In Association with

Live classes are not available currently, students can complete the course by watching the recorded sessions.

About Texas A&M University (TAMU)

Texas A&M University (TAMU) is a research-intensive flagship institution functioning since 1876, located in the heart of Texas, USA and catering to more than 70,000 students with 133 undergraduate degree programs, 175 master’s degree programs, 92 doctoral degree programs and 5 first professional degrees as options for study. TAMU is ranked No. 20 in public colleges and No. 83 overall in the 2021 Wall Street Journal / Times Higher Education College Rankings in the USA (see here). 

Texas A&M University School of Law is an ABA Accredited law school in downtown Fort Worth, Texas. The law school is a member of the American Association of Law Schools (AALS) and offers the Juris Doctor (J.D.) Degree through its full time and part time programs. The School is ranked #8 in the US for its Intellectual Property Law Programs (see here). More information about the university can be found at https://law.tamu.edu/.

Is this course relevant to me?

• Are you interested in building an international IP law career?
• Do you want a job in India or abroad as an international IP analyst, IP strategist or IP lawyer? Even if you are an engineer or science graduate, apart from an aspiring IP lawyer, this may be relevant for you. So read on.
• Have you applied for jobs or internships in international law firms and got rejected?
• Do you want to strengthen your CV with a certificate from one of the most well-known IP law schools in the world?
• Do you want to get a credible international certification and exposure on your resume but find courses from top universities too expensive?
• Do you want to learn how to work with USPTO for trademark and patent prosecution?
• Are you interested in working with large multinationals focusing on tech and media space but no idea about how you can get those opportunities?
• Are you a law student looking to secure international internships and eventually work abroad?
• Are you interested in standing out due to your solid knowledge and skills around IP laws in every internship and interview?

Certificate Course in Intellectual Property Law and Prosecution

There are already a lot of intellectual property law courses available everywhere. Even we have a very popular IP and media law course of our own that has been hugely appreciated by lawyers around the world. So why did we build one more?

• Many of you requested for a shorter course that can be finished in 3 months or less;
• A lot of you love the practical knowledge we have to offer, but you also want to get an internationally recognized certification from a top university;
• You said you want to learn from global experts about international best practices - from important IP markets like the USA, the UK, European Union, and Japan. We went overboard and decided to invite experts from 14 major economies around the world to come and teach the peculiarities of each IP market to you.
• Many of you realize that IP can be a global career - so why restrict yourself to just an India specific curriculum and Indian experts? So we thought we should get the top US IP academics to teach you as well. 
• We also decided that students of this course will be assisted to seek out internships in law firms in places like Texas, New York, London, Middle East, and elsewhere. Note that we do not promise any internships, but we will make our best efforts to help you to apply for and secure such opportunities. 

So here are some important questions for you.

• Do you want to build a career in IP laws?
• Do you want to not restrict your knowledge to Indian IP laws but get international exposure related to IP laws?
• Do you want to network with top US IP faculties, lawyers, and global IP experts that can open new opportunities for you?
• Do you want to work for organizations and people whose work isn’t restricted by national borders?
• Do you want to be surrounded by innovators, artists, creators, and maybe end up working with some people and organizations you absolutely adore?
• Do you want to be in high demand as a lawyer in fast paced creative industries like tech and media that need armies of IP lawyers? 

We thought many of you would be interested in such opportunities! 

A lot of Indian lawyers tell us that they want to increase their skills in intellectual property law and even seasoned IP lawyers struggle with IP prosecution in many international jurisdictions. 

And what is awesome, this kind of international exposure makes a great deal of sense when it specifically comes to IP laws, because most countries follow the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement. 

If you are skilled in this area and want to work out of India, you would probably not have to start from scratch like lawyers in some other areas such as litigation or capital markets or competition law would have to. 

It is, therefore, possible to add on, without letting your existing knowledge go to waste if you want to practice IP law in another jurisdiction, or even more than one jurisdiction at once! 

We also wanted to do something that increases access of Indian lawyers to superb teaching and insights from experts across the world.

This is what drew us to collaborating with the Texas A&M University School of Law, a law school which is ranked #8 for their intellectual property programs in the US, and create a course which ensures such access for Indian lawyers. 

Think of how much you will be able to differentiate yourself from the crowd if you have access to teaching by IP faculties and practitioners from the US, which is home to most multinationals. 

With this access, if you really put in the efforts to understand cross border processes, such skills will definitely be something that is not commonly available. Check the clientele of most large IP law firms in India and you will find that many of their large assignments were with multinationals. If you understand how processes work in such clients’ home countries, you have certainly got a feather in your cap. 

So, like an inventor may want to ask, how do you work this?

Well, here’s how.

5 steps to prepare yourself for a career in intellectual property laws

• Get certified by Texas A&M University School of law (https://law.tamu.edu/), the #8 ranked law school in the US for intellectual property programs and get global recognition for your IP law knowledge and skills. 
   
• Learn practical aspects of IP law practice from US faculty as well as global and Indian intellectual property law practitioners. Attend live classes, guest lectures, get access to extensive study materials, and templates that you can use in real cases.    
   
• Build a track record and portfolio of work to evidence your practical skills.
  
  Learning the work and performing the work are two different things. 
  
  Certificates, knowledge of statutes, case laws and legal concepts are not sufficient to develop your competence and inspire confidence in recruiters and clients. 
  
  This is why we make you solve practical problems in the form of assignments every week so that you have sufficient exposure to the kind of work that lawyers have to do in real life. 
  
  Apart from that, we help you to build a portfolio of practice-specific articles and publications that help you to establish your credibility and get a foot in the door. 
  
  No recruiter can ignore the evidence of real skills and relevant track record that you have built over time.    
   
• Improve through consistent coaching and practice. 
  
  You can’t crack a problem perfectly in the perfect way on day 1. With this program, we ensure that you improve with coaching from our evaluators who give you in-line feedback on every assignment and even provide telephonic/ online assistance over a call where necessary.   
   
• Apply for placements, internships, and work opportunities with assistance from Lawsikho’s placement team.
  
  Deploy your newly acquired skills at real jobs, internships, and to perform client-work. Placement assistance is available over the duration of the program, and not just at the end of the program. We also assist you in your client development efforts. 

Who should take this course?

• Engineers and innovators who want to learn how to deal with USPTO, Indian patent, trademark and copyright offices, other major IP registries around the world;
• In-house counsels, lawyers and other professionals working in IP driven companies;
• Lawyers looking to build a practice in trademark law, copyright law or patent law;
• Litigators who want to expand their practice into IP law;
• Lawyers looking to specialize in intellectual property prosecution; 
• Law students looking to work in IP law firms or IP or TMT teams in big law firms;
• Lawyers working for pharma, technology, e-commerce, FMCG companies that involve a significant amount of R&D, innovation, and creative activities; 
• Entrepreneurs and directors who want to understand how the intellectual property belonging to their entities can be protected and monetized.

What is my career potential after doing this course?

• High R&D and innovation-driven sectors such as consumer-internet, SaaS, e-commerce, communication, mobile technologies, robotics, IoT, blockchain, electronics, AI, pharma, biotech, certain specific consumer durables etc. and high creativity sectors such as advertising, media, gaming, etc. all have bulky intellectual property portfolios. 
  They need people on the ground to secure intellectual property registrations, ensure renewal when the registrations are about to expire, manage oppositions, and ensure that the conditions of the registrations are being met. 
  All of these sectors have potential opportunities for IP lawyers and non-lawyer IP analysts skilled in different intellectual property related laws.
   
• Companies that have a large amount of intellectual property assets also need many people to ensure negotiations and drafting for various contracts related to the monetization of intellectual property rights such as licensing and assignment. 
  Lawyers who are skilled negotiators are very much in demand since they can ensure appropriate reflection of the commercial interests of their clients in such IP-related contracts.
   
• Litigators who are skilled in IP related litigation are always in short supply and are always sought for by companies or law firms engaged in intellectual property dispute resolution. 
  Such disputes are usually large ticket disputes and involve significant monetary stakes and therefore, these lawyers are often highly paid.
   
• Apart from large law firms that have active IP and TMT (Telecom, Media, Technology) departments, even boutique law firms dealing in intellectual property monetization and litigation are in need of lawyers who have specialized skills in IP laws.
   
• Multinational companies (especially those having an established presence in the US and India) that need to protect their intellectual property in various jurisdictions will prefer hiring lawyers who hold certifications from a US university, more so where the classes are taken by internationally acclaimed experts and faculty members.

Potential employers

• Law firms with IP and TMT departments
• Boutique law firms specialising in IP
• Technology Companies
• Media and Entertainment Companies
• TV Channels
• Newspapers and Publishing Houses
• Advertising Agencies
• Film production houses
• Independent litigators with IP practice

What is unique about this course

• Successful completion of the course entitles you to receive a certificate from the Texas A&M University School of Law. 
• A section of the classes of the course will be taken by the Professors of School of Law, TAMU, and US based IP practitioners apart from global experts from every major international economy, opening up an avenue for you to directly receive education from some of the best IP academicians and experts around the world.
• As the LawSikho methodology goes, the course will train you on different types of actual work that is required to be performed by lawyers and other professionals in the intellectual property domain. By the end of this course, you can expect to have secured enough skills to be able to deal with work in decent sized law firms and companies which have heavy reliance on intellectual property.
• The course is tough and intensive, you will not be awarded the certificate unless you complete the required number of exercises. You will have to spend 5-6 hours per week in studies, in addition to the classes on this course.
• You will have interactive classes with high-quality discussions which will be taken by the experts of this course. You can get all the doubts resolved in the classes or even outside the classes through course groups and email.
• You will get personal attention and coaching from our trainers who will be assigned to you, and have access to a dedicated course anchor who will help you with submissions or any guidance or issues you may have as you progress through the course.
• You will receive in-line feedback for the assignments you submit, which will improve your performance to a significant extent. 
• You will have access to other doubt clearing mechanisms also, in addition to the online classes such as a discussion forum where queries are responded to within a period of 48 hours, a WhatsApp group which will include your peers and batchmates as well as the course anchor, evaluator and support team from LawSikho. 
• You will be given an opportunity to work on three writing assignments during the term of the course that shall be published on the iPleaders blog if it is publishable.

Money back guarantee

If you take this course, follow it diligently for a month, do all the exercises but still do not find value in it, or not able to understand or follow it or not find it good for any reason, we will refund the entire course fee to you. It is a 100% money back guarantee with only one condition, you must pursue it properly for a month. If you don’t find it valuable after that, get your entire money back.

View Refund Policy

Training Methodology

Online 24/7 access

Access to basic study material through online learning management system, Android and iOS app

Hard Copy Study Material

Hard copy study material modules to be couriered to your address

Practical Exercises

2 practical exercises every week, followed by written feedback

Live Online Classes

Based on the exercises, there will be a live video based online class. You can ask questions, share your screen, get personal feedback in this class.

Convenient Class timings

Classes are held after regular work hours. Typically classes are kept on Sunday afternoon or 8-9 pm on other days.

Live Doubt Clearing

You can ask questions, get your doubt cleared live as well as through online forums

Classes by TAMU Faculty

Out of the total class hours, 6 hours of online classes will be taken by faculty of the Texas A&M University (TAMU).

2 hours of guest lectures from senior practitioners every week

Every week, there will be approximately 2 hours of guest lectures taken by senior industry practitioners.

Total hours of live sessions

3-5 hours every week (recordings will be available for those who miss attending a session live)

What will you learn

• You will learn to perform all round risk assessment for the intellectual property developed by an organisation and used by it;
• You will learn how to advise a company on its intellectual property strategy including selection, registration, monetising and protection.
• You will learn how to draft various applications, specifications and claims related to registration of intellectual property (copyrights, trademarks and patents) across multiple jurisdictions;
• You will learn how to draft responses to objections or examination reports from the patents or trademarks registry / offices at the stage of registration for India and US;
• You will learn how to draft notices such as a cease and desist notice and also to draft responses to such notices;
• You will learn to draft requisition lists and reports for due diligence of intellectual property conducted at the time of an acquisition or other transaction;
• You will also learn how to draft various appeals and petitions before the Intellectual Property Appellate Board.

Specific Learning Objectives

• Learn how to identify what risks an organisation has to its own intellectual property as well as to others’ intellectual property that it uses;
• Learn about the copyright life cycle and how to deal with works entering the public domain;
• Learn what online piracy or digital piracy is, how it is connected with intellectual property and the relevant legislations in India and US;
• Learn how copyrights work in sporting events, their broadcast and distribution rights;
• Learn how to deal with copyright disputes before the Intellectual Property Appellate Board;
• Lean how to use John Doe orders or how criminal prosecution works in order to  enforce copyrights; 
• Learn how companies select trademarks and why a trademark strategy is required;
• Learn what non-conventional trademarks are and how these are treated in the US and the EU; 
• Learn how to secure registration for non-conventional trademarks in India as well as process before the USPTO and EPO;
• Learn about international treaties related to trademarks and how these impact the processes in US and EU
• Learn how to draft a cease and desist notice, notice of opposition and a response to a notice of opposition;
• Learn how to draft and file review and rectification petitions before the Trademarks registry;
• Learn when and how a cancellation petition can be filed before the Intellectual Property Appellate Board;
• Learn how to draft and file an appeal before the Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB) for copyright as well as trademark matters;
• Learn what is and is not patentable and how to advise a client on whether or not to proceed for the filing of a patent claim;
• Learn how patent specifications and claims can be drafted for specific types of inventions such as pharmaceutical and technological inventions, the challenges that can be faced and how to overcome these challenges;
• Learn how the examination process works in respect of patents and how to reply to a patents examination report;
• Learn about how the USPTO Patent Trial and Appeal Board works;
• Learn about how the patent prosecution process works with the USPTO and various grounds of pre and post-grant opposition;
• Learn what is patent docketing and how it is used;
• Learn how to deal with patent related matters before the Intellectual Property Appellate Board, the orders it can pass and the remedies available;
• Learn about what patent portfolio management is and how large companies manage their patent portfolios;
• Learning how the patent infringement litigation works in case of research institutes and what is different about such litigation;
• Learn about standard essential patents and how to take care in licensing these;
• Learn about patent disputes and litigation, as well as cross border patent litigation
• Learn how to conduct due diligence with respect to the intellectual property of an organisation during an acquisition or other transaction.

Client Opportunities & Recruitment Support

Many employers, law firms and companies are happy to recruit our high performing students. If you do well in your exercises and classes, we can help you to get jobs, internships and assessment internships in good law firms, with renowned lawyers as well as in various companies.

• Our team helps our students in building their profile on LinkedIn to increase their reach to the potential recruiters.
• Our expert guides the students on how to crack any interview.
• On demand, we provide mock interviews for our students looking for jobs.
• We share multiple Internship/recruitment opportunities every week on our Whatsapp group.
• We help our students to get internships not only at law firms and chambers, but also with rising startups in diverse sectors.
• Our mentorship helps students to avoid running the rat race behind the regular job openings; rather we help them design their own path based on their personal interests.
• We share multiple and diverse client opportunities with our pool of practicing advocates on a daily basis. Our references have helped several advocates really scale up their practice. The opportunities range from contract drafting to complex import-export matters.

List of Weekly Exercises

• Advise a client on the copyright risks applicable in the case of a college / publishing house / technology company;
• Draft a legal opinion advising a client on securing John Doe / Ashok Kumar orders in a specific case;
• Draft an appeal to the Intellectual Property Appellate Board in relation to a specific copyright dispute;
• Draft and file a pre-publication objection to a trademark registration application
• Draft a response to Examination Report 
• Draft a User Affidavit  
• Draft a Notice of Opposition 
• Draft and file a counter statement in response to Notice of Opposition 
• Draft an Affidavit under Rule 45/ 46 to submit evidence in support of opposition and evidence in support of the application 
• Draft an Affidavit under Rule 47 to submit evidence in reply to the opposition 
• Draft a Cease and Desist Notice with respect to trademark infringement/ passing off
• Draft a Response to Cease and Desist Notice
• Draft a review and rectification petition to be filed before the trademarks registry;
• Draft a Cancellation Petition before IPAB;
• Identify if a subject matter is patentable and advise on whether a patent claim should be filed;
• Prepare a reply to the first examination report thereby overcoming the office objections 
• File a petition in the IPAB for revocation of a registered patent
• Prepare a defence strategy against a patent infringement suit and draft a plaint and written statement.
• File a review application before the controller of patents requesting him to review his own decision. 
• File an appeal before IPAB against the controller’s decision;