INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

The importance of Intellectual Property ("IP") rights has been growing in India as Indian industries emerge from domestic markets and become global competitors. The role of IP in businesses is being felt increasingly over a wide spectrum of industries such as electronics, software, biotechnology, consumer goods, telecommunications, media and entertainment etc. It is therefore essential that companies develop mechanisms to protect and manage their IP to ensure the survival and growth of their businesses worldwide. We have advised several Indian and international clients to help them leverage their IP, and unlock the value of their intellectual assets in the current competitive market place. We have unique expertise in drafting and reviewing a diverse range of IP assignment and licensing agreements and drafting and filing copyright, trademark and patent applications in India and internationally.

Our intellectual property team offers the following services to our clients:

• Formulating comprehensive intellectual property strategies involving identifying the IP of clients and their competitors, and devising offensive and defensive strategies to protect the clients core and ancillary IP
• Drafting, filing and prosecuting registration applications in respect of copyrights, trademarks and patents
• Drafting complex patent specifications relating to a wide array of technologies, filing national patent applications in India and overseas; Patent Cooperation Treaty Applications and their prosecution.
• Coordinating with international law firms in the procedural aspects of the IP registration process.
• Drafting, reviewing and negotiating a diverse range of intellectual property agreements to meet the specific needs of wide-ranging industries in India and globally.
• Conducting due diligence with a specific focus on IP, involving a detailed review and documentation of IP in a company and assistance in evaluating the risks, liabilities and opportunities involved with IP.
• Providing legal opinions on complex IP issues arising from emerging technologies

Our Research Papers:

• Patents and the Indian Pharmaceutical Industry
• VOIP - Opening up of Internet Telephony
• Intellectual Property Law Regime in India

Other allied material:

• The Great Patent Rush (Economic Times, December 16, 2000)
• Yours Patently (Economic Times, April 01, 2000)
• Proving legitimate interest (Hindu Business Line, August 23, 2000)
• Cybersquatters and ad-lines (Hindu Business Line, August 16, 2000)
• Reliability of content (Hindu Business Line, April 26, 2000)
• The right to content (Hindu Business Line, July 19, 2000)
• Resolving domain name disputes (Hindu Business Line, July 14, 2000)
• Online databases and intellectual property (Hindu Business Line, March 31, 2000)
• Business model patents gain acceptance (Hindu Business Line, March 24, 2000)
• Tread carefully with online databases (Hindu Business Line, April 07, 2000)

Contact details: For further information and / or suggestions, please contact Gowree Gokhale
Email: gowree@nishithdesai.com