Biocon Limited is an Indian biopharmaceutical company based in Bangalore, India. The Company manufactures generic active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) that are sold in the developed markets of the United States and Europe. It also manufactures biosimilar insulins, which are sold in India as branded formulations and in both bulk and formulation forms. In research services, Syngene International Limited (Syngene) is engaged in the business of custom research in drug discovery while the other fully owned subsidiary Clinigene International Limited (Clinigene) is in the clinical development space. In December 2009, Biocon acquired the Active Pharma Ingredients (API) undertaking from IDL Speciality Chemicals Ltd., a subsidiary of Gulf Oil Corporation Limited. Located with R&D in Bangalore and API unit in Hyderabad, India, Biocon has two subsidiaries Syngene, a custom research organisation, and Clinigene, a clinical research organisation. Biocon’s presence straddles four main therapeutic areas Diabetology, Cardiology, Nephrology and Oncolog and plans to introduce two new divisions, Comprehensive Care, and Immunotherapy.

Biocon R&D has consistently created intellectual wealth through an incisive intellectual property strategy that recognises the innovative potential of our products and processes. They have filed over 1,200 patent applications and hold around 984 patents and 448 trademark registrations globally. This number is only expected to increase as our exciting novel molecules pipeline advances from the bench to the bedside in the coming years. This team has won the ‘Best In-house IP Team of the Year’ Award at the Global IP conclave held in 2015 and the Pharmexcil Gold Patent Award 2014-15 in the Biotech category for filing the highest number of patents.
Biocon has filed for patents not just in the US, as is the wont with many research companies, but also in countries like Brazil, Mexico, Japan and Russia to have that critical global footprint. Biocon in its latest annual report says that 2004-05 will witness more patent filings.

Biocon’s head of intellectual property (IP), Anindya Sircar, said the company has been focussing on developing intellectual property for many years. “There is an accent on focussed research in a bid to increase business. That’s the way to remain ahead of competition,” Sircar said.
From an invention patent in frontier fermentation technology to about 170 patents for novel processes and products,

Biocon has come a long way. In fact the firm is looking at high-quality IP as a “core value differentiator”.
A look at Biocon’s patent filing indicates growth of the Indian biotechnology sector. In 2000, it had filed just nine patents before moving up to 88 last year. Biocon has formed R&D strategies for the next 3-5 years and is keen to develop processes for generic pharmaceuticals, biologicals and enzymes for world markets. The plan is to use revenue stream from these sales to fund development of platform technologies needed to discover and commercialize pharmaceutically relevant new chemical and biological entities. In order to keep on growing in research and development Biocon must adopt a perfect IP strategy to preserve the companie’s inventions or innovations. Thus the requirement for hiring biotech professionals becomes a need. Patent professionals have skills and know the strategy to prevent innovation infringements.


1. Communication skills
A patent attorney’s work relies on good communication skills, both written and oral. You will need to be proficient with words in a range of contexts, using them to define and describe; to explain and advise; to instruct and to question; and above all, to persuade. You will have to communicate with scientists and engineers; business people; other lawyers; and tribunals such as courts and patent offices.
This variety is what makes the job so enjoyable, but it also demands the ability to tailor your communication style to suit a particular type of reader or listener. You are, in effect, an interpreter between three worlds technology, business and law and you need to speak the language of each. Of course, communication is a two-way process, so you must also be good at listening, at reading other people, and at learning from what you hear. You are unlikely to start out with the communication skills required of a qualified patent attorney, but you should at least have a reasonable degree of skill before you apply for your first job, and an enthusiasm for communicating. Expect employers to test for this with written exercises and interview questions.

2. The ability to work alone
Particularly in private practice, a patent attorney works alone rather than as part of a team. You will therefore need to be able to manage your own workload, motivate yourself to complete tasks on time and be sufficiently self-critical to quality assess your output. Right from day one, you will have to conduct private research and study, whether for your day to day work or to get you through the qualifying exams. If you are not keen on long periods alone, analysing and writing documents; if you would rather not spend the rest of your life poring over textbooks, court decisions, legal documents, scientific papers and of course patents, then you should probably not become a patent attorney.

3. A technical bent
You will need to be comfortable with technical information, possibly over a wider range of technologies than you are used to. Even if you are a biochemist, for example, you might still have to get to grips with the chemistry behind a client’s new drug preparation process, or the mechanical or electrical aspects of their new drug delivery device. You will almost certainly need to understand basic engineering drawings, circuit diagrams and flow charts, and of course graphs, spreadsheets and other common data presentation formats.
To be good at the job, you should have an enquiring mind. You will not initially understand every invention you come across, but you must be able to ask the right questions and learn quickly, becoming just enough of an expert to provide the legal assistance your client needs. It will also help if your curiosity extends to the commercial aspects of your work: a patent attorney should be as interested in the business context of a client’s technology as in the science behind it.

4. Analytical skills
Patent attorneys have to analyse large amounts of information and reach logical, well-reasoned conclusions. You will need to be clear-thinking and rigorous in your analyses, critical of data and evidence and comprehensive in your approach. Often you will need to get to grips with both the details of a situation and its ‘big picture’ implications. And you will need to process legal and commercial information as well as scientific.

5. An eye for detail
In this job, details matter; accuracy is essential. You really do have to care about getting exactly the right word, phrase or definition – one that’s precise, apt, exhaustive, unambiguous and indisputable. Start with your CV. If you find details tedious, or if inaccuracies slip into your work despite your good intentions, then this is not the job for you.

6. Lateral thinking
Patent attorneys have to be almost as creative as the inventors they work with. Are there alternative ways of protecting this technology? What will competitors do to avoid our patent? Is there another way of interpreting this document? How can we get round this legal problem? Should I look at this situation from another angle?

7. Time management
You will have several pieces of work on the go at once, possibly for different clients and in different technical fields. Some will be urgent, some not; some large, some small; some complex and others relatively easy. New instructions or queries could arrive at any time. And all of this work will carry deadlines, whether legal deadlines or commercial ones driven by your clients’ business needs. As a patent attorney you will need to be organised. You will have to work quickly, but without loss of accuracy. You must learn to prioritise your caseload, to delegate where appropriate and to manage your time efficiently so that all of your tasks get due attention and within the right time-frame.

8. Stress management
How well do you cope under pressure? Can you maintain the quality of your output even as the work piles on, the deadlines loom, the difficult questions arise and the inevitable distractions threaten your plans? Can you recognise the signs of stress and take evasive action? We tend to learn stress management techniques through bitter experience. But some people are inherently more susceptible to stress than others, and their work more likely to suffer as a result. If that applies to you, a career-long battle against stress could make you very unhappy.

9. & 10.
Because patent attorneys work alone and unsupported, because they are constantly faced with new technology and new legal scenarios, because they may have to stand before a tribunal – again, alone and argue a client’s case, or convey important but possibly unwelcome legal advice to that client, because of all these things, you will need a good dose of self-confidence. But start with a little, and build it up gradually. With greater confidence in your abilities, there comes a greater need to recognise and admit your limitations, and humility will be a valuable trait throughout your career. A patent attorney is a service provider, after all: there will always be plenty to learn from both colleagues and clients.