Dr. Yogesh Pai

Director, Centre for Innovation, Intellectual Property and Competition (CIIPC)

Director of the WIPO-NLUD-IPO Joint Masters/LL.M. Degree Programme on IP Law and Management

DPIIT- SPRIHA IPR Chair Professor (in-charge) instituted by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India.

Dr Yogesh Pai specializes in intellectual property (IP) law and is interested in research areas at the interface of IP with innovation, competition and trade policy. Dr Pai is a scholar at CIP2, George Mason University, Washington D.C., where he was previously the Thomas Edison Fellow (2017-18). In the fall of 2012, Dr Pai visited the School of Law, University of Washington as the Asian Law Centre short-term Visiting Scholar. Dr Pai served as short-term consultant for the World Trade Organisation as a regional expert for Regional Trade Policy Courses (RTPC) and a Tutor with the WIPO Academy Distance Learning Programme. He is on the Editorial Board of the WIPO-WTO Teachers Colloquium Annual Research Papers. Dr Pai has a PhD in on the topic of Standard-Essential Patents Dispute Resolution from the Inter-University Centre for IPR Studies, CUSAT- Kochi.

Dr Pai has been a speaker on intellectual property issues on different occasions in India and abroad. Among his distinguished invited speaking engagements and academic paper presentations were International Judicial Conclave Organized by Delhi High Court- Delhi Judicial Academy and the USPTO (2024); International Judges Colloquium organized by Madhya Pradesh High Court (2024); WIPO-IPRE Conference 2023, Academic Symposium on TRIPS@30 at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) (2023); WIPO-WTO Annual Teacher’s colloquium (2022); Yale-GJP/RIS (2021), European Policy for IP (2019),  CODAIP, Brazil (2020), Intellectual Property Scholars Conference (New York 2017); ACRIALA – IPSA, Singapore Management University (2016, 2017); Centre for Asian Legal Studies, NUS, Singapore (2015); ENAPID VI- Salvador, Brazil (2014); Society of International Economic Law, Singapore (2012) and Bern (2014); American Society of International Law- International Economic Law Interest Group Biennial Conference, Washington DC (December, 2012); Asian Society of International Economic Law, Seoul, Korea  (2013), ASLI Conference Bangalore (2013) and Kuala Lumpur (2014)), and at the Department of International Development, University of Oxford (2008). Dr Pai has published in national and international peer-reviewed/ referenced journals like Oxford Journal of Antitrust Enforcement; Journal of World Intellectual Property (JWIP); Journal of Indian Law Institute, Journal of Intellectual Property Rights, Journal of Indian Society of International Law, NUJS Law Review, Jindal Global Law Review etc. He has book chapters published with Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Edward Elgar, Kluwer International (BV) and Springer. Dr Pai has been interviewed by national media channels like NDTV, Doordarshan and FM Radio.

In 2023, Dr Pai was invited to the Consultative Group on Review of Applications for Geographical Indications and to the Patent Agent and Trademark Agents Examination Board. In 2013, Dr Pai was nominated as a legal member in a committee constituted by the Ministry of Health, Government of India, for invoking provisions of compulsory licensing under the Patents Act, 1970, in the context of affordable healthcare. Dr Pai was also the member of an expert committee constituted by the Ministry of Commerce to study the need for utility models in India (2013). He was also part of the Committee for Evaluation and Continuation of the Scheme of Promotion of Copyright and IPR Beyond the 12th Five Year Plan (2012- 2017) constituted by the DIPP, Ministry of Commerce.

Before joining NLU, Delhi, Dr Pai was an assistant professor and coordinator of the Ministry of Human Resource Development Chair on IPR at NLU, Jodhpur. His full-time international work experience (between 2007 and 2008) involved working with the South Centre, Geneva. He has previously worked with Centad, New Delhi, and also taught as a guest faculty at Indian Law Institute, New Delhi (2009) and at NLSIU Bangalore as a visiting faculty (2020).