’s Legal Affairs and Management of

Intellectual Property Rights in Maruti Suzuki India Limited. He also manages Litigation and Arbitration &

Conciliation Matters for the company. Handling various issues related to transfer pricing, related party

transactions, Competition Act, Statutory Compliances and Contracts & Commercial Legal Documentation

are few of his expertise. He also manages Intellectual Property and in charge for preparing future IP Strategies which includes

company’s future technology development plans, safeguarding IP Rights, anti-counterfeiting actions etc.

Before joining Maruti Suzuki India Limited Mr. Thakur also worked as an Officer with Hero Honda Group where he managed Legal

Compliance Audit Processes, Contract Management, provided Legal opinion pertaining to court cases (Consumer/Civil/Criminal)

and other miscellaneous/departmental matters.

Mr. Thakur is a LLM in Mercantile Law (Company Law, Banking & Insurance) from Osmania University.


18 Speaker profiles

Anindya Sircar, Infosys

Dr. Anindya Sircar is currently AVP and Head of IP with Infosys Limited and is responsible for IP

activities of Infosys Limited and its subsidiaries. Prior to this he was heading the IP Department Biocon

Group – a premiere biotechnology company in Bangalore, India. He has a unique distinction of two

Ph.Ds – one is Science and the other in Law. During his long professional involvement in IP he had

spearhead several acquisitions programs, both in and out licensing of IP. He has figured in the Lex

Witness’s Hall of Fame – Top 50 as a prominent player in the India’s legal sector in 2010.

He takes active participation in patent awareness programs and other programs involving search techniques for patent and

commercial information. Besides, he is also a registered patent agent. Dr. Anindya Sircar is a Visiting Faculty on IP at NALSAR

University of Law, Hyderabad; National Law School of India University, Bangalore; RGSOIPL, IIT Kharagpur; NAARM, Hyderabad;

PEXA, Mumbai and IBAB, Bangalore. He has been a resource person for numerous workshops and conferences on IP, also a

member of the CII National Committee on Technology and IPR and National Committee of Intellectual Property Owners; FICCI-

IPR Committee. He is also an Emeritus Member of the Advisory Board of Dialog-Thompson, UK. He is also a member of the

Expert Committee on “Intellectual Property Rights” of the Karnataka Biodiversity Board. Currently he is a member of the Editorial

Board of “IP Asia”, “Indian Journal of Intellectual Property” and “Environmental Law and Practice Review”.

Pankaj Soni, Remfry & Sagar

Pankaj Soni is a Partner with Remfry & Sagar with over 15 years of industry and legal experience. Mr. Soni

currently manages patent litigation matters and prosecution dockets related to Electrical/Electronics,

Computer and Mechanical technologies. As a litigator with experience in Federal Courts in the United

States, he has obtained dismissals and favourable jury verdicts for Fortune 500 clients in several patent

infringement matters. His expertise includes drafting pleadings, managing discovery and handling technical

aspects of claim construction and infringement/invalidity analysis. Mr. Soni has also been involved in client negotiations leading to

successful litigation settlements and cross-licensing agreements. As a patent prosecutor he has drafted and prosecuted patent

applications in the United States and India. He is admitted to practice law in India, New York and New Jersey.


19 Speaker profiles

Munish Sudan, Tata Steel

Munish manages Tata Steel’s Intellectual property department comprising a portfolio of more than 600

patent families. He co-ordinates with senior management for defining the future R&D strategy. Minish

works with Innovation Council to develop a robust system for idea capturing, idea selection and

innovation diffusion.

Before joining Tata Steel, Munish Sudan managed a team of 60+ individuals providing IP asset management solutions to fortune

100 companies in Specialty Chemicals, Petrochemical, Material Science, FMCG and Steel domains. He has extensive experience

in IP intelligence, IP Training, developing IP strategy and open innovation. Registered with Indian Patent office, Munish is a master

in Chemistry from Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee.

Harry Thangaraj, St. George’s University, London

Harry Thangaraj is a researcher into IP and global access to essential medicines based in St.

George’s University of London. He coordinates a collaborative research project entitled “Access to

Pharmaceuticals” funded by the European Union under its 7th Framework Program (Health). After

several years of research in biomedical sciences he pursued IP studies at Queen Mary University

London, where he won the GSK prize for highest score in patent law examinations in 2004/5. His

main research interest lies in Socially Responsible Licensing. Apart from academic research he is passionate about travel and

photography.


20 Speaker profiles

D.P. Vaidya, Lakshmikumaran & Sridharan

Vaidya heads the Engineering team in IPR Division of Lakshmikumaran & Sridharan (L&S). He is

responsible for Engineering and Patent consultancy services. He has rich experience in technology

deployment involving implementation of telecom and IT infrastructure, software development, and

development of electronic and mechanical components.

He has handled and managed large IP projects for several national and international clients involving framing IP strategy and IP

implementation framework, assisting clients to identify inventions, drafting patent specifications, performing infringement analysis,

patentability analysis, and invalidity analysis.

Before joining L&S in 2007, he handled a variety of roles including that of Vice-President, Business Head, and CIO at Hughes

Communications India Limited (HCIL). Vaidya has to his credit, a work experience of more than 38 years. He has worked in some

of the world’s most respected multinational companies, such as Larsen & Toubro, Philips India, and Hughes.

He was a guest faculty at Management Institute for subjects like Business Processes, IT, and Supply Chain Management. He has

served as President of VSAT Services Providers Association of India; and also as Vice- President of Internet Service Providers

Association of India.

Rahul Vartak, Krishna & Saurastri Associates

Rahul Vartak is a Patent Attorney and a Partner with Krishna & Saurastri Associates. Rahul’s practice

areas include patent drafting, patent prosecution, providing patentability opinions and assisting in patent

litigation. He is experienced in providing opinions relating to Freedom to operate, infringement and validity

of patents related to chemical, pharmaceutical and agrochemical inventions. He specializes in Indian as

well as International and comparative Patent Law. Rahul has extensive international experience having

trained in US Patent Law as well as European and German patent Law. He is registered to practice before the Indian Patent

Offices.

Akhilesh K. Gupta, Patent Agents Association of Inida


21 Speaker profiles

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