Saikrishna & Associates is a top-tier firm for contentious intellectual property and technology, media and telecoms matters. In particular, its copyright litigation team is regularly recognised and name-checked by peers and clients. The firm has featured in numerous first-of-its-kind litigations that helped shape the landscape of industries such as media and entertainment, sports broadcasting, standard essential patents (SEPs), pharmaceuticals and life sciences, intermediary liability, publishing, information technology and new media and online anti-piracy.
Key contacts for disputes include managing partner Saikrishna Rajagopal and partners Ameet Datta, Sidharth Chopra, Thomas George, Himanshu Bagai, Nitin Sharma and Sneha Jain.
In a historic matter, the team represented Xiaomi against Interdigital in relation to a case that involved allegations of
FRAND licence infringement for SEPs relating to cellular and High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) technology. Two judgments rendered in this case in the past year have revamped the jurisprudence on SEP infringement cases in India and globally.
For yet another high-profile case, the firm defended Amazon Seller Services and its senior executives. The firm is helping its client to navigate complex legal issues arising from multiple criminal actions filed pan-India against its senior executives. Issues involved related to the balance between free speech and hurting of religious sentiments and ensuring personal liberty and avoiding arrest. This case poses important questions of personal liability of company executives who are involved in production of content that could contain any religious overtones, and significant issues relating to technology overtaking the entertainment business. The ruling would also have an impact on sectors such as media and e-commerce, which also regularly face risk of actions for publishing content that could have religious implications.
Key clients include Apple TV, Adobe Systems India, Audible Singapore, Bytedance, Fox Star Studios, HarperCollins, Panasonic, Penguin Books, Star India, Walt Disney Company and WeWork.
