Anand and Anand launches 'Digital Group'

Anand and Anand launches 'Digital Group'

The new vertical will be led by Dr Ajai Garg, a former director in MeitY

The foundation of Anand and Anand was laid in 1923 from a small one-room office in Old Delhi. The firm started off as a full-service Intellectual Property firm and is now extending across all practices. Today, Anand and Anand is trusted by a majority of leading businesses and the best of brands. Premised on innovation and sustainability, and a vision of '360-degrees IP & Beyond', as Anand and Anand enters its centenary year, the firm has announced the launch of its 'Digital Group'.

The 'Digital Group' would focus on Artificial Intelligence, Data Protection, Gaming, Drones, Blockchain/NFT and related issues emanating out of exponential technological changes across industries and piqued interest in everything 'Digital' in India. In accordance with the firm's leadership in all practice areas that it currently engages in, through the launch of this new vertical, Anand and Anand intends to be a leader in the 'Digital' space and this step lays the foundation for how the firm seeks to evolve in the future.

This new vertical would be led by Dr. Ajai Garg. An Electrical Engineer with a Doctoral Degree from IIT Kanpur, Dr. AK Garg is a seasoned technocrat with wealth of experience and a proven track record for professional excellence. Dr. Garg devised and led from the front myriad mission-critical digital transformation initiatives at the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) apart from being a key contributor to various technology oriented and trade & commerce related strategic international forums. He has described his involvement with Anand and Anand as 'After working for 21 years on the other side and seeing India's digital transformation and challenges thereof, I feel excited to work with an intellectual driven law group of Anand and Anand'.

Mr. Pravin Anand, Managing Partner; Mr. Safir Anand, Senior Partner Head of Trademarks, Contractual and Commercial IP and other partners of Anand and Anand shall comprise the core leadership.

The Digital vertical makes perfect sense now more than ever with India investing heavily in Artificial Intelligence coupled with its ever-sharp focus on digital transformation. With the Prime Minister describing 'now' as India's Techade, and the anticipated laws such as those on Data Protection, legal industry is bound to undergo a sea change.

Increased interests in hybrid areas such as Ed-tech, Health-Tech, Fin-tech and Agri-Tech and the fundamentally altered business models would see incumbents and new arrivals looking for customised solutions bringing about a disruption in otherwise unaffected legal services.

This is where the 'Digital Group' comes to service - harnessing the winds of change and navigating clients through this rapidly evolving landscape, especially in and around the Digital Space, and assisting them in staying on top of disruption.

Ms. Vaishali Mittal, Litigation Partner and Strategist, Anand and Anand, has described the creation of this group as 'Digital is no longer the future, it is here and now. It has emerged as a critical success imperative for business continuity and future growth. Change is accelerating so quickly, it is making innovation an urgent strategic and systemic necessity. The Digital Group at Anand and Anand has been created to steer our firm into virtual age to help our clients stay ahead of this curve.'

Mr. Safir Anand, described this development as 'In its 100 years, Anand and Anand, is moving to widen its service offerings to clients with a sharp focus on industry wise specialisation and business centric solutions. We are now expanding our non IP work including M&A, due diligences, agreements, collaterals, valuation, private equity, capital markets to a special practice for the needs of startups.

With the onset of a digital revolution that promises no end, we have expanded our existing practice in IT and ITeS to include the entire gambit of digital world from NFT to AI to Gaming to issues of business valuation, capital raising and competition law. Alongside this comes our existing practice with a century of experience in understanding VALUE and protecting, enforcing and monetising Intellectual Property'.

Mr. Pravin Anand, described his vision of a new practice area as 'The concept of intellectual property has greatly changed and acquired several new dimensions including data protection, defamation, advertising, art, franchising, defamation, sports and competition law. All of these subjects converge into practices, events, rights and violations on the internet. Therefore, it is imperative to develop a strong digital practice with a comprehensive skillset of each one of these components'.