With Patents becoming a core part of existing economic ecosystem, particularly for Software, Information Technology, IoT, Embedded Systems, and Telecom industries, exploitation of Patent Portfolio has become an industry in itself, especially with the cost of development and protection of the portfolio being enormous. It is therefore crucial to understand important Patent issues, not only by In-House IP Counsels but even more importantly by R&D Scientists so as to minimize efforts in Patent Development, and maximize commercial gains. It is crucial to understand nitty-gritty’s of patent portfolio creation, protection, management, and commercialization, without which there would always remain an open door for a serious blow either from an infringement perspective or from a patent invalidation perspective or the portfolio would remain undercommercialized. Exclusivity rights granted through patents can only be utilized if there is comprehensive knowledge of various patent related issues, more so when National Patent Laws & Practices relating to prosecution practices, drafting practices, examination practices, enforcement practices and commercialization practices differ substantially across geographies. Furthermore, with growing clarity concerns on Software Patentability in India, and new guidelines coming out for Computer related Inventions (CRI), it is imperative to understand how such guidelines are actually being implemented in real-life Patent applications. Sessions of the Symposium would also help understand how Indian Lastly, with a number of cases being filed in 2015-16 on FRAND issues, it is very critical for all concerned stakeholders to understand how such litigations may impact them, how standard patents are being interpreted and challenged these days, along with how Competition Commission and other like regulatory bodies are handling complex royalty rate and unfair competition issues. The Symposium would answer clearly on all issues mentioned above and much more.

The proposed symposium is represented by a very strong and top- notch line-up of speakers from Law Firms, wherein such speakers come from a variety of different backgrounds such as from Software, Electronics, and Mechanical Domains, and therefore offer a unique value proposition to the symposium attendees. The Symposium features presentation of important patent issues, as mentioned in this brochure. The speakers are a unique gathering of Patent Attorneys who have extensive years of experience in their professional fields and are well acquainted with the Industry’s need. These speakers will put across, to the delegates, a real insight of Patent Laws, Interpretation of CRI guidelines, FRAND based issues for Standard Patents, best practices for prosecuting, licensing and litigating Patents/IPs, and Portfolio Development Processes/Strategies.

This is an opportunity when Patent Experts, Litigators, and Legal Counsels from varied backgrounds and having enormous expertise carrying different perceptions would be interacting with limited delegates and would answer to any question that the delegates may have. The speakers have thorough knowledge on the subject and have been working in the field for many decades. The speakers are selected such that R&D Scientists, In-House Counsels, Patent Attorneys, and IP Practitioners can get to know real insights and nitty-gritties followed in India and by Global Companies Developing Indian Patent Portfolio and Managing Large R&D Centers. The speakers would share real life cases and experiences that can help attendees in following best practices for building their respective patent portfolios so as to best commercialize.

IIPRD is a premier IP Consulting and Licensing Firm with a diversified business practice providing services in the domain of Commercialization, Valuation, Licensing, Transfer of Technology and Due-Diligence of Intellectual Property Assets along with providing complete IP and Patent Analytics, Transactional, and Litigation Support Services to Indian and International Corporates, Licensing Firms, and Global Law Firms. IIPRD has been established precisely to assist business houses in strategizing their growth by leveraging their IPR’s through effective Creation, Promotion, Protection, and Commercialization of IP. IIPRD has a legacy of over fifteen years of existence, and is among the first Indian IP Firms to have core focus on Commercialization, Technology Transfer, and Licensing. IIPRD as strong team of over 140 professionals focus in complete Patent Support and Technology Consulting Matters ranging from conducting all types of Patent Searches, Research and Analytics, Preparation/Prosecution Support, Landscape Analysis, and Claim Charts/Infringement Analysis/Litigation Support.

Khurana & Khurana, Advocates and IP Attorneys (K&K) is more than a full service Intellectual Property and Commercial Law firm. K&K was formed in the year 2007 with a very firm focus of providing end-to-end IP Prosecution/ Litigation and Commercial Law services in a manner that is Corporate centric and follows stringent delivery practices that are consistent and are above defined quality standards. K&K works closely with its sister concern IIPRD, both of which supplement each other in order to provide end-to end IP Legal and Commercialization / Licensing services to over 3000 Corporates. K&K is a team of
over 140 professionals spread across 8 Offices in India, and has strong rankings from Legal 500, MIP, IAM, Chambers, Asia IP, among others. Our team of IP Attorneys / Practitioners, having high level of technical and legal competence, gives us the right competitive edge and positioning, as a law firm focused on creating immense IP value for our clients. K&K through its experienced and qualified team of Attorneys/ Practitioners, across Technology and Legal Domains, gives a rare synergy of legal opinion, out-of-box thinking for protection of ideas/IP’s and entrepreneurial spirits to its client base.

Sughrue Mion is one of the world’s leading intellectual property law firms managing traditional and non-traditional intellectual property rights, for about five decades, with a wide range of clients around the world. Sughrue’s more than 100 lawyers protect ideas- all ideas- and for the last 50 years have been helping their clients to develop, obtain, protect and leverage their intellectual property rights in technology areas ranging from a submicroscopic sequence of DNA to a vast constellation of satellites circling the globe. Sughrue’s more than 100 lawyers protect ideas- all ideas- and for the last 50 years have been helping their clients to develop, obtain, protect and leverage their intellectual property rights in technology areas ranging from a submicroscopic sequence of DNA to a vast constellation of satellites circling the globe. Sughrue’s Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology, Chemical attorneys are trained in technical disciplines that include molecular and cellular biology, biophysics, pharmaceuticals, chemistry, immunology, virology, genetics and agriculture biotechnology. Their experts are particularly well versed in drafting claims to ensure the broadest possible coverage and have a long established expertise in handling patent interference proceedings that may be critical to determining basic patent rights in new areas of biotechnological and pharmaceutical industries. Their litigators who specialize in chemistry have tried cases relating to pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, industrial chemical processes, specialty chemicals, and nano technology.

JA Kemp has been ranked in tier 1 by The Legal 500 and Chambers and Partners. They are one of the largest UK and European Patent and Trade Mark Attorney firms, with offices in London, Oxford, Cambridge, Paris and Munich. Established in the 1940s by our founder, John Arthur Kemp, they have grown to become one of a handful of leading UK firms with a strong international practice. The breadth and depth of their technical knowledge relevant to patents are outstanding, with over 80 science and technology graduates in the firm including over 40 PhDs. No area of science or technology is outside their scope. Their trademarks team comprises senior professionals with backgrounds in major international law firms. The team has the expertise and resources to handle any trade marks matter.

HOFFMANN EITLE meets this demand with the right combination of skills and the highest level of commitment. Their experience and dedication make them a strong and reliable partner for many clients world wide for protecting ideas and effectively enforcing and defending their rights. With about 400 employees at seven offices in Germany, the UK, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands, HOFFMANN EITLE is one of the largest and most successful in the field of intellectual property in Europe. Each year they file more than 4,000 new patent applications. One of their strengths is the inter- disciplinary cooperation among their patent attorneys working in the fields of chemistry, biotechnology, mechanical engineering and electrical engineering & IT, as well as their German attorneys-at-law specializing in the areas of patent litigation, trade mark & design protection, licensing and competition law. Working on the inter face between research, technology, economics and law, they forcefully prosecute, enforce and defend your IP rights and vigorously defend your company and its products in IP disputes in an ever increasingly dynamic global environment. HOFFMANN EITLE’s high level of competence and commitment to quality is illus rated also by the many industry awards we have been winning, and the consistently favourable most successful in the field of intellectual property in Europe.

08:45 AM TO 9:15 AM – REGISTRATION

09:15 AM TO 10:30 AM – Software Patenting Aspects pertaining to AI and Machine Learning based Patent Applications along with general Prosecution Strategies – Mr. Chid Iyer (Sughrue Mion, US)

10:30 AM TO 10:45 AM – TEA BREAK

10:45 AM TO 12:00 PM – Patent Drafting and Prosecution Strategies at the EPO in Software/Computer Related Inventions, along with a brief overview of recent Software Copyright Litigation in Europe – Mr. Stephen Hodsdon (JA Kemp, EP)

12:00 PM TO 01:15 PM – A Comparison of Examination Standards in the UK vs EPO for Software/Electronics Patent Applications – Dr. Marko Dragosavac (Hoffmann Eitle, EP)

01:15 PM TO 02:00 PM – LUNCH

02:00 PM TO 02:30 PM – An exemplary case study on Software Copyright Litigation in India – Mr. Vinod Khurana (Khurana & Khurana, IN)

02:30 PM TO 03:30 PM – Key Patent Office Decisions on Software /Electronics Patent Applications in 2018 – Mr. Tarun Khurana (Khurana & Khurana, IN)

03:30 PM TO 04:00 PM – QUESTIONS/ANSWERS

Chid received a B. Tech in Chemical Engineering from IIT, Bombay in 1984, MS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Akron and MS in Computer Science from the University of Tennessee Space Institute. He received his JD from Georgetown University in 1997. Chid is a partner of the International Law Firm of Sughrue Mion and is involved in all aspects of patent practice including litigation, prosecution, and client counseling in a variety of technologies with a focus on chemical and pharmaceutical. Chid has prepared and prosecuted over 100 applications for a leading research laboratory.

Stephen Hodsdon is a European and UK patent attorney and partner in JA Kemp’s Engineering and IT team. As a physics graduate from University of Cambridge, Stephen’s patent work includes significant amounts of drafting and prosecution of applications relating to inventions in the telecommunications, computer software (with a particular interest in bio informatics and data analysis and diagnostics), electronics and electronic engineering fields. He also represents clients from the medical device and mechanical engineering sectors. His clients include multi-national companies, universities and local SMEs and he also provides training on IP to clients and local universities. In addition to his patent qualifications, Stephen trained as a barrister and was called to the Bar at Lincoln’s Inn in 2008 before undertaking a pupillage at one of the leading chambers specializing in IP in London. As a result, Stephen is also qualified as a patent attorney litigator and advocate
and handles patent, trade mark and design litigation in the Patents Court (High Court) and Intellectual Property Enterprise Court (IPEC) in the UK. He has also advised on numerous pre-action matters to achieve beneficial settlements for his clients.

Marko is a partner of Hoffmann Eitle based at the firm’s London office, and has 13 years’ experience in drafting patent applications and handling examination, opposition and appeal proceedings before the European Patent Office, as well as prosecuting applications before the UK Intellectual Property Office, in many high-technology fields, including software-related inventions, electronics, telecommunications, optics and semiconductor technology. Marko studied natural sciences at the University of Cambridge, specializing in experimental and theoretical physics and graduating with M.A. and M.Sci. first class honours degrees. He completed a Ph.D. in semiconductor physics at the Cavendish Laboratory of the University of Cambridge, in collaboration with IBM Research. Marko was a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, USA, before joining Hoffmann Eitle in 2006. He qualified as a British and European Patent Attorney in 2011.

Vinod is a Senior Partner at IIPRD and Khurana & Khurana, IP Attorneys. Vinod, along with heading the IP Litigation team, which represents some of top Indian and Global Business Brands on Passing Off, Counterfeiting, and Fraud Investigation/White-Collar Crime Issues, is also the Head of the IP Commercialization/Licensing Team and overlooks at Valuation and Negotiation of all major Out-Licensing Deals at IIPRD. Vinod has been in the field of Business Legal Finance for the last 36 years with core focus on Commercialization, Licensing, and Valuation of Intellectual Property. Vinod also specializes in all aspects of Trade Mark Law with focus on Trade Mark Litigation. Vinod represents top Indian and International Corporate Houses for Licensing their Technologies and other Intellectual Properties. Vinod has also been researching and educating on fighting thefts and frauds of Intellectual Properties and white collar crimes, by practicing a mix of Law, Intellectual Property, Accounting, Ethics and Criminology coupled with his professional qualification being a B.Com, PGDFA, MBA, AICWA, CFA, LLB among other specialization qualifications in Investigation and Commercialization of Intellectual Property. He has an extensive experience in conducting Investigation & Litigation and has represented numerous corporates for devising their Prosecution and Litigation Strategies such as Indian Oil Corporation, ITC, Bharti, Matrix Cellular among many others. Vinod has also undertaken various dedicated Workshops and Seminars for well established corporates such as Wockhardt, IOC, ITC, TVS Group, CSIR, among others. Vinod is also a member of International Trademark Association (INTA). Department of Economic Affair, Ministry of Finance, Govt. of India has also empaneled him for appointment as Special Director on the Board of Sick Industrial Companies.

Tarun has over 16 years of experience in a broad range of IP subject matters and is the Co-Founding Partner and Patent Attorney of Khurana & Khurana, which is among the Leading IP Practices in India with 10 Offices and over 180 Practitioners. Tarun is among the top 12 Patent Prosecution Practitioners in India as rated by IAM, ranked among IAM 300/1000, and has executed numerous assignments related to exercises of Patent Portfolio Creation, Protection, Prosecution, Litigation, Valuation and Commercialization for Indian and International Corporates. Tarun focuses on the Patent Preparation, Prosecution Electronics, Patent Valuation, Commercialization, and Litigation opinions for Computer-Implemented, and Mechanical subject matters. Tarun has a Bachelor’s in Computer Science Engineering, a Masters in Software Systems, Bachelors in Law, an MBA from IIM Lucknow, and is in pursuit of his Ph.D.