Mauritius Research and Innovation Council
operating under the aegis of
Ministry of Information Technology, Communication and Innovation
The World IP Day is celebrated each year on April 26th. This event coincides with the date on which the Convention Establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) entered into force in 1970. World IP Day aims to celebrate creativity and the contribution made by creators and innovators to the development of economies and societies across the globe.
This year’s theme chosen by WIPO is "IP and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): Building our common future with innovation and creativity”. IP serves as a critical incentive for innovation and creativity, which in turn are key to the success of the SDGs. This theme aims to explore how IP encourages and can amplify the innovative and creative solutions that are critical to building our common future.
This seminar marking World IP Day 2024 provided an opportunity to highlight the central role that IP, innovation and creativity play in achieving the SDGs for the benefit of all. In this context, the aim of the MRIC Technology Transfer Office was also to show how a balance is being achieved between protecting IP and achieving the SDGs, as progress is made towards a more sustainable and equitable future.
Meet The Speakers
Ms Daisy Sharma
Senior Associate,
Advocate and Patent Agent,
SKS Law Associates,
India
Ms Daisy Sharma is currently a Senior Associate at SKS Law Associates and holds a Master of Pharmacy and a Bachelor of Laws. She handles prior art search, freedom to operate search, patent validity assessment, due diligence and competitive intelligence. She is also involved in drafting of patents and their prosecution, including filing response to office actions with a specialized focus on life sciences, biochemical, medical, medical devices, immunological, herbal and pharmaceutical inventions. Ms Sharma was also an Associate Professor in B.S Anangpuria College of Pharmacy where she delivered lectures on Pharmaceutical Sciences, and Drug Store and Business Management, together with designing and conducting experiments on formulation and evaluation of various pharmaceutical dosage forms. She was on the Technology Information, Forecasting and Assessment Council (TIFAC) list of 100 Success Stories from the Women Scientists Scheme 2021. Ms Sharma was also selected in the IPR Training Programme Sponsored by TIFAC, under “Women Scientists Scholarship Scheme”.
Title of presentation:
IP and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
Ms Joanna Chen
Economic Officer, U.S Embassy
Mauritius
Ms Joanna Chen currently holds the position of Economic Officer at the U.S. Embassy in Port Louis. Her previous experience includes serving as the Deputy Chief of American Citizen Services at the U.S. Embassy in Doha, as well as working at the White House in the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs and Public Engagement. She also has experience as the Executive Director of the nonprofit Youth Leadership America. Ms Chen has a background in business development and sales, having worked for Cisco and various start-ups in the private sector. Originally from Anaheim, California, Joanna graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a B.A. in Urban Studies. She later established her own consulting business. She went on to earn her M.A. in International Politics and Business at New York University.
Title of presentation:
Introductory note
Dr Surya Raghu holds a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Yale University. He is also the founder and president of a high-tech company - Advanced Fluids, LLC since 2001 and a founding partner of a non-profit company - ET Cube International, Inc. since 2013. He has been involved in capacity building in innovation and entrepreneurship, research commercialisation, knowledge/technology transfer for scientists, engineers, university faculty, technology transfer officers and IP policy committees. He has conducted training in about 30 countries. He is currently a visiting professor at Wits University, South Africa, teaching a graduate course on innovation to engineering, science and business students. Dr Raghu has inventions in aerospace, automotive, consumer and biotechnology applications and has been awarded 15 US patents and has over 65 publications.
Dr Surya Raghu
President, Advanced Fluidics LLC,
USA
Title of presentation:
Innovation-based Entrepreneurship for SDGs
Ms Nuckecheddy-Bhurtun holds a Master’s in Business Administration, a Bsc Honors in Agriculture with specialization in Crop Production and a Bsc Honors in Statistics (all from the University of Mauritius). She has worked as Statistical Officer at Statistics Mauritius from 2008 to 2019. Since 2019, she has joined the Industrial Property Office of Mauritius as Industrial Property Officer.
Ms Madhvee Nuckecheddy-Bhurtun
Industrial Property Officer,
Industrial Property Office of Mauritius
Title of presentation:
Overview of the IP framework in Mauritius
Me Sivaramen Subbarayan has served as the Director of Legal Affairs for the University of Mauritius (UOM) since 2017, providing legal advice to the Vice-Chancellor and Statutory Committees. He completed his study at University College Northampton and is a member at the General Bar Council in England & Wales, Lincoln’s Inn and Mauritius Bar Council. As a Legal Affairs Director, Me Subbarayan is responsible for IP matters at the University. He has also worked as a Part-time Lecturer at UOM Trust/UOM Enterprise/ University of Central Lancashire (UCLAN) where he taught on Intellectual Property Law. As well as being a Barrister-at-Law, Me Subbarayan is a consultant in regard to the Gender Country Profile.
Me Sivaramen Subbarayan
LL.B(Hons), LLM, Barrister-at-Law,
Legal Affairs Director, Legal Affairs Office, University of Mauritius
Title of presentation:
Having a practical and effective IPR and Innovation policy
Ms Bisquay is a Partner at Parent Lagesse Conseil Juridique (PLCJ Ltd) law firm. She has worked in France and Egypt for several years before joining PLCJ (Mauritius) in January 2016. Ms Bisquay brings experience from previous roles at Taylor Wessing and Zulficar & Partners Law Firm, together with a robust skills set that includes Product Liability, Intellectual Property, Litigation, Contentieux commercial, Droit des contrats and more. She is also qualified at the Paris Bar School.
Ms Ornella Bisquay
Partner, PLCJ Ltd
France & Mauritius
Title of presentation:
SDGs and intellectual property rights: the relevance of trademarks
Ms Salma Jetha has a Master of Environmental Science and a Bachelor of Arts, Cum Laude. She has been Director of Patents/IP at one of India's top private universities, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, since 2013. Ms Jetha focuses on research for social good and files patents across various disciplines in technologies that provide access to cutting-edge innovations for vulnerable sections of society. Ms Jetha has a cross-disciplinary background in science and engineering and has had a successful career in quality assurance, working for international companies in the United States and Singapore. Her portfolio includes over 90 granted patents, around 100 pending patents, and more than 30 trademark registrations, with the support of patent firms in India, the US, and Europe. Ms Jetha and her team work in collaboration with researchers across all nine campuses of the University in India to evaluate their technologies for patentability and provide support throughout the patent filing, prosecution, and granting procedures.
Ms Salma Jetha
Director-Patents and IPs,
Patent Office,
Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham,
India.
Title of presentation:
A Model for Innovation and Research Aimed at Societal Benefit
AMRITA VISHWA VIDYAPEETHAM
Dr Yuriy Kapitsa, of Legal Sciences (habil.), J.S.D., is the Director of the Centre for Intellectual Property Studies and Technology Transfer of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. He has been engaged in IPR management and commercialisation, organising the system of IPR management and commercialisation in the research institutions, universities, SMEs, as well as working in international EU, WIPO and national projects. He is actively involved in the development of IPR’s policies, innovations, awareness campaigns and legislations. He had been working as an expert in Mauritius in the framework of the European Commission EuroAid project “Implementation of the Intellectual Property Development Plan in Mauritius” (2020-2022). He is an author (co-author) of over 200 publications and numerous books including “European Union Intellectual Property Law: Formation, Institutes, Directions of Development, 2017”. Dr Kapitsa is a member of the Working Group on Intellectual Property Law of the European Federation of National Academies of Sciences (ALLEA).
Dr Kapitsa Yuriy
Director-Centre of Intellectual Property Studies and Technology Transfer,
National Academy of Sciences, Ukraine
Ms Baykal has spent more than 15 years working in the United Nation (UN) system as a legal counsellor, focusing on intellectual property, sustainable development and technology issues in the developing countries. She is currently working as a Senior consultant on intellectual property, innovation, technology transfer and sustainable development issues. She has worked as the Program Management Officer at the UN Technology Bank for LDCs (2018-2022), and was responsible for supervision of projects in the least developed countries on IP, technology, technology transfer and global health. As a Senior Program Officer (2014-2021) at the Global Challenges of the World Intellectual Property Organization, her focus was on climate change, global health and food security. She was also part of the team managing a digital platform on IP: “an interactive marketplace platform that promotes innovation and diffusion of green technologies by connecting technology and service providers with those seeking innovation solutions.”
Ms Yesim Baykal
INOMER, France