Amar Raj Lall, founder and senior partner of Lall Lahiri & Salhotra, died September 6, 2012. Lall, a barrister, who trained as a lawyer at one of the Four Inns of Court in England, was one of the lions of Indian intellectual property law.
“It is indeed sad that the IP community in India lost Mr Amar Raj Lall,” says Pratibha Singh, managing partner at Singh & Singh. “I remember that while I started my career at another firm I appeared against him in the famous Whirlpool case. This was in the early 1990s while I was a really young lawyer. On the first hearing of this case, I appeared before the court for the defendant and submitted that the defendant had a registered trademark in India and that time should be granted to file a reply. On that day, Whirlpool was represented by [Mr Lall and others]. Justice RC Lahoti, who then went on to be Chief Justice of India) then said that the defendant represented by the young lady should be granted some time to file her a reply and thus no injunction was passed on the first day.He was extremely kind and did not even once try to be unfair, as an opposing counsel. This case handled by Mr Lall went on to create history in the IP landscape as it fully entrenched the concept of trans-border reputation in India and protection of well-known marks,” Singh said.
Bisman Kaur, a senior attorney at Remfry & Sagar, the firm where Lall previously practiced intellectual property law said Lall was among the stalwarts of a generation of IP lawyers “who witnessed and participated first hand in the transformation of the Indian IP law arena. He was associated with Remfry for quite a number of years before setting up his own firm, and leaves behind a venerable legacy,” she said.
Lall is survived by his wife, Kamla Lall, and several children, including Anuradha Salhotra, a partner at LLS, and Chander Lall, managing partner at Lall & Sethi.
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