Automotive Legal Experts Network, ALEN, organized by World Auto Forum on 12th October 2019, came to a closure and was much appreciated by both the Legal Fraternity and the Auto sector.

World Auto Forum, that connects the entire Auto Industry across 125 countries, brought together Top GC’s, luminaries from the Legal sector and Law firms to discuss and debate interesting themes ranging from evolving role of GC’s to new legal norms, coping with changing policy framework, IP protection, Cyber Risks and more. All at #ALEN19.

Anuj Guglani, CEO, World Auto Forum shared, “ALEN was started last year looking at the rapidly transforming Automotive landscape. With ACES – Autonomous, Connected, Electric, Shared Mobility, the Legal Framework needs to evolve and keep pace with the industry’s tech advancements. All the Industry stakeholders viz Suppliers, OEMs, Dealers, Mobility Cos need to come together and cocreate these legal frameworks now for Win-Win. In our second edition, we are delighted to see this dialogue gaining traction and moving into action.”

The WAF Global Hall of Fame was a much-awaited segment. Four leading GCs were inducted into the Global Hall of Fame for their immense contribution to the legal field – Manjaree Chowdhary, GC, Maruti Suzuki India, Dr. Akhil Prasad, Director, Country Counsel India & Company Secretary at Boeing, Dr. Sanjeev Gemawat, Executive Director & Group Company Secretary, Dalmia Group and Vineet Agarwal, General Counsel, BMW India. A recognition that speaks volumes on the contribution of these stalwarts in the legal arena at India and the World.

The Best Innovation contest was won by Dr. Kumkum Jain, Sr Patent Analyst, S.S Rana & Co. Her innovative idea was to harness the vehicle emissions data to monitor the vehicle occupants to prevent overloading and promote safety.

There were panel discussions and powerful keynotes that kept the audience engaged. The fact that ALEN recognizes the role of legal fraternity was welcomed warmly. It was an idea much needed was the consensus view.

Prof. Rajiv Khanna shook up the gathering with his passionate pitch for removing 20 years patents on vehicular technologies. He reasoned, that for a vehicle that has a shelf life of about 5 to 7 years, it absolutely made no sense to have long patent durations.

Stuti Dhyani, Associate Partner, Saikrishna & Associates through her keynote gave simple yet effective solutions for IP protection. Backing up her suggestions with real life cases, she kept the audience glued.

Harshad Karadbhajne, Senior Patent Analyst, S.S.Rana & Co delivered a powerful keynote on Patent trends in Automotive. Statistically rich, his presentation presented a lot of food-forethought for the audience.

Amit Dubey, Author and National Security Expert dazed everyone with his amazing keynote on Cyber-attacks and Investigations. The use cases he presented were beyond imagination and looked straight out of the media pages. Interesting, sometimes scary yet very thought provoking.

All the speakers contributed immensely with their expertise, wonderful ideas and deep insights, making ALEN, an event to remember.