IDIA founder and IP doyen Shamnad Basheer passed away

Shamnad Basheer, an Indian scholar and founder of Increasing Diversity by Increasing Access to Legal Education (IDIA) passed away in a tragic car accident in Chikamagalur, Karnataka on 8th of August 2019. He was 43.

Basheer had graduated from the National Law School of India University (NLSIU), Bangalore. He completed his post-graduate studies at the University of Oxford. He completed the BCL (as a Shell Centenary scholar) and MPhil with distinction.

The focus of IDIA trust was to make legal education accessible for underprivileged students. He worked as a Professor at the Ministry of Human Resources Department the WBNUJS, Kolkata, and the Frank H. Marks Visiting Associate Professor of Intellectual Property Law at the George Washington University Law School. He was also a research associate at the Oxford Intellectual Property Research Center (OIPRC).

Basheer was a luminary in Intellectual Property. He was an editor of the Oxford Commonwealth Law Journal (OUCLJ). He was the founding member of EDIP (Electronic Database of Intellectual Property). He has done research work inter alia on IP issues such as patents, copyrights among others. He has also founded several initiatives such as SpicyIP, P-PIL and Lex Biosis. His intervention in the Novartis case on the issue of whether Novartis could patent Gleevec in India and many PILs brought about many changes in the IPR regime in India.

He was awarded by various scholarships and awards in India and abroad.

His death has been mourned by many in the legal fraternity.