Rajiv Gandhi School of Intellectual Property Law

Dr. Narendran Thiruthy is Assistant Professor in Rajiv Gandhi School of Intellectual Property Law, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur. Before joining the faculty of IIT Kharagpur, he served as the head for IPR Section in National Biodiversity Authority, Government of India. In NBA, he played an instrumental role in regulating patenting activities related to genetic resources of Indian origin. He pioneered the ABS monitoring process through patent system in NBA and also was the officer in-charge for the development of IT enabled ABS monitoring system with the support of GIZ under the Indo-German ABS partnership project. He has both theoretical expertise and administrative experience in the field of IPR and Biodiversity governance. Dr.Narendran coordinated the ‘Module on Biodiversity Governance’ for IFS Probationers in Indira Gandhi National Forest Academy, Dehradun for the years 2018, 2019, 2020 & 2021. He was the officer in-charge of coordinating the India Biodiversity Awards for IBA 2018 & IBA 2021 cycles and the NBA-UNDP Biodiversity Samrakshan Internship Program in 2019-20 & 2020-21. He has delivered many lectures on Intellectual Property Rights and Biodiversity Law in various forums including in United Nations CBD events. He has also represented the government in many bilateral and multilateral meetings.

Narendran’s research explores the intersection of law, technology and environment. His research areas include IP Philosophy, Protection of Cultural Property, IP procedure, IP Business models, New Technology Developments and IP, Theories of Creativity, Biodiversity Governance etc. He is currently exploring the challenges of DSI for biodiversity governance and Business models for open collaborative research.