My Internship at IP Dome

-Smarak Sikdar, IIT-Kharagpur 

Graduating from Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, requires a “compulsory internship, of 40
working days during the summer vacations after the sixth Semester”. So, the entire 5th semester goes in
preparing CVs, CLs, Resumes and looking for Companies and farms that suits one’s domain or interest. And the next semester, in applying for those companies and, waiting for an affirmative reply.
My domain of Engineering is Naval Architecture. “Then what am I doing in IP-Dome ?” must be the
question creeping in your cerebrum. So, let me clear this curiosity first. It is not that I am not interested in my
B-tech, it is only a comparative factor that came in between. During my 2nd year, I was a part of a project
under CSIR, IIM Ahmedabad which basically was my first introduction to Intellectual property(IP). After
completion of the project I gained a huge interest in the subject, mainly due to two reasons firstly, it is an
almost untouched subject in India, not many people have a proper understanding of it, but, its highly required
for the technical and industrial growth of the nation. The second reason may seem to be a bit selfish, but it is
what we all are struggling for, it offers bright future.
After applying in a number of companies, which included some ship-builders as well, to be on the safer side, I
came to know about IP-Dome, from Entrepreneurship-cell IIT Kharagpur, which identifies all new
innovations and start-ups and try to help in their growth. After being introduced to IP-Dome it seemed to be
perfect for my internship this season, as the rest applications were either for attorneys or the IP department of
some big MNC. Building strategy around an intellectual property was an innovative idea, and I realy wanted
to do it instead of fighting some IP infringement case. Thus, I applied, received a call and eventually my
application was accepted.
All set for a great learning experience, I reached Chenaai on the 14th day of May, and the weather was just
blistering. Apart from the Weather and the communication gap, Chennai was great. Now, getting back to my
internship, my 1st project was to create the IP portfolio for Anna university, the same I did for our college last
year, The other projects were much more dynamic, ranging from the business analysis of Activated Carbon
using IP mapping to Market analysis of Africa for Indian investors including the Bharti-Zain acquisition case.
The other facets of my internships were Competitive intelligence report of Infosys, Case study of Five major
global Acquisitions in the last 10 years. As you can see the projects were quite diversified, so was the learning
experience.
According to me it is always better to work on different platforms rather than a constrained one during the
learning stage, as Knowledge never goes in vain, and this I achieved while working in IP-Dome.
To wind it up, I would like to thank my CEO Mrs. Swapna Sundar, and guides Mr. Hariprasad, Mr. Jagathish
for a wonderful experience which I would carry forward for the rest of life.

www.ipdome.in