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You have a diverse background, both in Patent law and in Chemical Engineering. Can you share what inspired you to transition from a technical field like chemical engineering to a career in Intellectual Property Law?
I started with Patent Law, and to practise patent law – one needs to have a science/technology background. So, transition from an engineer to patent attorney was rather smooth and felt natural. However, transitioning to intellectual property law – covering trademarks, copyright, design, geographical indications, plant varieties, contracts etc. has been quite a journey. It was mostly inspired by my own hunger to expand my skills and offerings. The learnings in these areas too felt natural as they seemed like a natural extension of patent law – for the bedrock on which IP laws are framed and promulgated share common or similar pith, substance and motivations. If I am reaching out to a client, I have to then go with an entire set of solutions and deep knowledge on all fronts of IPRs.
What are some important lessons from the early stages of your career that have stayed with you, and how have they influenced the trajectory of your professional journey?
First and foremost, lesson that I have taken and retained and continue to expand is about finding my Why. Initially, I wasn’t sure why I am in patent law. Just because it is interesting – I get to work on frontiers of technology and law – wasn’t a good enough answer to Why. It was a self-centered answer. In business and particularly in client facing professions like law – your reasons to pursue those professions cannot be self-centred. You may start with such motivations but you cannot continue and grow with this motivation. Let’s face it – all learning becomes boring after you have spent enough time on it – this is true for me. I learn quickly. I read a lot. I get bored of a subject after having understood its basics/founding principles or first principles and move onto something new. I continued to expand my Why – which in turn helped me expand my skillset, and which in turn allowed me to offer more and more services – high quality services – to my clients, and this skill or this aspect has shaped my professional journey deeply.
Given your extensive experience working with various corporations and legal entities, what inspired you to transition into starting your own practice with Aumirah and what were the initial challenges that you had to overcome?
Frankly, if you are good at what you do – you won’t face any challenges. High quality clients or Impactful clients will find high quality professionals or Impactful professionals. Also, I have always worked like an entrepreneur. So, when I started Aumirah, for me it was being employed by Aumirah. It is not about entrepreneurship – it is about entrepreneurial mindset – that you can carry in any form – as an employee or employer.
Sure, I did face usual problems of cash flow etc. but I didn’t face any problems with respect to the work or getting work itself. For this, I am also obliged to my very dear colleagues who have worked closely with me and understood my “Why”. We have always found friends at the right juncture who took us along on path to growth. I have been blessed with some of the best clients one can get across the domain and they have spread our work far and wide.
In your role as a mentor to startups, you’ve worked with several incubators like Nexus by the US Embassy and IIITD Incubator. What are the most common IP challenges you see startups facing, and how do you help them overcome these?
The most common challenges faced by startups is lack of proper advice on IP rights at an early stage. I have seen many established companies with extremely poor IP frameworks and portfolio. Unfortunately, I do not see that improving anytime soon since IP advice right now is being doled out in the market is for sake of making money and not for sake of making the client and especially startups – sail through the initial phase of their journey. We definitely help startups overcome challenges by coming up with advisory on how to defer and when to prioritise what kind of IP. Not all IP is urgent. Not all IP can be deferred. Between these two paradigms – startups can find their right IP framework.
With your background in chemical engineering, how do you assess the patentability of inventions in the tech or life sciences sectors? What common mistakes do inventors make when filing patents in these industries?
The assessment of patentability – be it chemical engineering, semiconductors, biotechnology, robotics or automation – is highly similar. Sure, there can be differences in assessment of inventive step – for the context of ontology in each of the mentioned domains – but the first principles are similar. The common mistakes inventors do is to confuse their product as their invention.
Having extensive experience in Patent Law, can you share a recent case where you helped a client with patent opposition or litigation, and what was the outcome?
Sure. Recently, we strategized, prepared and litigated in the matter of Falcon Autotech vs Kengic China. We not only got the patent granted but also litigated it against Kengic and got an ex parte injunction in the first hearing itself before Delhi High Court. The matter pertained to sorters used in logistics and warehousing.
As the leader of Aumirah, how do you foster a culture of innovation and excellence among your team, especially when dealing with high-stakes IP and corporate matters?
At Aumirah, from very early on, everyone is exposed to clients or clients are exposed to even the junior most associate. This exposure and discussions with clients expose our team to the high stakes and wide range of work that we do, are capable of and can be capable of. The innovation and excellence cannot happen in silos. It is like you cannot be a good boxer if you training only with boxing bags – you have to do technical sparrings, power sparrings and sometimes even a club-level fight routinely to be able to enter the bigger arena eventually. So far, my team has made me proud of the fact that they have very judiciously handled clients. They are miles deep with our clients and also mile wider in law and its applications in handling their matters because of this exposure.
What advice would you give to aspiring IP professionals who are looking to build a successful career in the field?
If you want to build a successful career in IP or in fact any field of law – there are only two ways to go about it. First is to find your WHY – and continue to enrich the answer as you go along in your journey. Second is to read as much as you can and as wide as you can and if you cannot read – then keep company of people who read and make sure your choice of reading materials be not restricted to just law or science or business – make it wider – fiction, poetry, news, history, religion, vastu, architecture, biographies – become a sponge – absorb knowledge and become a powerhouse.
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