Bengaluru, 26th April,

Alliance Centre for Intellectual Property Rights (ACIPR) in association with Alliance School of Law, Alliance University, organized a National Workshop on Recent Trends in Intellectual Property Laws to commemorate World Intellectual Property Day. It was a virtual event registered under World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) receiving more than 1000 registrations from all over India.

Dr. Anubha Singh, Vice-Chancellor, Alliance University, inaugurated the workshop with a gratitude  speech in favour of the faculty and student coordinators of ACIPR for such an initiative. While talking about IP, she expressed her ideas about its importance in our daily life. She also spoke about the use of patented products in day-to-day life and the designs of various products and their functionalities.

Dr. Ray Titus, Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Academics and Research, Alliance University, stressed on the importance of open source software and its influence on our daily life. In his address, he reflected upon the differences between proprietary sites, open-source sites and their uses. He also spoke about the protection of copyrighted works and their monetisation.

Dr. Kiran Gardner, Professor and Dean, Alliance School of Law, Alliance University, took the proceedings further with her opening remarks about the importance of IP in today's world. She spoke about the motive towards the establishment of ACIPR as a centre of excellence. She also expressed her views on the inception of ACIPR. 

Mr. Abhishek Sarma, Assistant Professor, Alliance School of Law, Alliance University, gave a brief introduction of ACIPR  followed up with the unveiling of the ACIPR Bulletin. 

Mr. G. R. Raghavendra, Joint Secretary, Department of Justice, Ministry of Law and Justice, Government of India, started the guest speaker’s session with an insightful address on copyright infringement in the digital environment. He shared certain real-life scenarios and experiences related to copyright infringement. He also spoke about the protection of computer programs under the copyright system in India. 

Ms. Bindu Sharma, Founder and CEO, Origiin IP Solutions LLP, spoke about the role of patents in boosting innovations. She displayed certain patented works, their applications and patentability criteria. Ms. Bindu in her address reflected upon the importance of inventions driven by human demands. She also shared her valuable insights on the career perspectives in IPR.

Mr. Sivaram Krishna Prakash, Retd. Wg. Cdr., Senior Corporate Counsel, Cisco Systems India Private Limited, spoke about AI, patents and the scope of its patentability. Laser focussed speech on AI in autonomous vehicles and its future paradigms. He also stressed on granting the patent to non-human inventions giving an example of the monkey selfie case and its analysis in today's scenario.

Mr. Gaurav Singhal ,Principal IP Attorney, Singhwal Techlaw OPC Private Ltd., concluded the guest speaker’s session with a speech on trademark filing trends in India and recent judicial interpretations on trademark laws and their principles. He also shared his valuable insights on various landmark cases relating to the trademark in India.

The workshop was concluded with a vote of thanks given by Mrs. Yamini Chandra Prabha, Assistant Professor, Alliance School of Law, Alliance University.

Faculty workshop Coordinators:

Dr. Upankar Chutia, Assistant Professor, Alliance School of Law, Alliance University
Prof. Yamini Chandra Prabha, Assistant Professor, Alliance School of Law, Alliance University
Prof. Abhishek Sarma, Assistant Professor, Alliance School of Law, Alliance University