Profile Overview
Sunita K Sreedharan is the Founder & principal of the SKS Law Associates based in New Delhi. A lawyer and a patent agent, she founded SKS Law Associates in 2007 to advise clients on creation, consolidation and protection of their IP portfolio. Her team of trained lawyers, patent agents and patent engineers provide contentious and non-contentious services relating to patents, trademarks, copyright, industrial designs, geographical indications and plant variety protection and matters related to biodiversity for Indian and foreign clients..
Ms. Sreedharan is well-known for providing reasonable and practical solutions to complicated legal issues especially on licensing and commercialization. Clients which include individual inventors, start-ups and big business are advised on creation and maintenance of a comprehensive IP portfolio that can be monetized with a customized commercialization strategy which includes identifying and consolidating confidential information, trade secrets, technical know-how, licensing negotiations as well as litigation strategies.
Ms. Sreedharan specializes in all IP matters both prosecution and litigation; her strength lies in license agreements. She successfully argued against the grant of business method patent in the seminal Business Method case (Yahoo! Inc v. The Controller of Patents & Rediff.com) before the Patent Office, the Madras High Court and eventually the IPAB.
Besides, Ms. Sreedharan has served in a number of positions; a representative list is enumerated below:
As a WIPO resource person for the Training the Trainer Programme on IP Asset Management by Entrepreneurs, Micro-enterprises & SMEs, made presentations on Geographical Indications, Trademarks & Collective Marks, Traditional Knowledge, Patents and Copyrights at a number of Programmes including at Cagayan de Oro (The Philippines), Damascus (Syria), New Delhi, Singapore etc
As the Legal Advisor to the first Chairperson of the Plant Variety Authority.
Empanelled on the Central Technology Management Committee of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR).
As Temporary Advisor to the World Health Organization
Was commissioned to examine the health related legislations of India and suggest solutions for the effective implementation of International Health Regulations 2005 which was presented at the WHO – South East Asian Regional Conference at Yangon, Myanmar in April 2013
Was invited by the Royal Government of Bhutan to advice on implementation of International Health Regulations in August 2013.
Worked on a Study to examine how international and national covenants and legislations impact access to bio-resources and/ or traditional knowledge/ traditional medicine and protection of bio-resources under the PPV& FR Act and Patents Act for bio-resources-based medicines and medicine research and submitted projects on:
Legislative Assessment Of Proposed & Existing Laws On Intellectual Property Rights And Access & Benefit Sharing (ABS) In Public Health For Research On Traditional Medicine Systems” – March 2015
Legislative Assessment Of International Covenants And Domestic Laws To Promote Access To Bio-Resources For R&D And For Product Development – August 2017
Prepared the Draft National Health Law for the Ministry of Health, the Royal Government of Bhutan in 2014-2015.
As a member of the core team that drafted the Rules on the Management of Traditional Knowledge under the Biological Diversity laws for the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India
Panel member on National Television panel discussions on the National IPR Policy accessible at : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdolSBbnURc
SKS Law Associates were named as “Consultants of the Year 2017 by the CEO Magazine; News accessible at: https://theceo.in/2017/12/sunita-k-sreedharans-sks-law-associates-redefines-the-tenets-of-intellectual-property-services-across-india-and-beyond/