In this issue, we are extremely happy to publish interview of Mr. Subhadip Sarkar,Director of Intellectual Property at Cognizant Technology Solutions.
Mr.Sarkar who has past experience of association with many renowned companies like GE, Infosys, British Oxygen Company, has diversified knowledge of Intellectual Property and Technology Management.His core competencies include Intellectual Property (IP) strategy and management, Commercialization/licensing of IP and deal negotiation, incubating new businesses and practice areas, product IP risk and compliance mgmt., pricing and valuation of technologies, technology transfers, enabling co-creation with clients, partners, universities, managing Govt. affairs among others. Mr. Sarkar, who has completed his masters from IIM, Kozhikode, patent law from NALSAR and graduation in Engineering, is presently pursuing PhD in Intellectual Property.
Origiin: Hello Mr. Sarkar. It is a great pleasure for us to interact with you and publish your thoughts in this interview.
Mr. SubhadipSarkar: Thank you and it is my pleasure.
Origiin: Being alumni of IIM and an engineer by profession, when did you make a conscious decision to pursue patent law and enter into the field of IPR? How do you think IP as a career added to your profile?
Mr. Subhadip Sarkar: I don’t think that my transition from technology to IP was a very thought through process. I was doing well at my job and was quite satisfied. However, I wanted a desk job because my tech job involved lot of travelling and sometimes even staying away from my family for months. This is something which I thought cannot go for ever and I wanted a change. However, I did not want to leave technology completely and hence IP gave me an opportunity to learn something new without leaving technology. That was a good motivation for me. And today, I think the decision was great because I have learnt many things in my professional life which would have been somewhat difficult if I had been into technology only.
Origiin:You have been the driving force in setting up of IP cell at Cognizant as well as in Infosys. Can you tell us about the challenges you had faced from the initial phase to the current phase? And how fulfilling has the experience been?
Mr. SubhadipSarkar: Like you know, starting something new is always challenging. You have good and the bad part. But, one should have patience and dedication. It was not easy to start but my experience in Infosys really helped me in Cognizant because I at least knew what I should not be doing. It was challenging at times, especially when you start something in an area which is not known to many people. Therefore, I had to put in that extra effort and I was fortunate to get all support, cooperation and encouragement from my seniors, management, leaders, peers and all my colleagues. It was a wonderful journey and the good part is that this journey never ends and I am still learning. It has been also a great learning for me, which motivates me to take up the challenge. There were several challenges and one cannot generalize them because it is company specific. However, the most common challenge was to respond to the question – “Why is this required” and “What will happen if this is not done”. These are very good questions and it takes time for people to understand and that’s why I mentioned that one need to have lot of patience to start something new.
Origiin: What are your thoughts on IP workforce available in the market currently.Are they ready to perform all types of IP tasks such as prior art searches, drafting the application, prosecution and litigation? If not, how do you train them?
Mr.Subhadip Sarkar: It is wrong to expect a fresher to perform all IP activities from day 1 of his/her job. This is common for all profession. When I hire a fresher on IP, the only point that I check is the fundamentals and the willingness to learn and hunger for knowledge. As long as these elements are present, I think we can train and coach the person to be a very bright resource. In the field of IP, one needs to obtain lot of “on the job” training along with external specialized trainings. In addition, every IP professional need not do all the IP activities. Every activity requires a particular skill and he/she can specialize in an area depending on his/her interests and skills. A good patent drafter need not be a good patent analyst and vice versa. Overall on supply perspectives, I think we have some scarcity of good IP professionals in our country. The situation may hopefully improve after a few years.
Origiin: How important is IP valuation and IP audit for a company?
Mr. Subhadip Sarkar: Both the activities are important but they are highly contextual. If you have to do a valuation exercise, you need to understand the purpose of doing that and the expected outcome. Same is the case with IP audit. IP audits can be done to determine your IP assets and make a plan or it can be done to identify all risks and compliance issues for your product or service or a specific transaction or matter. Likewise, IP valuation needs to be done for asset purchase/sale or for determining your intangibles or during litigation or for something else. The models and approaches for both valuation and audits need to be customized,based on the need and the business objective.
Origiin:The world has seen perhaps the longest and most bitter battle between the two tech giants, Apple & Samsung fighting for their patent portfolios. What is your take on that?
Mr. Subhadip Sarkar: These are bound to happen. It is quite expected that litigation will increase in the era of incremental innovation. Personally for me, I enjoy reading these cases because it is a very good source of knowledge and learnings. These litigations also help us interpret some of the laws and court’s positions. Some of these cases are very interesting and should be a source of your training programs. I think companies will gradually move to target more of strategic patents rather than running after numbers. At least this is what I wish. I also expect more of cross-licensing deals in the future.
Origiin:What best precautions should a company take to avoid IP Infringement?
Mr. Subhadip Sarkar: There are lots of traditional approaches. It is a combination of training the developers, freedom to operate searches and opinions, IP insurance, IP audits, contractual protection and overall protecting your offering. However, as I mentioned earlier, the approaches should be decided based on the company policy, the offering, the risk appetite of the company, the IP strategy of the company and the offering etc. You cannot have “one rule fit for all” policy. Further, everything boils down to evaluating the business case and the associated “ROI”. Finally, the approaches need to be planned and should have a structure and processes.
Origiin:You are an expert in Technology management and commercialization/Licensing of IP. In general what type of hurdles you face in commercialization of IP.
Mr. Subhadip Sarkar: The biggest hurdle is deal structuring, commercial construct and negotiation. Negotiations hurdles can be minimized if the other 2 are properly taken care. If one is trying to manage all three at the same time, it can be a nightmare, especially for complex deals. The sequence is very simple – You structure the deal first – based on the deal structure, you define the commercial construct and then proceed on actual contract and negotiation. Finally, one needs to remember the golden rule of deal closure– “Negotiation is not a war with only bloodshed where one party wins – it is a discussion where all the parties win”
Origiin: Would you like to give any advice to young aspirants trying to carve a niche for themselves in IPR?
Mr. Subhadip Sarkar: No special advice on IP. The fundamentals remain the same – Honesty, dedication, sincerity, professionalism and eagerness to learn. There is lot of learning to be done in the field of IP because it is an evolving area. Therefore, never stop learning and always look at devising innovative methods/approaches to solve a problem. Finally, any activity that is done should be executed keeping the ROI for your company in mind and not because someone else is doing that.
Origiin: Thank you so much Sir for your valuable inputs. The information’s are indeed very helpful.
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