Hari Subramaniam

Hari Subramaniam, the founding and Managing Partner, is an attorney-at law and a Registered Patent Agent with a background in medicine, biological and life sciences, physics and chemistry. He was registered as a Patent Agent and admitted to the bar in 1981 and has been in practice for the last 34 years, specialising in all aspects of intellectual property law matters. Previously, he was associated with Remfry & Sagar, Attorneys-at-law, for nearly seventeen years with a substantial part thereof as the Partner in charge of its Patent and Designs Department. In the course of the career, he has filed, prosecuted, defended, opposed and/or enforced directly or in supervisory capacity over 35,000 Patent matters in India and abroad. He has extensive experience in oppositions, IP litigations and drafting patent specifications and prosecution in most countries of the world in practically all areas of technology. He was one of the WIPO nominated speakers in India for conducting workshops on PCT and a tutor for drafting patent specifications. He was the first person to initiate black box (mail box) applications in India under the GATT/TRIPS Agreement for pharmaceutical products. He is on the teaching faculty of several law Institutes in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Hyderabad. He has been called upon several times as an expert witness before the Joint Parliamentary Committee for the amendment of patent laws in India. He is regularly called upon as a faculty or speaker in several seminars, conferences and Patents Awareness workshops conducted by the Government of India, WIPO and various International Organisations, American Bar Association, INTA, AIPPI, APAA and universities across the world. He has also authored several papers relating to key issues on various aspects of Intellectual Property laws. He was part of an expert group and task force on patents of the Confederation of Indian Industries and a Faculty member of Technology Information Forecasting Assessment Cell, Government of India. He was sent by the Government of India as part of a three-member delegation to advise the Prime Minister of Mauritius on amendment of Patent laws. His field of specialisation includes physics, chemistry, biochemistry, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology, mechanical, electrical and electronics, trademark prosecution, opposition and litigation. Hari Subramaniam has been instrumental in the development of IP laws in India and has several land mark cases to his credit. He has won several awards and is recognised as a leading Patent Attorney in India, particularly in prosecutions and oppositions. He is also very actively involved in trade mark and copyright infringement and invalidations actions and has numerous important decisions to his credit. He is the International Vice President and a Councillor of Asian Patent Attorneys Association (APAA), and the Past President of APAA Indian Chapter. He is also the Vice President of Anti Counterfeiting Group, India Chapter. He was one of the four Indian Attorneys featured in the cover story “50 Patent lawyers one should know” in Asia and Pacific region in the March 2014 issue of Asia IP. He has been nominated as the Patent Attorney of the Year in India by several leading law magazines several times.


Shalina Ahuja: Principal

sna@sna-ip.com : Shalina Ahuja has been in practice for about 28 years. She was associated with Remfry & Sagar from 1983 to 1986.. She is a highly experienced trademark attorney and handles important brands of several Fortune 500 and Fortune 100 companies and maintains some of the world’s most important brands on their behalf. In addition to expertise in trademarks and copyrights, she also has over 15 years experience in filing and prosecuting patent applications. She has trained several young attorneys on legal issues and management and is particularly known for formulating strategies in contentious matters. Her field of specialisation includes patent and trademark filings, formalities and advice on legal issues, opposition, litigation and enforcements.


Gayatri Bhasin: Principal

gb@sna-ip.com : Gayatri Bhasin is a leading Patent Agent and Advocate with more than 15 years of practical and research experience. She has a Ph.D. in Toxicology. During her research she has worked in the Area of Cancer Chemoprevention, Oxidative Stress and Photodynamic Therapy and has published research papers in International Journals of repute. Dr. Bhasin has worked in Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited as a Research Associate and has been awarded independent fellowship of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Government of India and women-scientist scholarship in Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) of Patent Facilitating Centre, TIFAC, Government of India. Her main areas of practice are drafting patent specifications, prosecution, patent searching in the areas of toxicology, pharmacology, pharmaceutical chemistry, microbiology and biotechnology, filing, prosecuting and defending against third party oppositions, appearing in oral proceedings before the Patent Office and prosecuting appeals and revocations proceedings before the Intellectual Property Appellate Board with a tremendous success rate.


Sriram Panyam: Principal

sp@sna-ip.com : Sriram Panyam is an Attorney-at-law with over eleven years of experience and expertise in the field of Trade Marks, Copyright and domain name registration, prosecution and enforcement. Mr. Panyam has a Bachelors Degree (LLB) from ILS Law College (University of Pune) and a Masters Degree (LLM) in Intellectual Property Law from Franklin Pierce Law Center, U.S.A. His experience encompasses a broad range of Trade Mark and copyright related services which includes advising domestic and international clients on issues related to filing, prosecution, assignments, oppositions, litigation and appearing and arguing in contentious matters before the Trade Marks Registry, Intellectual Property Appellate Board and High Courts. Prior to joining SNA, Mr. Panyam has been associated with leading law firms in Mumbai and Gurgaon and has acquired valuable experience in litigating in several jurisdictions in India.


Divya Kapoor: Principal

dv@sna-ip.com : Divya Kapoor is an Attorney-at-law and Patent Agent with eleven years of research and practical experience. She has a first class Masters degree in Industrial Chemistry with specialization in pharmaceuticals. During her industrial placement year, she worked at a private pharmaceutical company, helping to develop and test new chemical entities along with problems involved in their scale up. Her practice includes drafting new applications, filing and prosecuting patent and design applications worldwide in a wide range of fields including chemistry, pharmaceuticals and biochemistry and represents clients in oral proceedings before the Indian Patent Office and Appellate Board. She is also highly experienced in drafting both pre-grant and post-grant oppositions and preparing patentability and infringement opinions. She also drafts and prepares full case briefs for litigating Counsels. Ms. Kapoor is also involved in filing and prosecuting Design Applications.


Ritu Gandhi : Associate Principal

drg@sna-ip.com : Dr. Gandhi is a leading Patent Attorney with a combined research and practical experience of over 16 years. She has a M.Sc. degree in Biotechnology and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry. She has worked as a scientist and training coordinator in Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) matters of Patent Facilitating Centre, Department of Science & Technology, Government of India. She has worked with a US Based Law firm Lexadigm. Her main areas of expertise are plant variety protection, geographical indications, drafting patent specifications, prosecution, oppositions, revocations, providing infringement and invalidity opinions, patent searching and appearing in oral proceedings before the Patent Office and Appellate Board in respect of Appeals and contentious matters. She has also assisted Senior Counsel/Lawyers at High Court level as a scientific advisor in landmark patent infringement matters.


Aaysu Mahla: Associate Principal

am@sna-ip.com : She is an Attorney-at-law and a Registered Patent Agent with eleven years of experience. She has a Master’s degree in Biotechnology with very strong academic credentials with her undergraduate degree in Biotechnology, Zoology and Chemistry with Physics as an additional subject. She was also involved in molecular biology research projects at highly esteemed institutes of India, such as Bhabha Atomic Research Institute, Mumbai and Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi. Her main areas of expertise are drafting and prosecution of Patent Applications; filing of PCT applications and National Phase entries and their prosecution; Patent searching; drafting and filing oppositions relating to Patents. She also assists Senior Counsels/Lawyers at High Court level as briefing counsel and scientific advisor in several contentious matters. She manages large portfolios of important clients and supervises and oversees prosecution of Indian Patent applications. She also regularly appears in oral proceedings for prosecution and opposition matters and routinely drafts and prepares full case briefs for Senior Counsels and Advocates.


Ashish K. Sharma: Senior Associate

as@sna-ip.com : Ashish Sharma is a registered Patent Agent and a qualified Attorney‐at‐Law with over 12 years of experience. He is also a Business Management Graduate. He holds a Diploma in E‐commerce, a B.Sc Degree with Physics and Chemistry as main subjects and a Masters Degree in Applied Chemistry. He has considerable experience in drafting patent specifications relating to various subject matters. He has handled and prosecuted a wide spectrum of patent cases including electricals, electronics, automobiles, machines and machine tools, mining, landscaping and validation studies. He also prepares and prosecutes designs and trademark matters. He routinely appears before the Indian Patent Office and Trademarks Registry in oral proceedings. Prior to commencing his practice at SNA, he was associated as an IP consultant with TATA Motors Ltd., one of the leading Automobile Manufactures in India and brings to the firm Industry experience as well.


Manoj Venkitachalam: Senior Associate

mv@sna-ip.com : Manoj Venkitachalam is a Registered Patent Agent, working as a Senior Associate with SNA. Mr. Venkitachalam has 14 years of experience in the field of patent prosecution. His expertise lies in filing and prosecution of patent applications at Indian Patent Office; drafting patent specifications, particularly in the area electronics, mechanical and computer related inventions, machines and machine tools and home products; prior art study and patent searches and liaising and following up matters before the Patent Office.


Aditi Subramaniam: Senior Associate

asm@sna-ip.com : Aditi Subramaniam is a law graduate from the University of Oxford and has about six years experience in the field of Intellectual Property rights. She brings to the firm a rich experience of interning with several highly reputed Law firms during her three year tenure in Oxford. She has attended several live proceedings and trials before various tribunals and courts and has assisted Advocates and Senior Counsels in trial preparation. She has argued several moot Court competitions before Senior Attorneys and Judges and has won more than 90% of them. Currently, she is training to be a litigator and has interned with several leading Indian litigators and a leading Australian law Firm. She was also involved in preparing draft policy matters along with a sitting Judge of Delhi High Court and brings to the Firm a rich knowledge of European and British laws.


Rashmi Sharma: Associate

rg@sna-ip.com : Rashmi Sharma is a qualified Patent Agent with over ten years of experience in the field of Intellectual Property Rights, specializing in patent matters. She has a Masters degree in Science. Her main areas of practice are drafting and prosecution of patent applications in multiple jurisdictions; filing international patents and patent searching in the areas of mechanics, electricals and electronics, pharmaceutical chemistry, microbiology and biotechnology; drafting and filing patent oppositions.


Moutushi Bhowmik: Associate

mb@sna-ip.com : Moutushi Bhowmik is a Registered Patent Agent and a qualified Advocate with eight years of experience. She has undergone one year diploma course in Computers and successfully completed various distance learning courses of WIPO (DL101, WIPO DL204E). She also has a Masters Degree in Intellectual Property Law. Her main areas of practice are drafting and prosecution of patent applications in the field of electronics, electrical, mechanical and software related inventions, home products and machine tools, automobiles and automotive parts; filing international patents and patent searches in the areas of physical sciences; drafting and filing of patent oppositions.


Pradeep Kumar: Associate

pd@sna-ip.com : Pradeep Kumar Kamal is a Registered Patent Agent and is presently pursuing LLB. He has a professional experience of more than 14 years in teaching, research and patent prosecution. Dr. Kamal has a Master’s degree in Biotechnology and a Ph.D. in Biomedical Science. He has experience in drafting Patent specifications, patent analysis, gap analysis, freedom to operate, Patent prosecution and due diligence in Patent matters. Dr. Kamal is actively involved in advising on technical and legal aspects of patenting and complex IPR mattes. Dr. Kamal has been reviewer of “Cardiovascular Diabetology” and for Indian Council of Medical Research, Government of India, research project proposals and is recipient of ”Young Investigator Prize”.


Sakshi Mahajan: Associate

sm@sna-ip.com : Sakshi Mahajan is a Patent Attorney with two years of experience. She holds an LLB degree from Faculty of Law, University of Delhi and a B.Tech. degree in Biotechnology. She brings to the firm valuable experience of interning with reputed law firms, leading Advocates in different fields of law and also with a former Additional Solicitor General (ASG) of India. While studying law, she has also attended many live proceedings and Trials before various Tribunals and Courts and has assisted Advocates and senior Counsels in Trial preparations. While pursuing her engineering degree she worked in laboratories of a leading University and assisted Professors and research Scholars in conducting various experiments on live cells. She has experience in filing and prosecuting Patent application world-wide in a wide range of fields, principally in chemistry, pharmaceutical science and in biotechnology. She has also drafted Appeals, pre-grant and post-grant patent Oppositions. She has also filed and prosecuted Design applications in India. She also has experience in Trademark filing and prosecution in India.


Ms. Sonia Khera: Associate

Sonia Khera is a registered Trade Mark Agent and an Attorney-at-law with an experience of six years in Trade Marks prosecution. Her practice areas include conducting availability searches, filing, prosecution, renewals and managing trade mark portfolios of domestic and international clients. Ms. Khera also assists in drafting of pleadings in contentious matters and is involved in management and supervision of international trade mark filings under domestic laws as well as Madrid Protocol.


Manish Kumar: Associate

Manish Kumar is a qualified Attorney-at-law with an experience of over seven years in the field of Patents, Designs and Trademarks filing and prosecution. He holds a Diploma in Office Management from YMCA, New Delhi. He performs a variety of tasks in the firm. His areas of practice also include assisting Senior Attorneys in filing of per-grant and post grant oppositions, Appeals and Revocations, replying to client’s queries and maintaining records of cases. He is also familiar with Contract Law. His area of expertise lies in drafting and recordal of assignment agreements and advising client’s on the issue arising thereon.


Pankaj Singh

Chief Paralegal and Head of formalities division, domestic filings. pk@sna-ip.com : Pankaj Singh has over 15 years of experience. He is a Science graduate with specialization in Physics and Chemistry. He is currently pursuing his Bachelor’s degree in Law. His area of expertise lies in filing and prosecution of patent applications at the Indian Patent Office; supervising post-filing and formal matters; advising the clients on all formalities and legal matters pertaining to Indian Patents Law, maintaining and updating database and manual records.


Hema Sawhney

Chief Paralegal and Head of Foreign filing formalities and renewal department. hs@sna-ip.com : Hema Sawhney has been Associated with SNA for over 13 years and assists the Partners in all aspects for foreign filing work, routine correspondence, foreign filing records. She maintains and updates foreign filing database. Ms. Sawhney handles complete overseas Patents renewals portfolio including docketing, maintaining, monitoring and recording deadlines, following up with Client’s and Associates, updating records and ensuring timely payment of renewals. She also plays a very active role in the Firm’s incoming Mail Room.


Ajay Anand

Sr. Manager, Information Technology, Accounts & HRD. aa@sna-ip.com : Ajay Anand has a working experience of over 13+ years as Manager – IT , Accounts & Administration, He has a Master’s degree in Computer Applications and has worked with USA based corporations like Indigomoon Inc., SAS Inc and QVC. He has been a part of the development team for 3 ERP in these corporations. In SNA he is responsible for all aspects of IT, Accounts, and HR.


Dinesh Kanojia

Sr. Manager Administration. Dinesh Kanojia, a student of Economics, started his career with Remfry & Sagar in 1991 and moved to SNA when it was founded in 1998. He is responsible for all aspects of office Administration including receiving and entering incoming mails and supervising dispatch register, cash flow, banking and payrolls. He reports directly to the Managing Partner.