Progressive business organizations focus on developing product innovations and ideas to help customers customize their solutions and create a unique identity in the market. A lot of research, time, investment of time, efforts, and funds engage in developing new and unique innovations.
There are unexpected occasions when competitors conveniently plagiarize the hard-earned concepts and limit organizational growth. To value the efforts of creativity and help in retaining the ownership of the work concepts, organizations need skillful and timely consultation with professionals in patent law. Legal consultants well versed and experienced in international patent laws can help secure the unique work methodology and increase the opportunities for the business.
Charu Grover, who is specializing in patent and intellectual property laws as a Partner in the renowned legal services firm, Saikrishna & Associates, is a legal professional who help modern businesses or entrepreneurs in securing patent rights and resolving disputes.
Equipped with Engineering in Computer Science and a PG in Intellectual Property Laws from the Franklin Pierce Law Center, Charu is a dynamic legal consultant specializing in intellectual property rights and patent laws. Beginning with her externship in the US law firm Ladas & Parry, LLP, Charu assisted in developing patent procurement strategies.
Backed by technical know-how, Charu provides strategic advice on core technology issues, assists companies and inventors in developing patent portfolio management strategies, and has been involved in creative Telecom SEP litigation in India.
Introducing Saikrishna & Associates
Saikrishna & Associates is a law firm that believes anything is achievable with diligence and excellence put together. This has been reason for firm’s growth trend from an IP Boutique firm to a Tier-1 full-service law firm in twenty years. Founded by the Managing Partner Mr. Saikrishna Rajagopal in 2001, the firm has grown its practice verticals beyond Intellectual Property to Media and Entertainment, Corporate law, Personal Data Privacy and protection, Consumer protection, and Trade & Regulatory compliance, etc.
Its solid team of 28 partners and 15 associate partners lead the various practice verticals and provide end-to-end support and legal services to the firm’s clients. Saikrishna & Associates represents a wide range of clients in sectors such as automotive, FMCG and retail, software and artificial intelligence, telecommunications and electronics, pharmaceutical and life sciences, media, and entertainment, etc.
Rising Through Challenges
Starting off as an associate in a small four-member patents team back in 2015 to being one of the youngest partners at SKA, life in IP has been vastly challenging but equally rewarding for Charu.
Charu mentioned being an engineer, a lawyer, and a registered Indian Patent Agent; all added to her advantage in boosting her creative prowess. Charu started off on the journey of becoming a patent attorney by pursuing an Engineering degree in Computer Sciences, followed by a Bachelor of Law course and a Master’s in Intellectual Property Law. A proud alumnus of the Franklin Pierce Law Center at the University of New Hampshire, Charu returned to India in 2014 and began her professional career at a law firm, Amarchand & Mangaldas.
After a short stint at A&M, Charu joined the patents vertical of Saikrishna & Associates in early 2015. Starting from an associate position, she has grown professionally and personally with SKA’s patents team. Charu now leads the Telecommunications and computer sciences sub-division of the patents vertical in the firm and assists clients with a wide range of services, including patent drafting, patent prosecution, patent analytics, patent litigation and related advisory.
In conjunction with the dispute resolution team at SKA, Charu has vitally contributed to various groundbreaking patent litigation matters handled by the firm. She regularly provides strategic advice on core technology issues and assist companies and inventors in developing patent portfolio management strategies.
Finding the Sweet Pot by Innovative Ways
Born into a house of Intellectual Property lawyers, Charu grew up with legal jargon. Defying what had already been done in the house, i.e., too much of law, she decided to pursue an engineering degree. As Charu went along four years of engineering, she found herself lucky to meet many brilliant minds, both students and professors, who were developing so many inventions all along.
She made friends who were excellent coders and made brilliant products at such an early age but had no awareness about Intellectual Property rights, especially patents. As she could code, she noticed numerous people better than her at it. While she contemplated on going on to become a good litigator in a court of law, Charu knew there would be people better than her at it too. She thought positively about what if she could use both of her strengths and, in the process and help spread awareness about the rights inventors have in the technology field? And that is when Charu found the sweet spot, leading her to IP.
Building the Avenue of Patent Laws
When Charu began her legal career, patents were still a newbie and were not as much of a buzz in India as they are today. Most of the focus of corporate and individual clients was on trademarks and copyrights. At the same time, patent was a very niche area of law that only bigger corporations, mostly of foreign origin, would get into. Thus, the bigger challenge was to make clients aware of what patents are all about and why it was critical for them to pay heed to this form of protection.
In her early days, inducting inventors was a significant task their firm had to undertake to draft and file efficient patent applications for them. These challenges have now been substantially reduced with initiatives launched by the government, such as the SIPP scheme for startups, due to which awareness about patent protection has now increased, which is clearly visible in the increasing number of patent applications filed year on year.
Another substantial challenge was the lack of jurisprudence and clarity on the provisions of patent law in India. Without much guidance from case laws in India, interpretations of legal provisions were guided chiefly by laws and judicial decisions of foreign jurisdictions.
This has also substantially changed over the years as there have been many more judicial decisions in the patent law space. However, Charu still considers the Indian patent law to be in an infant stage only, with a long way to go to attain as much clarity as other advanced jurisdictions.
Specialization in Patent Portfolio Management
Charu revealed of beginning her career with patent prosecution, much like anyone else in this field. She slowly moved into patent drafting, which became and still is her first love. She has ventured into patent inductions, where she helped inventors understand the patent process and help them glean out patentable inventions right at the conception stage.
Charu also helps companies with their patent portfolio management strategies, advising them where to file, how to reduce costs and maximize patent protection, and, more importantly, what they must do to protect their IP. On the enforcement side, she helped the patentees assert their legal rights against infringers; and helped accused infringers defend themselves against patentees.
Charu regularly works with the firm’s dispute resolution team in mediations, and patent litigations, involving both standard essential patents and non-standard essential patents, where she developed core technical strategies for the case.
Automating Engagements and Virtual Sessions
Smiling with confidence, Charu elaborated that the advancement in the technological space is helping every sector, and she has seen more of that since the coming of COVID-19. Obviously, the law is no exception. Technology has made quite a lot of impact in the legal space, especially with the commencement of virtual court sessions that has made it so much easier for litigants and lawyers to appear from remote locations.
It has also become straightforward to engage expert witnesses from any part of the world who can now appear virtually in Indian courts. Also, newly developed artificial intelligence-based legal search tools have significantly helped advance the way legal research is currently conducted. At least some portion of a lawyer’s work can now be automated, thanks to automation tools that have developed over the years. And the list is endless…
Differentiating Principles
Charu credits the importance of values and principles like empathy, arduous work and sincerity.
She mentioned her strong belief is that these principles are what will help Indian IP law practitioners take the next leap in the right direction. In her eight-year career, Charu has come across many great lawyers and a few not-so-good ones as well. Empathy, especially in the world of patents, is the one factor that she believes in setting these two sets of lawyers apart, regardless of the technical and legal skills that are necessary.
Charu pointed out smartly that it has been a highly technical profession, and while dealing with complex technology, the need of the hour is to simplify things to an extent that a legal professional with little or no technical background is able to understand the case. When questioned about how to achieve this, she answers the question with a commitment by being the most diligent person in the room.
Charu added that anyone could not be a successful IP lawyer if they lack sincerity – towards their work, clients, and team. She revealed that this line of work demands more than most other streams of law.
Guiding Towards the Specialization Way
Charu says that, like any other industry, the law field has numerous branches and subdivisions. Law is a vast field, and she thinks she has a long way to go before she can advise on the entirety of this profession. She exclaims that maybe, someday, she will.
But what she can advise on, with her experience, is the breadth and depth of IP law in India. India is still a maturing market concerning IP law and has come a long way since she began my career back in 2014; however, there is still a long way to go.
With growing technology investments in the country, the laws will evolve, and so will the industry. Charu advises that it would be best for young professionals to be abreast with all kinds of IP laws in the country but at the same time, also to pick one specialization that one is enthusiastic about. In her case, that is technology. She says she has good knowledge about other verticals too, but technology is what keeps her awake at night. She mentions that individuals must find that answer for themselves by choosing to keep going in the direction of their dreams and keeping a check on the realities of other verticals.
Changing Scenario, Rise of Patent Laws
Much has changed in the Indian legal space in the last ten years, especially in the intellectual property domain. The government is taking major steps in promoting intellectual property rights, leading to a substantial increase in IP protection and enforcement. The relaxation of rules relating to foreign direct investment has prompted foreign corporations to manufacture and sell in India more than ever before, which has also increased IP protection and enforcement.
To cater to this increase, a specialized IP division has been set up by the Hon’ble Delhi High Court to resolve IP disputes and strengthen IP enforcement expeditiously; other High Courts across the country are likely to follow suit. At an administrative level as well, there has been substantial improvement in the processes of the Office of the Controller General of Patents, Trademarks and Designs, which has not only helped in expediting the grant of IP but also has made the entire IP protection process seamless and convenient for the applicants.
