In Memoriam: Dr Vidya Sagar
20 September 2012
On February 27, Remfry & Sagar announced the passing of managing partner Dr Vidya Sagar. He was 85.
With his bushy eyebrows and boundless energy, he was an instantly recognizable institution by himself, even if he did shun the limelight. In many ways he was the father of Indian IP, with many of the country’s current crop of IP lawyers having cut their teeth at his firm.
A barrister at Lincoln’s Inn and a doctor from the Free University, Berlin, Dr Sagar joined the Indian bar in 1952. He took over the practice of Remfry & Son, India’s oldest IP law firm, in 1973, and renamed it Remfry & Sagar in 1991.
Dr Sagar built up the firm to be India’s largest, nearly three times as large as its nearest rival, and it was a perennial winner of many IP-related awards. Despite this success, he remained an extremely humble person, and always believed in keeping a low profile. Even at 85, he kept a sharp mind and strong will, and was uncompromising in his insistence on the highest standards of professional integrity and conduct.
Hemant Singh, managing partner at Inttl Advocare in Delhi, described Dr Sagar as a visionary. “He could foresee the times ahead which, perhaps, others took years to realize,” Singh told Asia IP. “I remember he was the first amongst law firms to move out of Connaught Place to Nangal Raya, a remote Delhi suburb, and thereafter to Gurgaon. All of us questioned his wisdom in making such a location choice, but Dr Sagar could foresee that everybody else would be shortly moving out of Delhi. Some followed initially, but many more followed later.”
Sanjay Kumar, partner and head of IP at Lakshmi Kumaran & Sridharan in Delhi concurs, describing Dr Sagar as a true gentlemen at heart. “Dr Sagar was legendary in the IP rights circles as the unassuming visionary who built the practice in India. A doyen of IP practice in India, he was never blinded by his success. Professionalism, disciple and integrity were some of his most cherished principles. Only a few people can create history, and he was one of them,” he told Asia IP.
Dr Sagar leaves behind a giant legacy in the field of Intellectual Property, and a void that will be very difficult to fill. His demise is a loss to the entire IP fraternity.
