Mr. STEVE SHEAR, (J.D. American University), Program co-Chair & Trainer: A Former United States Patent Examiner, Mr. Shear has been practicing patent, trademark, copyright and other forms of intellectual property law for 30 years. Prior to establishing the Law Offices of Stephen C. Shear, he was a partner at the Palo Alto law firm of Gray, Cary, Ware & Freidenrich and a senior partner at the San Francisco patent law firm of Flehr, Hohbach, Test, Albritton and Herbert (now part of Dorsey & Whitney). At present, Mr. Shear is the executive director and founder of Silicon Valley Seminars (www.patentseminars.com) and has been conducting patent workshops since 1984. He has been an Adjunct Professor and Member of the Graduate Faculty at the University of Colorado, School of Engineering, a co-founder of a number of start-up companies including Phiar Corporation and XenoPur Systems, Inc. and has served as an expert witness in patent lawsuits.

Prof. Dr. HEINZ GODDAR, (Ph.D. Munich U.), Senior Advisor & Mentor: Dr.. Goddar is a German Patent Attorney and European Patent and Trademark Attorney. Partner of Boehmert & Boehmert and of Forrester & Boehmert, with his office at Munich. Before his career as a patent attorney, Dr. Goddar was Assistant of Professor at the Polymer Department of the University of Mainz, Germany. Dr. Goddar is one of the senior partners of his firm and is particularly involved in international patent and licensing matters, in¬cluding litigation and arbitration. Dr. Goddar is an Associate Judge at the Senate for Patent Attorneys Matters at the German Federal Court of Justice and a Senior Advisor to the German Industrial Investment Council (IIC), Berlin, with a specific responsibility for IIC Life Sciences and Chemicals. Dr. Goddar teaches Patent and Licensing Law as an Honorary Professor at the University of Bremen, Germany, as a Lecturer at the Centre d'Etudes Internationales de la Propriete Industrielle (CEIPI), Strasbourg, France, as well as at the Munich Intellectual Property Law Center (MIPLC), Munich, Germany, and as a Visiting Professor at the University of Santa Clara, CA, U.S.A., the University of Washington, Seattle, WA, U.S.A., the National ChengChi University, Taipei, and the Tokai University, Tokyo.

Mr. FIRASAT ALI, J.D. (John Marshall Law School, Chicago), Trainer & Mentor: Mr. Ali is an IP attorney at the international law firm of McDermott Will & Emery LLP based in the Silicon Valley office. He is a member of the Intellectual Property, Media & Technology Department where he focuses his practice on patent litigation, patent prosecution and technology related issues for high technology clients undergoing mergers, acquisitions, and other business combinations. Mr. Ali has written and successfully prosecuted numerous patent applications, tried several intellectual property cases to verdict in U.S. courts and has extensive experience representing clients before the International Trade Commission (ITC). Mr. Ali has also taught several courses related to patents and disclosure strategy to groups of engineers resulting in a high patent submission rate by engineers and thorough protection of client’s technology. . Mr. Ali is admitted to practice in California and is registered to practice in the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Mr. Ali is also a member of the American Bar Association, American Intellectual Property Law Association, Silicon Valley Intellectual Property Law and the International Trade Commission Trial Lawyers Association.

Mr. HITESH S. BAROT, J.D. (U. of California, Berkeley, Boalt Hall School of Law), Trainer & Mentor: Mr. Barot graduated from UC Berkeley's School of Engineering and went on to receive his J.D at Berkeley's Law School (currently ranked as the number 1 Law School for Intellectual Property). After graduating he joined the law firm of Bingham McCutchen, LLP where he spent close to 7 years as an associate. Mr. Barot is licensed to practice before the Patent and Trademark Office and prosecuted patents in his first years of practice. He moved to IP litigation and worked on high profile litigation for the likes of Oracle, Qualcomm, SanDisk and Roche Molecular. Mr. Barot also has expansive experience as an instructor for Kaplan Schools and is a credentialed substitute teacher. Mr. Barot now acts as a consultant for various clients and sits on the board of quite a few legal organizations and foundations including NASABA and SABA NC. Mr. Barot will also assist in the mentoring and practical training of the graduates of GIIP.

Mr. RAVI B. UPASANI, Ph.D. (U. Of Bombay), Trainer & Mentor: Dr. Upasani is the Senior Director of Intellectual Property at Renovis, Inc., a US biopharmaceutical company. He is responsible for the management and implementation of all aspects of the IP function at the company, including the development and implementation of patent strategy; directing and participating in the drafting and prosecution of patent applications for the company, with particular concentration and experience in the area of API’s and related small molecules; and managing company’s extensive patent portfolio. Dr. Upasani is registered before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) as patent agent, and has broad experience in his interactions with patent examiners. Dr. Upasani’s prior experience includes directing chemistry discovery groups for various biopharmaceutical companies, and he possesses over 20 years of industrial experience. Dr. Upasani has authored more than 35 publications and is an inventor on more than 15 US patents. He has drafted over 80 patent applications covering small molecules and corresponding compositions of matter. Dr. Upasani has managed to use very aggressive and successful strategies, including face to face interviews with patent examiners, to get several patent applications allowed over the closest known relevant art.

Mr. ROBERT LEE, J.D. / MBA (law and business) (UC Berkeley), Trainer & Mentor: Mr. Lee has been Executive Director of Patent Forest since its formation in 2001. He has been a business consultant and attorney in Silicon Valley and other areas of the Pacific Rim for the past decade, working with Fortune 500 corporations and venture-funded start-ups, and everything in between. He has worked on dozens of US patent applications in software, EE, semiconductor processing and the life sciences and has experience working on technology transfer in the private sector and with universities (most notably Stanford and UC Berkeley). Mr. Lee has worked as a patent attorney at a top Silicon Valley general practice and a top Silicon Valley patent boutique law firm. He has also served as VP of Operations at Intellevate, an LPO company with offices in the US and India. He regularly speaks at business and legal conferences, and has been a guest speaker at the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, and graduate and undergraduate classes at UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business.

Mr. YUSUF SAFDARI, J.D. (Northwestern U.), Mentor: Mr. Safdari is a partner with Pillsbury, Winthrop, Shaw, and Pittman and focuses on corporate and securities matters for public and private companies, venture capital, private equity funds, corporate governance, international transactions and technology licensing. His corporate transactional practice includes advising corporate counsel on initial public offerings, mergers and acquisitions, private equity funds, joint ventures, venture capital transactions, equity and convertible debt financings, public and private securities offerings, Sarbanes-Oxley compliance and other legal and strategic issues.

Mr. Sunil S. Bajaj, J.D. (New York U.), Mentor: Mr. Bajaj is a Senior Counsel at Apple Inc. He is admitted to practice in California, New York and New Jersey. Mr. Bajaj received his B.S. magna cum laude in Economics with concentrations in Corporate Finance and Real Estate Investments from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and his J.D. from the New York University School of Law. Prior to joining Apple, Mr. Bajaj practiced with Bingham McCutchen LLP (Silicon Valley) from 2005-2006, with Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, LLP (San Francisco) from 2000-2004, with King & Spalding (New York) from 1996 to 2000, and with Kelley, Drye & Warren (New York) from 1994 to 1995. Mr. Bajaj will assist in the mentoring and practical training placements of the graduates of GIIP.

Ms. GIRIJA VARMA, (LL.M Cornell U., Fellow Stanford U. Law School), Dean of Instructions: Ms. Varma specializes in Intellectual Property Litigation / Consultancy services and Right to Information Laws in India. She is Senior Advisor, IP & Patents for our Patent Training and services. Prior to this she was Head & Corporate Attorney Microsoft Corporation, Legal Counsel to Standard Chartered and HCL-Hewlett Packard. Ms. Varma has rich experience working with leading Indian and UK law firms like Herbert Smith. She was awarded the British Council Chevening Scholarship for Young Lawyers.

Dr. MANISH KUMAR, Ph. D. (Jodhpur U.), Associate Professor, Delhi: A former professor of Production & Industrial Engineering at J.N.V. University. His Ph.D. work is in the field of Production Automation specifically in the field of Computer Aided Manufacturing. He has nearly 31 papers to his credit in various international journals, international and national conferences/seminars etc. Dr. Kumar has been actively associated in organizing various national seminars/conferences and is recipient of Career Award for Young Teachers from AICTE, New Delhi. His field of specialization lies in Production Management, Quality management, Entrepreneurship Development and Industrial Automation. Dr. Kumar has been trained by Steve Shear of SVS Inc. in the field of US Patent laws and procedures.

Ms. BHAVYA MEHTA, Ph. D. (Delhi U.), Assistant Professor, Delhi: A former lecturer of Computer Science at University of Delhi, Ms. Mehta has submitted her Ph.D. thesis in the field of Software Configuration Management Systems. She has also done her Masters in Software Systems from Jamia Milia University, Delhi. She qualified a course work in Software Engineering and Design and analysis of Algorithms from University of Delhi. She has authored research papers in Journal of Computer Science, Journal of Analysis and Computation, International Journal of Computation, Journal of Information Systems workshop and several other national and international Journals. She has been the reviewer at Journal of Information Systems Workshop held at Arizona, U.S.A. Ms. Mehta has been trained by Steve Shear of SVS Inc. in the field of US Patent laws and procedures.

Ms. BHARTI BIRLA, LL.B. (Delhi U.), B.Pharma (Delhi U.), Senior Trainer, Delhi: Ms. Birla has worked in varied capacities in Alembic Ltd, Wave Pharmaceuticals, NIIT Ltd., and Waqalatarbitartion.com (a B2B legal portal, now legalsolutions.org). She has done Advanced Course on Copyright and Related Rights and Certificate Course on Intellectual Property Rights from World Intellectual Property Rights Organization (WIPO), Geneva. She is also a Certified Lead Auditor for ISO 9000:2000 in Quality Management System from BSI India (British Standards Institute, National Standards Body of the UK). Currently she is pursuing Ph. D. in Management from IP University. Ms. Birla has been a visiting faculty (Law) at Skyline Business School for the last four years. She is also an expert in Domain Name Disputes and Alternate Dispute Resolution. In Pharmaceutical industry, her key area of work has been in marketing, technical & export documentation of pharmaceuticals, She has published/presented several papers in journals and conferences. Ms. Birla has been trained by Steve Shear of SVS Inc. in the field of US Patent laws and procedures.

Dr. MANISH RACHCHH, M.Pharma, Ph. D. (Gujarat U.), Senior Trainer, Mumbai: A former assistant professor of Department of Pharmacology at Pharmacy College, Rajkot affiliated with Saurashtra University. Dr. Rachchh has been a research guide for 40 B.Pharma students and guided them to carry out their minor research project on different topics of pharmacology. Dr. Rachchh was the Programme Co-ordinator for the ICMR sponsored-National Workshop on “Clinical Trials: Scope, Challenges, Regulation & Methodology of working in ndia in year 2007. He was also the Programme Co-ordinator for GUJCOST-sponsored State level workshop on “Current Drug Patent Regime” in year 2006. He is a member of Member of American College of Clinical Pharmacy (ACCP), MO, USA and of Indian Pharmaceutical Association (IPA), Mumbai, India. He published and presented total 11 research papers in different National and International journals and conferences. He is the University Gold medalist for B. Pharma in year 2000 and has won GUJCOST prize 2002 for the best paper in Pharmacology 0066rom Gujarat Council of Science and Technology at Ahmedabad, Gujarat.

Mr. E. RAMANATHAN, PhD, Nanocoatings (Madras U.), MPhil, (Annamalai U.), Senior Trainer, Chennai: Mr. Ramanathan has a rich experience of 21 years, 7 years in e-publishing and e-Learning and 14 years academic and industrial experience. Prior to joining GIIP, Mr. Ramanathan was Senior Cyber content developer and ISO Coordinator at Cyber School Technology Solutions (Author - Sura Books and Publications), Visiting Faculty at DAV, Velammal Institute, International Maritime Academy, Jain Vidhyalaya and Academic Advisor at Venkateswara Matric. Mr. Ramanathan has various books and papers published under his name - Quality Circle Activities, ISO Quality Manuals, Process Manuals, Digital Science, Virtual lab, 51 Projects in Chemistry, AIEEE Chemistry, TNPCEE Chemistry, Nanocoatings on Mild steel, Dictionary of Chemistry.

Ms. LAKSHMI K, Ph. D. (CUSAT), Senior Trainer, Bangalore: A former senior lecturer of Chemical Engineering and Material science at Amrita University, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, Ms. Lakhsmi as an Investigator brought in good amount of funding and research grants to the university from national and international funding agencies. She was a rank holder althrough her academic career from B.Sc, B.Tech and M.Tech. She has submitted her Ph.D. thesis in an interdisciplinary field 'Conducting polymers composites for electrical and microwave applications'. She has a wide research experience in various fields of polymer technology and has guided several student and mini projects. Ms. Lakshmi has several national and international publications to her credit. She has participated and delivered lectures in various international/ national seminars, conferences and workshops. Ms. Lakshmi has also coordinated various seminars, conferences and workshops organized by the Department of Chemical Engineering and Material Science, ASE, Coimbatore.

Mr. RAJEEV RANJAN: Mr. Ranjan is Chief (Joint Secretary), National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council, Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Government of India. Mr. Ranjan did his Post Graduation in Management from Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad and M.Sc. in Policy and Planning from London School of Economics, London. Mr. Ranjan joined the Indian Administrative Service in 1985 and his work experience includes working in various capacities in the field and policy making levels in the Government of Tamil Nadu in the Finance and Home Departments, Collector of Tiruchirapalli District, Managing Director of Tamil Nadu Steels Ltd., Member Secretary of Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority, etc. before moving to Government of India in 2000. Mr. Ranjan worked as Director in the Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion in Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India, and handled Patents, Designs, Productivity, Consultancy and UNIDO Desks and also involved with industrial policy issues including National Productivity Council, and Quality Council of India. Was closely involved in the various amendments to the Patents Act and was in-charge of the patent modernization project which has led to creation of necessary infrastructure and new Intellectual Property offices in the four metros and has achieved significant mile-stones.

Prof. S.K. JAIN, IIT Delhi: Prof. Sudhir K. Jain obtained Bachelor’s degree in Science and Master’s degree in Economics from Rajasthan University, Jaipur and the Doctoral degree from I.I.T. Kanpur in 1979. He worked as Assistant Director at the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) during 1979-80 and as Assistant Professor at Institute for Social & Economic Change (ISEC), Bangalore during 1980-85. He joined I.I.T. Delhi in March 1985. Prof. Jain has been involved in teaching, research and training in areas like Entrepreneurship, Intellectual Property Rights etc. Recently, he has also co-authored a book on Managerial Economics jointly with Petersen and Lewis (published by Pearson Education). Prof. Jain has supervised about 12 Ph.D. theses, 75 M.Tech. dissertations and 50 MBA Projects. Prof. Jain has been a Member of ‘National IPR Education Policy Committee’ and ‘National Entrepreneurship Policy Committee’, Govt. of India. He has also served as Executive Director, National Institute for Entrepreneurship & Small Business Development (NIESBUD), under the Ministry of Small Scale Industries (Govt. of India) during 2002-03.

Mr. AJAY SAHANI: Mr. Ajay Sahni is a practicing Intellectual Property lawyer having his seat of practice in the Hon’ble High Court of Delhi and has been in this profession for more than 24 years. Mr. Sahni started in specialization of Intellectual Property Laws right from the first year of his practice and at present is handling I.P.R. matters at the High Court, District Court and Tribunal level, for a variety of clients including large corporate entities, both Indian and multinational. Mr. Sahni is a regular guest speaker on Intellectual Property Laws at The Institute of Company Secretaries, New Delhi and at the seminars conducted by the Export Promotion Council for Handicrafts, Ministry of Textiles, Government of India. Mr. Sahni has been actively involved in compiling a referencer in respect of all reported and unreported I.P.R. cases of the Indian courts and have successfully co-compiled seven volumes of the book titled “Cases and Materials on Trade Marks and Allied Laws”. Mr. Sahni is a member of the International Bar Association and International Trade Marks Association (INTA), U.S.A. He has also received a Certificate of Merit from ‘The Association for Overseas Technical Scholarship’ of the ‘Japan Institute of Invention and Innovation’ (JIII), Tokyo.

DR. GURIQBAL SINGH JAIYA, GUEST SPEAKER: Dr. Jaiya is currently the Director of the Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) Division, WIPO. He joined WIPO in November 1993 in the Cooperation for Development Bureau for Asia and the Pacific where he was Senior Program Officer/Senior Counsellor for over four years. Thereafter, he was the Head of the Evaluation Unit of WIPO for over six months, Head/Acting Director of the Economic Analysis, Forecast and Research Division of WIPO for over two years, and Deputy Director of the SMEs Division for two years, until he took over his present responsibilities in October 2002. Before joining WIPO, from 1978 onwards, as a member of the Indian Administrative Service, Dr. Jaiya served in the District, State and Central Governments dealing with a wide a variety of responsibilities. In his last tenure as Deputy Secretary/Director, Department of Industrial Development, Ministry of Industry, Government of India, he dealt with inter alia all aspects of industrial property. He represented the Government of India in various bilateral and international fora, including the TRIPS negotiations in the Uruguay Round of GATT. Dr. Jaiya has university degrees in the humanities, law and medicine.

MR. DOMINIC KEATING, GUEST SPEAKER: Mr. Keating is the Intellectual Property Attaché to India from US. He was a patent attorney with the Office of International Relations at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), where he specialized in patent matters, including those in the Indian Subcontinent, South America and Japan. In addition, Keating has headed U.S. Delegations to the World Trade Organization Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Council, World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Working Group on Reform of the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), the WIPO PCT Meeting of International Authorities, the WIPO Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore; the WIPO Open Meeting on Genetic Resources; and the WIPO Ad-Hoc Intergovernmental Meeting on Genetic Resources and Disclosure Requirements.