Devlin Law Firm has entered into a collaboration with Singh & Singh, one of India's leading intellectual property law firms, to provide clients on both sides with coordinated legal support across the US-Asia intellectual property corridor.
The arrangement gives US and Indian companies access to expertise of both DLF and Singh &Singh on all intellectual property matters from initial drafting and filing through prosecution, portfolio management and, where necessary, enforcement, without requiring clients to source, brief and coordinate a separate set of counsel in each jurisdiction.
Speaking on the collaboration, Managing Partner Timothy Devlin said: "Our clients' innovations increasingly move across borders from day one, and their legal support needs to move with them. This collaboration with Singh & Singh lets us serve those clients as a single, coordinated team on both sides of the US-Asia corridor, rather than handing them off at the border."
For Indian companies expanding into the United States, the collaboration means working with a team that can take a patent or other IP asset from drafting through to filing and stay engaged as questions arise around protecting and commercializing the technology in the US market. The two systems do not map neatly onto each other. US rules on filing formalities, timelines, patentable subject matter, disclosure obligations and enforcement differ from Indian practice in ways that can catch a company off-guard when advice is fragmented across firms. A single team that understands both sides can make a material difference in speed, cost and outcomes.
The same is true in the other direction. US companies looking to grow into India and the wider Asian market can rely on the collaboration for coordinated advice on IP protection, portfolio strategy and cross-border enforcement in the region, rather than assembling and managing local counsel jurisdiction by jurisdiction.
Devlin Law Firm and Singh & Singh have worked in adjacent spaces for some time. The collaboration formalizes that working relationship into a channel clients can draw on directly. Partner Michael Siem, who has been instrumental in building the collaboration, commented: "I have worked alongside the Singh & Singh team extensively and the way they approach a problem lines up with how we do it here. Formalizing that working relationship was the natural next step. Clients moving between the two systems should feel the difference right away: one team, one point of contact, and one clear picture of both sides for any IP related matter."
Both firms expect it to grow as more companies seek to protect their innovations across borders and as cross-border intellectual property becomes a larger factor in how businesses plan for growth.
Further detail on how clients can engage the joint offering, including intake and coordination procedures, will follow in the coming weeks.
