TEAM

Managing Partner  

Suresh Chandran has over 25 years of experience in tech commercialization internationally. He began his career in Technology Transfer at the National Institute of Immunology, New Delhi, where he established IP Management and commercialization operations. He also served on the Department of Biotechnology’s (Govt. of India) Patent Selection Committee before proceeding to Franklin Pierce Law Center, USA to complete his Masters in Intellectual Property Law. He then interned with the Office of Technology Transfer of the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda.  As intern, he evaluated invention disclosures for the Infectious Diseases and Biomedical Devices group, analysing their patentability and commercial merit. He later joined an IP Boutique in Virginia servicing a largely university clientele and was involved in patent drafting and prosecution matters.

He left the USA to join as a Patent Attorney in a large law-firm headquartered in Singapore and about two years later became Manager (Life Science) at the National University of Singapore’s Technology Transfer Office.   

Besides IP harvesting and commercialization, he also mentored students of business schools in launching start-ups with university inventions. He left NUS to take over as Director at ES Cell International Singapore, then amongst the world’s leading regenerative medicine companies working with human embryonic stem cells. He succeeded in building a dominant IP portfolio in the stem cell space as well as generated revenue streams worth a few million dollars from licensing reagents, cell lines and the company’s non-core IP.

Returning to India, he joined as Associate Principal at SNA,  a law firm specializing in IP. He later moved to the Bangalore Life Science cluster where he managed the IP and commercialization efforts of the BLiSC institutions.  He was later invited to create and head the new Office of Technology Transfer at C-CAMP, Bengaluru by the BIRAC-National Biopharma Mission. He set up the unit from scratch, organizing, recruiting, training, setting operating protocols and functionalizing the unit. A number of licenses have since ensued and several patent applications were filed from invention disclosures harvested from institutions within its jurisdiction. He brings considerable experience to the job - in analysing early stage inventions, strategizing commercialization, drafting and prosecuting applications in multiple jurisdictions till grant, and managing outside Counsel. As an invited speaker, Suresh has presented papers at international conferences and many national conferences and workshops under the aegis of WIPO/ the Government of India. He is also a qualified RTTP and patent practitioner.

Partner

   Anusmrithi Sharma has over 15 years of experience in Research and Technology transfer. She has working experience in both academia and industry. She holds a Master’s degree in Biotechnology. She is also qualified in Intellectual Property laws from the National Law School University of India, Bengaluru. She began her career at Biocon and later joined Connexios Life Science Pvt Ltd, where she evaluated Drug screening and Assay development.  She worked at the National Institute of Veterinary Epidemiology and Disease Informatics, monitoring livestock diseases and surveillance in the Karnataka region. Anusmrithi has worked as a Research Scientist at the Institute of Stem Cell Science and Regenerative Medicine, InStem, NCBS.

She spear-headed many of the start-up and industry collaborative projects to validate their proofs-of-concept. She transferred know-how, biological material, technology, intellectual property, technical skills from academic institutions to Industrial clients. She has assisted law-firms in patent drafting and technology evaluations. She has successfully completed the Society of Technology Management (STEM global) professional training program. She also worked as a Licensing specialist at BIRAC-National Biopharma Mission’s leading Technology Transfer Office located at the Bangalore Life Science Cluster, providing Tech transfer services to Karnataka and many Indian states. She successfully concluded many transactions including licensing, techno-commercial evaluations and patent analyses which includes licensing a new drug molecule to a Boston-based company and several others in the life sciences domain. 

 She is a qualified Registered Technology Transfer Professional (RTTP) awarded by the Global Alliance of Technology Transfer Professionals. 

Partner

Visit SNA website:

https://www.ip-sna.com/  

Hari Subramaniam, Asia’s leading Patent attorney has a practice spanning over 40 years. He has a background in medicine, biological and life sciences, physics and chemistry. He has had specialised advanced training in medicine, biotechnology, electronics and medicinal chemistry at various international institutions of repute. He is amongst India’s top patent litigators.  Hari has filed, prosecuted, defended, opposed and/or enforced (directly or in a supervisory capacity) over 45,000 patent matters in India and abroad. He possesses formidable skills in drafting and prosecuting patent applications in most countries of the world, and in practically every area of technology. He was nominated by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) to conduct workshops on the Patent Co-operation Treaty (PCT) and as a tutor for patent specification drafting techniques. 

Hari was the first person to initiate black box (mailbox) applications in India under the GATT/TRIPS Agreement for pharmaceutical products, and his applications were the basis for the Patent Office to formulate rules and policies for filing, receiving and examination of mail box applications.   

As an expert witness before the Joint Parliamentary Committee, where he was also spearhead for the CII, Hari was instrumental in bringing into effect the pharmaceutical product patent regime in India. Hari is an expert in GATT/TRIPS and PCT related issues. 

​Hari is currently serving as President-Elect of the APAA International Body, and is the first Indian to be elected to this position. He is also the only person to have been elected to the position of President of the India chapter of APAA twice. He was also the International Vice President of the APAA for 13 consecutive years until 2016, and has been Councilor of the APAA for 20 consecutive years. He was one of four Indian attorneys featured in a cover story of Asia IP, entitled “50 Patent Lawyers One Should Know”. Other than the various awards he frequently receives for his long-standing expertise and excellence in intellectual property law, he has been nominated as “Patent Attorney of the Year” in India on numerous occasions by several leading law magazines.