Interns – Yamini Gurjar (Final Year General IP Intern); MD Maaz Alam, Divya Sasidharan, Nandita, Yash Raj and Merlin Mary Zacharias (Pre-Final Year General IP Interns); and Surbhi Nautiyal (Pre-Final Year Patent Intern) have successfully completed their Internship at ALG. At the end of their internship, they obliged us with their thoughts and ideas during the Sharing of Reflections (SoR) sessions. Their presence enriched the firm while they interned here. We wish them all the best in their future endeavours.

Interns Prajjwal Kushwaha (Final Year) and Shubhank Suman, Sirisha Prasad, Sai Ruchitha, Chetna Singh, Avni Sharma, Vishwa Patel and Ayushi Suman (Pre-Final Year) have commenced their General IP Internship with the firm’s law practice.

We hope their stay in the firm during the 4 week period of their internship will be mutually enriching and that the firm and they will learn exciting things from each other!

During last week’s Practice Work Shop (PWS) Session, Krithika Muthuraman, Associate, lead a discussion on the relation between Intellectual Property Rights and Human Rights and whether the realization of the two were in harmony with each other. The session delved into the the specific rights to health, education and development, and whether IPRs create a barrier of access in realization of the above. The session saw some interesting points raised in the sphere of public health, the current provisions in the respective IP Regimes, challenges to realization of certain human rights and the role of global IP policies in addressing these challenges.

A ‘Legal Issues Seminar’ (LIS) was conducted by Nayantara Malhotra, Senior Associate, on “Do Animals Have Fundamental Rights?”. The seminar touched upon the statutory and constitutional rights available to animals. The session also delved into recent judgements wherein person-hood was granted to animals and fundamental rights of animals were recognized. The session saw several questions from the team including whether the punishments prescribed under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960 have the requisite deterrent effects.

The presentation can be accessed here.

During last week’s Practice Work Shop (PWS) Session, Sanjukta Kaushik, Trainee Associate, lead a discussion on the role played by Intellectual Property in the preservation and protection of the indigeneity of tribal groups and culture and the need for creating awareness thereon. The session witnessed an engrossing discussion on the relationship between culture and traditions, right to culture and IP, and the scope of IP in according blanket protection to ensure continued authenticity and preservation of culture globally. The session also delved into measures that can be undertaken in the future to balance the competing right of private ownership against collective use of protected IP worldwide.