Exclusive: Luthra charges into IP enforcement with three Anand & Anand star hires

Friday, 24 September 2010 By Legally India Law firms

Luthra & Luthra has kickstarted its intellectual property (IP) enforcement practice with the hire of senior lawyers J Kumar Bhardwaj, Munish Mehra, Amit Upadhyay and their team from Anand & Anand.

Anand & Anand managing associates Bhardwaj, who is also head of general enforcement at the firm, and Mehra, together with associate Upadhyay and two other junior fee-earners are understood to join Luthra & Luthra on 1 October.

Mehra and Bhardwaj will join Luthra & Luthra as senior associates with Upadhyay joining as an associate.

Bhardwaj focuses on enforcement in relation to counterfeit products in the fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) space for large multinationals such as Unilever and Procter & Gamble, according to a lawyer with knowledge of the IP industry.

Mehra is understood to have been involved in spearheading IP software enforcement practice at Anand & Anand, having worked with clients such as Microsoft and the Business Software Alliance (BSA). He graduated from NLIU Bhopal in 2003, according to his profile on business networking site Linked-in.

The team of five will create an IP practice at Luthra & Luthra of around 15 lawyers, which will be co-headed by the new joiners and partners Ameet Datta and Gayatri Roy. Datta was a partner at Anand & Anand until November 2008 when he joined Luthra with a team of four, as reported by The Lawyer magazine at the time.

Anand & Anand is India’s second-largest IP firm and consists of roughly 70 lawyers, according to a survey by the magazine Business World.

The lawyers, Luthra & Luthra and Anand & Anand declined to comment when contacted.

Last week Legally India reported that India’s largest IP firm Remfry & Sagar lost two IP partners to Lakshmikumaran & Sridharan.

Comments

Anonymous guest 25 Sept 2010, 04:50

+1 -1

anand's high attrition rate is no secret. there has been a HUGE exodus from anand into luthra and other firms for the past few years.

Anonymous guest 25 Sept 2010, 06:20

+2 -0

Glad that Luthra & Luthra has finally recognized the enormous potential of the IPR sector with the new hires. I find it hard not to pity Anand & Anand, at their present attrition rate they could probably consider converting their business into a Recruitment agency specializing in IP legal eagles.

Anonymous guest 25 Sept 2010, 17:05

Anand and Anand is paying the price for its [...] family structure. I don't care how good a lawyer Pravin Anand is, this is the 21st century and you have to be more professional.

The Anand family is a strong opponent of liberalisation but they are fighting a losing battle. They should stop living in denial and accept that foreign law firms do things better because they are not run by families.

Anonymous guest 27 Sept 2010, 16:20

Luthra's IP team is growing my metes and bounds. They have hired some very talented people in the past and if this trend continues, they will overtake all the others in terms of having the best talent in the market.

Anonymous guest 27 Sept 2010, 20:35

+1 -0

Kian, I am not sure if the company has licensed your enterprise to use its logo. This may be an IP enforcement issue as well.

Anonymous guest 28 Sept 2010, 05:55

+0 -0

"Anand & Anand is India’s second-largest IP firm and consists of roughly 70 lawyers, according to a survey by the magazine Business World."

Which is the largest?

Anonymous guest 28 Sept 2010, 06:48

IP law departments/firms in india are like kirana stores. they are waaaaaay behind their UK and US counterparts. i don't know how long SILF intends to keep up this sham. a lot of talented IP lawyers in india are being marginalised because of the rotten system.

a small firm like anand has the #1 or #2 IP practice in a country of over one billion and the word's fourth largest economy in PPP terms? simply unbelievable!!

are pranab babu and MMS listening?

Anonymous guest 30 Sept 2010, 18:06

IP Industry should be thank ful to ANAND AND ANAND and especially to Mr. Pravin Anand,whose give lot's of exposer to new commers in the IP Industry, when they were nothing,and now they are designated as Partners in other law firms..really Anand & Anand is kingmaker

Anonymous guest 1 Oct 2010, 04:27

With all due respect to the above comment, Anand and Anand grew on the sweat and blood of those who have been designated as Partners in other law firms. It was an equal exchange. Work for money. There were no favours by Anand and Anand. Its a tragedy that Anand and Anand did not realize that. The attitude in the above comment is exactly the reason that Anand and Anand is finding itself in its current mess. They think they are doing newcomers a favour [...]. Let us see how far this firm goes after losing their workhorses.

Anonymous guest 1 Oct 2010, 05:02

anand and anand is indeed the best firm when it comes to IP laws...n clients swear by Mr. Anand...i would not be wrong if i say that he knows the pulse of IP...someone leaving the firm is not going to make any difference to the firm...n as far as luthra n luthra is concerned i m sure they doesnt come anywhere closer to anand and anand when IP practice is being talked about...

Anonymous guest 1 Oct 2010, 08:07

the fact remains that anand and anand is still ranked no 1 for all these years. none of the breakout groups made the rank. i think its good they are encouraging new comers and sticking with mature partners.

Anonymous guest 1 Oct 2010, 08:17

#10 - From what I hear Anand and Anand is losing most of its cases to Mr. Pratibha Singh who is doing a pretty good job as the defendant's counsel. They may still be doing well in enforcement actions since they are mostly ex-parte but they are surely losing out in high end IP litigation.

Anonymous guest 1 Oct 2010, 08:38

#11 - 'sticking with mature partners' - Who are the mature partners at Anand and Anand. I have heard of only Mr. Praveen Anand. There are other partners at Anand and Anand?

Anonymous guest 1 Oct 2010, 17:45

..with the courts waking up to the realization that "ex parte" injunctions are no longer the norm in IP litigation, a long standing game ply of A & A, it will be interesting to see how they fare now. No doubt Mr. Anand is the King of IP law in India- Well he was the first one to actually do that as a specialized practice. The day of boutique firms is fast drawing to a close.. unless they can ramp up their practice with something more than just "post office" services!

Anonymous guest 2 Oct 2010, 01:30

The main partners of Anand and Anand are:

Pravin Anand
NK Anand
Safir Anand

hmmm....

Anonymous guest 2 Oct 2010, 03:54

Anand and Anand still rocks in IP practice and they are going to push every one to the corner in the market. Wait n Watch ?????

Anonymous guest 5 Oct 2010, 17:57

Hey this is great news! Jay is a great guy and am sure will bring in lot of value into the Luthra's IP enforcement team! Amit too is a hard worker! I wish them all best of luck for the new assignment!! Cheers

Anonymous guest 5 Oct 2010, 20:30

@9: spot on

Anonymous guest 6 Oct 2010, 07:14

All said and done, the work in IP is increasing and so are the number of players in it. Good for anand which shall always be the pioneer and has been the ip powerhouse and good for the new ip practices which have cropped up in the recent past. It is just healthy competition. As for luthra, they have always had the reputation of being 'poachers', but whatever works for them!

Anonymous guest 31 Oct 2010, 07:42

I am just curious about the numbers - how much revenue does one think is required to sustain a healthy IP practice that Luthra intends to build? Is it justifiable? What is the Luthra IP strength right now and how much in XX terms would it be to the revvenue?

Hmm 26 Oct 2020, 16:56

Good old days!

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