Lawyer Monthly Magazine - July 2019 Edition

traditional medicine, to waste management to mental health and spiritual health. A vast exercise under the Ministry of Health of Bhutan, it is now pending. As a Legal Adviser I have also worked on the International Health Regulations and examined about 75 laws in India that would be effective in implementing IHR and a similar exercise In Bhutan. LM comments by the Chairman National Biodiversity Authority. The second one I worked on was the National Health Bill for the Royal Kingdom of Bhutan in my capacity as Legal Adviser, World Health Organization, which involved collating feedback from all sections of administration including hospitals practicing modern medicine and “It is significant to note that first time IP owners, Startups (under the Startup Initiative), small entities are very aware of IP and are also ensuring enforcement of their IPRs.” ABOUT SUNITA K SREEDHARAN Sunita K Sreedharan, lawyer on spiritual journey: a visionary with a goal for better society with harmonised laws promoting ease of doing business, just enforcement; a scientist with an interest in the science behind the Indian Traditional Knowledge, she is a computer professional with a penchant for systems analysis and a design artist. Amid-career switch fromamanager level computer professional to lawyer following a major personal upheaval brought her back to a junior level lawyer in a leading IP Firm. The challenges were many but they were interesting take on how life can change in moments. She focused on learning the fine nuances of Indian Patent Law which was then undergoing multiple reforms to align it with the TRIPS Agreement. It was also the time that other laws were being notified such as the laws relating to Geographical Indications, Plant Variety protections, Biodiversity & Traditional Knowledge. There was so much happening that working 110 hours a week was not enough to complete all the work allocated. Being aware of the significance of transactional aspect of IP, Sunita a became member of the Licensing Executing Group and attending all LES International meetings. This exposure led her to the George Washington University Law School to earn an LL.M studying IP Licensing and Intellectual Asset Management on a year’s sabbatical. A year after sabbatical, she decided to start her own law practice, SKS Law Associates, with a focus to create strong IP Portfolio for clients, manage them and commercialise them. In these 12 years (in September 2019), SKS Law has helped clients protect and acquire interesting IP portfolios, protect their trade secrets, conducted IP Audits and saved money, offered significant advise on valuation, provided competitive intelligence, prepared patent landscapes, trained scientists and patent examiners, worked to harmonise laws especially in biodiversity related matters by providing inputs to the Ministry of AYUSH, Ministry of Environment (MoEF&CC), the Niti Aayog, the Ministry of Commerce etc. They successfully represented Rediff. com Ltd in the one and only case on business method patents (Yahoo Inc v. Controller of Patents & Ors). Meanwhile the SKS Law Team has very successfully continued with the drafting, filing and prosecution of patents, trademarks, copyrights, GI and industrial designs. 69 Professional Excellence www. lawyer-monthly .com JUL 2019