World intellectual property filings are on a roll, with a record number of filings made for patents, trademarks and designs in 2021. 

A November report from the World Intellectual Property Organization reported that India has contributed greatly to those rising numbers. Strong growth in local patent filings in India drove global growth in patent applications, WIPO reported. Local patent filings in India rose 5.5% in 2021, according to WIPO. 

India performed well in trademark application statistics, as well – it was one of 11 trademark offices worldwide which recorded double-digit growth in 2021; WIPO reported that the bulk of the increase in India was a result of growth in domestic filings. India’s trademark application filing activity placed fourth globally with a total of 488,526 applications in 2021, behind China, the United States and the European Union but ahead of the United Kingdom. WIPO reported that there were an estimated 73.7 million active trademark registrations at 149 IP offices around the world in 2021; 37.2 million of those were in China, followed by 2.8 million in the United States and 2.6 million in India. 

India also reported strong growth in design filing in 2021, with an increase of 67.6% over the previous year; again, the growth was primarily driven by an increase in resident filing, according to WIPO. 

As India’s participation in international patent, trademark and, indeed, other forms of intellectual property, increases at a strong rate, it is no surprise that we have seen a commensurate increase in top-flight IP work being done there. Asia IP asked a large number of professionals – mostly in-house counsel and corporate legal managers – what they were looking for from their legal service providers. From their answers, we have compiled our list of India’s 100 IP Experts, those lawyers who understand just what their clients need and are able to provide them with the best practical advice.  

Top-notch individuals have long been easy to come by in Delhi and the National Capital Region as well as in Mumbai and nearby Pune, but are increasingly easy to come by in other regions of the country, as well. While a few large, traditional firms continue to place multiple lawyers on our list, they are increasingly challenged by smaller upstarts, which are often formed by alumni of the older firms, blending the traditions of those firms with a fresher outlook and a, perhaps, more innovative, nimble approach. 

It comes as no surprise that NCR-based Anand and Anand and Remfry & Sagar each placed six different lawyers on our list, including Pravin Anand, Safir Anand, Dhruv Anand, Vaishali Mittal, Archana Shankar and Neeti Wilson at Anand and Anand and Ashwin Julka, C.A. Brijesh, Devika Mehra, Pankaj Soni, Ranjna Mehta-Dutt and Samta Mehra at Remfry & Sagar. 

Saikrishna & Associates had five lawyers named to the list: Ameet Datta, Garima Sahney, Monica Datta, Saikrishna Rajagopal and Sidharth Chopra.  

A number of firms placed four individuals on our list: K&S Partners (Amrish Tiwari, Deepa Kachroo Tiku, Latha Nair and Rajendra Kumar), Lall & Sethi (Raghav Malik, Tia Malik, Anju Khanna and Jyotideep Kaur) and Singh & Singh (Bitika Sharma, Saya Choudhary, Sudeep Chatterjee and Tejveer Singh Bhatia).  

Five firms placed three lawyers on the list: Chadha & Chadha (Chetan Chadha, Gopal Trivedi and Tarun Gandhi); Kochhar & Co. (Lynn Lazaro, Savitha Kesav Jagadeesan and Tarvinder Singh); R.K. Dewan & Co. (Mohan Dewan, Nishi Dewan and Disha Dewan); RNA, Technology and IP Attorneys (Ranjan Narula, Shabnam Khan and Rachna Bakhru); and Y.J. Trivedi & Co. (Y.J. Trivedi, Gopi Trivedi and Jatin Trivedi).  

No other firm placed more than two lawyers on the list, tallying up an impressive total of 56 different law firms represented on our list, demonstrating clearly that while the largest firms might still remain in the lead, that lead may not be as large as they think it is. The upstarts are hot on their heels. 

Most of the lawyers named to our list have multiple practice specialties. Many of them are litigators, while others concentrate on prosecution work or provide strategic advice.  

All of them have something in common: they are experts in their fields and, in one way or another, they provide extra value for their clients. They are Asia IP’s India’s IP Experts.

– GREGORY GLASS 

India’s IP Experts is based solely on independent editorial research conducted by Asia IP. As part of this project, we turned to in-house counsel in India, Asia and elsewhere around the world, as well as India-focused partners at international law firms, and asked them to nominate private-practice lawyers including foreign legal consultants, advisers and counsel.  

The final list reflects the nominations received combined with the input of the editorial team at Asia IP, which has nearly 45 years of collective experience in researching and understanding India’s legal market. 

All private-practice intellectual property lawyers in India were eligible for inclusion in the nominations process; there were no fees or any other requirements for inclusion in the process. 

The names of our 100 IP Experts are published here. Each IP Expert was given the opportunity to include their biography and contact details in print and on our website, for which a fee was charged.