The “Strategic Inventor”, Banana IP’s Seminar on patents for corporate inventors held on 22 September 2017, witnessed 16 inventors from diverse organizations like Cisco, Eureka Forbes, Muniyal Ayurveda, Samsung, Wipro, Unilever, Agaso Technologies, Peps Industries, Triton and Chirra Electronics coming together under a single roof, at ITC Gardenia Bengaluru.
Introduction:
The Inventors were welcomed with a personalized folder containing hand-outs about Banana IP and Strategic Inventor. The Seminar commenced with Mr. Nitin Nair, Senior Partner at BananaIP, addressing the participants with a brief about BananaIP. This was followed by an Introduction by Mr. Gaurav Mishra, Patent Associate at BananaIP.
Sessions:
The first session, titled Patentability and Business Value, was introduced by Dr. Kalyan after a brief discussion on the patent life cycle and patentability requirements, with the help of a patentability filter model. During the session, Dr. Kalyan narrated the well-known “Hare and Tortoise” tale to the participants who were divided into two groups. The participants were then handed a photograph containing a hare and tortoise and were asked to infer their understanding from the photograph. This session proved to be quite interesting as it got the inventors thinking and concluding who would have eventually won the race – the Hare or the Tortoise.
The second session titled Patent Infringement Risks involved a mock trial and had participants being divided into groups to represent the infringement and invalidity claims of two fictional companies. The inventors-turned-attorneys thoroughly enjoyed the arguments and made the session engaging and lively.
Personalized Journal:
The seminar concluded with each participant being given a personalized keychain and a journal to encourage them to continue inventing.
The overwhelming response to the seminar, the interaction and the enthusiasm among the participants has encouraged BananaIP to roll out more such Seminars in the near future.
On the whole, Strategic Inventor has been a great platform for knowledge transfer and networking, and the feedback form filled by the inventors stands as a testament to the success of the Seminar.
Feedback:
This is what some of the Inventors had to say with regard to the Seminar:
Mr. Paresh Thummar, Agaso Technologies: “The interactive sessions were unique in nature unlike other seminars, which have simple lectures. I liked the problem solving on patentability, infringement, and validity.”
Mr. Mohammed Ayub, Triton Valves: “The seminar was helpful in creating inventive ideas for future and also, I gained knowledge on Patent Infringement and Validity.”
Mr. Rajagopal, Cisco: “I was impressed by the role-play session which was interactive and I gained knowledge on the ways to use prior art effectively.”
Dr. Sathyanarayan, Muniyal Ayurveda: “The sessions were thought-provoking.”
Mr. Ankur Trisal, Samsung: “The seminar was informative and well balanced. It was a good learning experience which helped me understand the procedures/measures taken in patent infringement and validity.”
Neeti Somaiya, Unilever: “I liked the interactive format of the sessions. The case really helped me in understanding Infringement, and Validity. Further, the sessions helped me understand that, even after the grant of patent, how a patent can be invalidated and how claims have to be drafted thoughtfully.”
Devanshi Kaul, Eureka Forbes: “Very interactive and useful sessions. I learnt about basics of patent filing and different parameters to consider when doing patent filing, proving infringement and validity.”
Rajesh C.N, Peps Industries Pvt Ltd.: “The presentation was excellent. I learnt about the basics of IP rights and protection of IP while inventing.”
Strategic Inventor Team:
Overall, Strategic Inventor was made a reality due to the efforts of Attorneys from various teams at Banana IP such as Patent, Trademark and Consulting Teams, who came together to organize this. We are happy to acknowledge their significant contributions and would like to credit them for their unwavering support and cooperation.
The Strategic Inventor team is constituted by:
Dr. Kalyan C. Kankanala, Senior Partner and Chief IP Attorney
Dr. Kalyan C. Kankanala is a renowned IP Attorney, Professor and Author in India.Strategic Inventor is the brain child of Dr. Kalyan.
Nithin V, Senior Associate
Nithin Kumar works with the IP Strategy & Consulting team at BananaIP Counsels. He is a member of the core committee of the Strategic Inventor Programme.
Soumyashree Kashyap, Junior Associate
Soumya is a part of the Copyright and Trademark group at BananaIP Counsels. She is also a member of the core committee of the Strategic Inventor Programme.
Rakesh Krishnan, Senior Manager – Client Engagement
Rakesh handles Client Engagement and Management at BananaIP Counsels. He played a role in creating collaterals and managing press releases for Strategic Inventor.
Rahul Kulkarni, Client Engagement Associate & HR Lead
Rahul handles the Client Engagement and the HR activities at BananaIP Counsels. He also played a role in creating collaterals and putting together the Strategic Inventor kit.
Gaurav Mishra, Patent Associate
Gaurav works with the Patent Portfolio team of BananaIP Counsels. He assisted in shaping the exercises and role plays used in the Strategic Inventor Programme.
Anjali Santosh, Patent Associate
Anjali works with the Patent Prosecution team at BananaIP Counsels. She also assisted in shaping the exercises and role plays used in the Strategic Inventor Programme.
Venkatesh Rao, System Administrator
Venkatesh handles System Administration and Print Media at BananaIP Counsels. He helped in putting together the Strategic Inventor kit.
Ragini Ravichandran, Corporate Communication Associate
Ragini works with the Corporate Communications team of BananaIP Counsels. She managed the Strategic Inventor Programme, and was instrumental in making it a reality.
Authored by Ragini Ravichandran.
