Prof. Pankhuri Agarwal

Prof. Pankhuri graduated with a B.A. LL.B. (Hons.) degree from the West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences (NUJS), Kolkata. She subsequently worked in the legal team of the Indian multinational pharmaceutical company Cipla Limited in Mumbai. Thereafter, she was awarded the Faculty Graduate Scholarship to pursue an LL.M. degree from the National University of Singapore (NUS). At NUS, she mainly focused on courses relating to intellectual property (IP) rights in addition to courses on medical law and ethics and freedom of speech.

After her post-graduation, Pankhuri worked as a research associate to Prof. (Dr.) Shamanad Basheer, a leading IP law scholar and founder of IDIA (Increasing Diversity by Increasing Access) and SpicyIP, a leading blog on Indian IP and innovation law and policy. She worked with him on various IP law and public interest issues relating to access to medicines, transparency and access to knowledge and education, such as the DU photocopy copyright case, patent working disclosure requirement, copyright exceptions, the Indian IP policy, etc. Alongside, she also handled editorial and managerial responsibilities at SpicyIP and continues to serve as a Managing Editor of the blog.

Pankhuri’s current research interests include the interface between IP and public health, knowledge and education. Apart from a project on patents and public health in India, she’s currently working on an Indian fair use guide, which aims to compile all types of use of copyrighted works that Indian courts have determined to be permissible (or not permissible) under section 52 of Copyright Act, 1957