Professor Basheer joined NUJS in November 2008 as the first Ministry of Human Resource Development Chaired Professor in Intellectual Property Law. Before this, he was the Frank H Marks Visiting Associate Professor of Intellectual Property Law at the George Washington University law school and a research associate at the Oxford Intellectual Property Research Center (OIPRC). He founded several initiatives such as SpicyIP, IDIA, P-PIL and Lex Biosis. He is regularly consulted by the government and Parliamentary committees on IP policy issues and legislations.
He graduated from India’s premier law school, the National Law School of India University, Bangalore. He then joined Anand and Anand, a leading intellectual property law firm in New Delhi, and worked on a variety of contentious and non contentious IP matters before being called upon to head the firm’s IT and Telecommunications Law Division, India. Whilst in practice, the IFLR 1000 guide rated him as a leading technology lawyer.
Prof Basheer went on to do his post-graduate studies at the University of Oxford. He completed the BCL (as a Shell Centenary scholar) and MPhil with distinction; his thesis dealing with biotechnology and patent law in India was awarded the second prize in a writing contest held by the Stanford Technology Law Review. He is currently reading for the DPhil (PhD) as a Wellcome Trust scholar. In the past, he has been an invited research fellow at the Institute of Intellectual Property (IIP), Tokyo, an International Bar Association (IBA) scholar and an Inter Pacific Bar Association (IPBA) scholar.
He has been an editor of the Oxford Commonwealth Law Journal (OUCLJ) and a founding member of EDIP (Electronic Database of Intellectual Property). His research interests include intellectual property issues (particularly patents and copyrights) and innovation/creativity policy, public health, international trade issues, competition law and issues around legal education.
He has spoken on these themes at various conferences and also published papers in leading technology journals such as the Yale Technology Law Journal, IPQ (Intellectual Property Quarterly), EIPR (European Intellectual Property Law Review) and JILP (Journal of law technology and policy).
Scholarships, Prizes and Awards
2007: Awarded the first place in a writing contest held by ATRIP for an article dealing with the Novartis-Gleevec patent case in India.
2004: Awarded the second prize in a writing contest held by the Stanford Technology Law Review for an article on biotechnology and patent law in India.
2004: Awarded the MS Lin Scholarship to attend the Inter Pacific Bar Association (IPBA) conference in Seoul.
2003: Awarded the Wellcome Trust studentship prize and the Clarendon Scholarship for the Mphil/Dphil at Oxford.
2003: Awarded a distinction on the BCL at Oxford.
2003: Awarded the IBA (International Bar Association) scholarship.
2002: Awarded the Shell Centenary-British Chevening Scholarship for the BCL at Oxford.
2002: Rated as one of the leading technology lawyers in India by the IFLR 1000 guide (a Euromoney publication) in 2002.
2001: Awarded the second best prize by the Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI) for an article on “Internet and Intellectual Property Rights”.
PUBLICATIONS (Representative)
1. Perspectives on Patent Law in India (Lexis Nexis, New Delhi, June 2009) (forthcoming: co-authored with Prashant Reddy).
2. When Intellectual Property Rights Overlap (OUP, UK, Forthcoming) (co-edited with Neil Wilkoff)
Book Chapters:
3. The WIPO Development Agenda: Factoring in the “Technologically Proficient” Developing Countries “Implementing WIPO’s Development Agenda” DeBeer (ed), (Wilfred Laurier University Press/Centre for International Governance Innovation/International Development Research Centre, Waterloo, Ontario, 2009) (forthcoming).
4. Trademark Issues on the Internet: Domain Name Dispute Resolution, “Information Technology Law in India” (Indian Law Institute, New Delhi, 2004).
5. Media Laws in India ‘Investing in India’ (Asia Law and Practice, Euromoney Publications (Jersey) Limited, 2002).
6. E-commerce in India: An E-volving E-jurisprudence ‘Asian E-volution’ (Asia Law & Practice, Euromoney Publications (Jersey) Limited, 2001).
Papers (Refereed):
7. The Doctrine of Equivalents in Various Patent Regimes: Does Anybody Have it Right?, 11 Yale J.L. & Tech. 261, 2009 [co-authored with 7 others, including The Hon. Sir Nicholas Pumfrey, Justice Meirbeck and Prof Adelman]).
8. The Experimental Use Exception: A Developmental Perspective, IDEA Volume 50, Number 4, 2010, page 831-873 (with Prashant Reddy)
9. Outsourcing “Bayh Dole” to India: Lost in Transplantation, Columbia Journal of Asian Law, Volume 23, Number 2, Spring 2010
10. Turning TRIPS On Its Head: An IP “Cross Retaliation” Model for Developing Countries, Law and Development Review, Berkeley Press, Volume 1, 2010.
11. Section 377 and the ‘Order of Nature’: Nurturing ‘Indeterminacy’ in the Law?, NUJS Law Review, Vol.2, No. 3, 2009
12. The “Efficacy” of Indian Patent Law: Ironing out the Creases in Section 3(d), Volume 5, Issue 2, Script-ed, August 2008. (co-authored with Prashant Reddy)
13. ‘Ducking’ TRIPS in India: A Saga Involving Novartis and the Legality of Section 3(d) National Law School of India Review, Vol. 20, No. 2, pp. 131-155, 2008.
14. TRIPS, Patents and Parallel Imports: A Proposal for Amendment, Indian Journal of Intellectual Property Law , Vol. 2, pp. 63-86, 2009 (with M Kochupillai)
15. Exhausting’ Patent Rights in India: Parallel Imports and TRIPS Compliance, Journal of Intellectual Property Rights, Vol. 13, pp. 486-497, September 2008 (with Mrinalini Kochupillai).
16. Popping Patented Pills: Europe and a Decade’s Dose of TRIPs EIPR Volume 28 Issue 4 (May 2006). (with David Vaver).
17. India’s New Patent Regime: Aiding Access or Abetting Genericide, International Journal of Biotechnology, 8 (5) 2006.
18. Taming of the Flu: Working Through the Tamiflu Patents in India Journal of Intellectual Property Rights 11(2)(2006) 113-124 (with Tahir Amin)
19. India’s Tryst with TRIPS: The Patents (Amendment) Act 2005 1 Indian J. L. & Tech. 15 (2005). (reprinted in in Edson Beas Rodrigues Jr. and Fabrício Polido (ed), Propriedade Intelectual (Rio de Janeiro, Elsevier, 2007).
20. Policy Style Reasoning at the Indian Patent Office Issue No 3, Intellectual Property Quarterly (IPQ) (paper based on BCL thesis submitted at Univ of Oxford that was the winner of second prize in a contest by Stanford Technology Law Review (STLR)).
21. Block Me Not: Genes as Essential Facilities Journal of Law, Technology and Policy (2005) Issue No 2, 55. (reprinted in Journal of Intellectual Property Rights, September 2006, 11(5) 309-390).