Novel IP, formerly named PatentMetrix, is staffed by U.S. patent attorneys and patent professionals based in India. Novel IP is led and managed by Hazim Ansari and Sona Dalal.

Hazim Ansari
Hazim Ansari is a pioneer in the offshore intellectual property industry and a successful entrepreneur. A co-founder and director of Network Signatures and Special Counsel to Hennigan, Bennett, and Dorman, Hazim has advised numerous emerging companies on their patent portfolios, including Glucon, Inc., Hythiam, Inc (HYTM), Xcorporeal, Inc. (XCR), Crowdgather, Inc. (CRWG), Quartics, Inc., Endostim, Inc., Lipid Sciences, Inc., HDL Therapeutics, Applied Utility Systems, Osprey Biomedical, among others. He has negotiated licensing deals with over 50 universities and various U.S. government agencies, including the first ever privately held corporate consortium to conduct medical research using antimatter. In 2002, Hazim founded PatentMetrix, now named Novel IP, based in Delhi, India and was one of the first to use this high quality, cost-effective labor base to deliver patent services, such as mapping markets to help companies proactively manage patent infringement risk and building multi-institutional collaborations to further technology development.

Prior to founding PatentMetrix, Mr. Ansari was an executive at the Tomorrow Factory, a B2B software company, where he raised over $12 million in financing, was appointed CEO by the Board of Directors, and successfully restructured the company for merger opportunities. Before joining Tomorrow Factory, Mr. Ansari was an intellectual property attorney in O'Melveny & Myers' Newport Beach office where he represented numerous high technology companies in the negotiation of intellectual property licensing and acquisition deals, filing and prosecution of patent portfolios, structuring of co-development and co-exploitation vehicles, and general management of intellectual property assets. Mr. Ansari began his intellectual property career as an associate at Christie, Parker & Hale. He graduated magna cum laude from Loyola Law School of Los Angeles and received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Stanford University.

Sona Dalal
Sona Dalal is Director of Operations at NovelIP. Ms. Dalal has extensive experience in the filing and prosecution of patent portfolios and the general management of intellectual property assets for a wide variety of clients. As client manager, she is responsible for interfacing between clients and employees, assisting clients in identifying unique innovations, and ensuring the completeness and accuracy of patent searches. She has personally trained and directed patent professionals based in India. Ms. Dalal has also co-authored IP reports in a variety of areas, including personalized television programming and wireless network technologies.

Ms. Dalal graduated cum laude with a B.S in Chemistry from Syracuse University. She has completed doctorate coursework in Chemistry with an emphasis on inorganic and materials science and is a graduate of UC Davis School of Law. Ms. Dalal has received numerous honors for her academic work, including recognition as a National Science Foundation Scholar. She has written several papers in the areas of biotechnology, law, and intellectual property and has taught courses at the university level. Ms. Dalal is a patent attorney registered with the U.S. PTO and California State Bar.