IP Insights: SuperLawyer interviews Dr. Kalyan C. Kankanala

Over the years, we at SiNApSE have been working hard to disseminate IP knowledge in various forms from news posts to interviews and serials. In today’s post, we are happy to bring to your notice some excerpts of Dr. Kalyan Kankanala’s interview with Super Lawyer, a resource/publication for students.

In the interview Dr. Kalyan discusses in detail his days as a student and his academic journey, his tryst with Intellectual Property as a profession and his interests in research, writing and teaching.  He also makes some keen observations about the state of IP in India and the opportunities that lie ahead. These observations have also been carried by some other major publications such as the Hindu and the Indian Express on previous occasions.

A few excerpts from the interview with SuperLawyer.in have been reproduced here for our readers.

The interview brings to light the journey of Dr. Kalyan through his initial years, first as a student and then as an IP professional. Dr. Kalyan discusses the circumstances that led him to choose LL.B as an option, and eventually Intellectual Property as an area of specialization, above his aspirations to become a medical professional. Writing, a process he tremendously enjoys, doesn’t flow as easily as one would assume.  He normally spends at least five hours on research to write just 500 words. In this context he further elaborates on how students can go about their careers with respect to research, writing, and publishing-grade academic papers.

These days there are diverse career choices for legal professionals other than the typical corporate or litigation streams.  Dr. Kalyan particularly emphasizes the opportunities in teaching and entrepreneurship, streams that he has pursued successfully.  He also speaks about the other abundant choices that are available to law graduates today such as public interest advocacy, policy level lobbying, government positions, judicial services, and startups.

Talking about the state of IP in India, Dr. Kalyan explains how Intellectual Property is one of the fastest growing fields of law.  He discusses how areas such as licensing, open source, portfolio management, technology transfer, valuation, IP management, to name a few, are fast evolving and demonstrate the great growth potential of IP.  Additionally, he elaborates on how other areas of law, where IP forms a very important component, such as Entertainment Law, Sports Law, Technology Law, E-commerce Law, Art Law, etc. are also gaining traction in India.

SuperLawyer notes that Dr. Kalyan has authored many IP books, fiction and non-fiction. These include bestselling books like “Road Humps and Sidewalks” and “Pirates of Bollywood”. The latter has also been profiled in an interview with Bar and Bench.  Dr. Kalyan also sheds light on his upcoming novels which are set for release in 2016. The first novel, “The Oath”, is a medico-legal drama while the second one, “DogMafia”, is a short thriller on the dog abduction mafia in Bangalore. Thereafter in 2017, Dr. Kalyan plans the release of his much anticipated IP law thriller “The Dravidian”.

About Dr. Kalyan’s upcoming book “The Oath”

When Medicine Clashes with Law!

Dr. Krishna, a conscientious doctor, is arrested and put on trial for treating naxalites. Many police officers are killed in an encounter with naxalites, and the police are looking for payback. They want Dr. Krishna to pay for helping naxalites, to pay for the deaths of their men, and to pay for their helplessness. They mount irrefutable evidence against Dr. Krishna, and the Public Prosecutor has never lost a case.

Can Dr. Krishna survive the legal onslaught? Does his old lawyer have enough in him to defend a lost cause? Set in Zala, the hot bed of naxal activity in the state of Andhra Pradesh, The Oath narrates a gripping, entertaining and intellectually stimulating tale of the clash between Medicine and Law.

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Authored by Gaurav Mishra.

Image Source/Attribution here, governed by Creative Commons License CC BY-SA 3.0

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