Hi, I’m Divya, an intellectual property lawyer passionate about protecting ideas, brands and knowledge.

My legal journey began at the West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences (NUJS), Kolkata, one of India’s premier National Law Universities, where I earned my BA LLB (Hons.). I then completed a Master of Laws (LLM) in Intellectual Property Law at the Centre for Commercial Law Studies, Queen Mary University of London. Along the way, I earned a Certificate of Qualification from the Federation of Law Societies of Canada (NCA) and a Paralegal Certificate with distinction from Texas A&M International University. I am also WIPO-certified in the Madrid System for international trademark filings and in the Patent Cooperation Treaty.

With over six years of cross-border experience in India and the United States, I advise on the full life cycle of intellectual property, from clearance and protection to enforcement and commercialisation. As in-house IP counsel in India, I managed end-to-end IP portfolios, commercial contract drafting and negotiation, and oversaw regulatory compliance across more than 300 cities in India. Earlier in my career, I represented state governments and public bodies in Trademark & geographical indication disputes. In the United States, I have managed federal trademark prosecution as an IP paralegal, from comprehensive clearance searches and USPTO filings to Office Action responses, oppositions and brand enforcement. This breadth gives me a practical, cross-jurisdictional understanding of how IP law operates on the ground, and it directly informs my research.

Alongside my practice, I’m passionate about research that puts people at the centre of IP law. My LLM dissertation at Queen Mary, “Managing Intellectual Property Rights: Negotiating Access and Benefit Sharing Agreements,” examined how ABS agreements are structured and negotiated, and whether they deliver equitable outcomes for the communities whose genetic resources and traditional knowledge underpin them. My research has been shaped by the internships I undertook during law school with the Asian-African Legal Consultative Organization (AALCO), an intergovernmental organisation that advises its member states on international law and holds permanent UN observer status, and with Natural Justice, a South Africa-based non-profit of lawyers that works alongside Indigenous peoples and local communities (IPLCs). I am now building on that work by investigating whether SEBI-listed Indian companies are sharing benefits fairly and equitably with IPLCs, as the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Nagoya Protocol and India’s Biological Diversity Act require. Looking ahead to COP 17, the Convention’s seventeenth Conference of the Parties, I am currently researching with an India-based environmental action group how countries are implementing Targets 13, 15 and 22 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, which address benefit sharing, corporate disclosure of biodiversity impacts, and the rights and participation of IPLCs, and where national legislation falls short of these commitments. Running through this work is a question I keep returning to: how sui generis systems can protect traditional knowledge that conventional IP regimes too often treat as part of the public domain. My aim is to bridge legal frameworks and corporate practice so that benefit sharing works on the ground, not just on paper.

When I’m not working, you’ll find me lost in a good book, writing poetry, which I love, out on a hike, or practising Carnatic music (South Indian classical), in which I’m trained. Home is Celina, Texas, which I share with my husband and our cat, Kuro. I also volunteer with environmental groups, which keeps me connected to the causes at the heart of my research.

I look forward to connecting and exchanging ideas with scholars and practitioners who work towards a fairer, more inclusive IP system.