Online Internship Experience at Puthran & Associates: Intellectual Property Law Research and Drafting Work

Name of the Student and Institution

Akshaya, Symbiosis Law School Hyderabad

Name of the Organisation

Puthran & Associates

Address: B-3, Kesavan Orchid, 5/7, North Mada Street, Sri Nagar Colony, Saidapet, Saidapet, Chennai, Tamil Nadu 600015

Duration of Internship

5th June 2020 to 4th July 2020

Application Procedure

I had applied for a physical internship at their Bangalore office for May by mailing to iprkarnataka[at]puthrans.com and received a confirmation within the next 2 days. However, the organization was unable to accommodate me for a physical internship due to the pandemic and decided to make the internship programme online.

First Day Formalities and First Impression

The partners of the firm conducted an induction presentation on the first day where we were given an introduction of the firm, the nature of work and its work culture. The partners were very approachable and friendly and allotted an associate to guide us throughout the internship. The research work for the rest of the week was allotted on the first day and we were asked to submit a short note on the importance of IP on the first day.

Main Tasks

For the first week, our main tasks were to research on selected topics in the area of Intellectual Property Law and prepare case studies. We had regular video calls with the associate to keep them updated about our progress on the work.

Though initially we were given more research work, later on, we were asked to make trademark classification and trademark searches along with research. The associate who was mentoring us was very friendly and taught us trademark classification and other relevant practical aspects. To summarize, the main tasks given to me is as follows:

• Case studies on Well-known trademarks and Section 3 of the Patents Act
• Researching case laws for various aspects of Trademark law
• Preparing Trademark Classification reports
• Conducting Trademark searches

On the last day of the internship, we were asked to give a presentation to everyone in the firm on one of the topics researched during the internship.

Good Things

A presentation on the basics of forms of Intellectual Property was conducted by a senior member of the organization in order to familiarize the interns with the subject. One of the things in the organization I liked the most was the Law-Ed sessions conducted every Saturday.

A Law-Ed session is a webinar where a contemporary legal topic is discussed either by prominent personalities from the legal fraternity or by one of the employees in the firm. I learned a lot during these Law-Ed sessions on trademark law, domain disputes and so on. Another thing I liked was that the work given to interns had an equal balance of both practical work and research work which improved our knowledge and skillset.

Bad Things

No bad thing

Stipend

Yes, the stipend was given.