This article is written by Team LawSikho.

Seven years ago, when I passed out of law school, everybody wanted to be a corporate lawyer. 

Intellectual property law was not even among the top 3 career choices in our times. 

I was always interested in intellectual property rights, but at that time, the scope to build a career in intellectual property rights was severely limited. 

Anand & Anand was the only credible name in the market. Saikrishna & Associates used to have a small office in Noida. 

The hard reality was IP lawyers got paid less than corporate lawyers in big law firms. 

Media law as a specialization was not even heard of in those times. 

You had to sacrifice if you wanted to become an IP lawyer instead of going for corporate transactions or even disputes practice. To think of practising media and entertainment law, you had to be a visionary in those times.

To many of us, IPR as a career option still appeared like a promising mirage rather than a solid choice. Media and entertainment law was not heard of in law school campuses. 

We had no clue that companies such as Zee, Sony and NDTV could also hire lawyers in their legal teams. 

Licensing was a word I had only heard when it came to patents. 

Specialized contract drafting for the media and entertainment industry was a possibility which students were unaware of. 

Nobody had even the faintest idea that IPR practice coupled with skills in contract drafting can open up a totally new avenue of career opportunities for young lawyers. 

The thought that tomorrow a Javed Akhtar or an Amitabh Bachhan can be a client had not occurred to most of us. Netflix and Amazon Prime were unimaginable. Nobody aspired to work for YouTube or Facebook in those times. 

Fast forward to 2020. 

A three-year-old firm merged with the IPR giant Anand & Anand in a joint venture in 2017 to cater to all kinds of media and entertainment clientele in the financial and entertainment hub of India, Bombay. Ms Priyanka Khimani has been at the cusp of this revolution in the market. 

Naik and Naik is a respected media and entertainment law firm, catering to all kinds of entertainment industry clients.

Today, a distinguished media and entertainment law career is a reality. 

The number of specialised law firms in this area is ever-growing and every law firm in town wants to have a media law practice. Media and entertainment can be seen as a fast-growing recession-proof industry and due to the increasing number of legal regulations, media companies are looking to hire a large number of specialized lawyers. 

Who could have imagined a giant like Lakshmikumaran & Associates would have a wholly dedicated office to IPR in Safdarjung, Delhi?

It is an area with immense potential of self-employment and career growth as well, thanks to a lot of startups and SMEs needing these services apart from large corporations. 

What’s more, this is not restricted to some big cities like Delhi, Mumbai or Bangalore. 

Opportunities are arising in every corner of the country thanks to local language media. Within the media industry, vernacular is the fastest growing sector, increasing media and entertainment consumption to astronomical proportions, but that also means we will need media and entertainment lawyers in every tier 1 and tier 2 cities that are dominated by a non-Hindi speaking population. 

Diving into the digital market of India

Content is here and so are OTT platforms such as Netflix and Amazon Prime. Disney just acquired Hotstar to give everyone a run for their money in the OTT market. According to a BCG report, the OTT market has a potential of growing to be a USD 5 billion market by 2023. 

Google predicts with the growing digital users, India has a USD 100 Bn opportunity in front of it.  

Needless to say, India is moving towards being a digitally-driven society with a lot of money in the system. 

Moreover, the BCG report credits this growth to the growing middle class, increased usage of data packs through rural India and adoption to various demographics, including older people and women. 

The 2016 Jio revolution has to be given credit for data penetration in the country. Needless to say, the Indian market is at the cusp of a digital boom. 

We have Bytedance, the owner of TikTok, and the world’s biggest social media company looking at India as its primary growth driver. Every step of Bytedance in India, however, has been mired in litigation, having been banned twice already in the country. 

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Furthermore, when we talk about digital advertising, it is growing at exponential rates and is expected to be a 50,000 crore market by 2025. People will spend a substantial amount of time and money on digital platforms in the coming times. As it has always been said, with the incoming of business, comes the added costs of legal expenses. A media lawyer stands to gain a lot as the money and the market grows in the digital system. 

This shows that big-media tech startups will need skilled media lawyers to help them get over the slight hiccups that the Indian market throws at them. An opportunity lies here for the whole media law market there. 

With the advent of this digital age, young lawyers now have myriad of opportunities for employment as well as client development in this fast-growing area. 

Want to specialize in media and entertainment laws, or become a hotshot IP lawyer?

If you are just into media and entertainment laws, this certification course is the right one for you. 

However, if you want to practise trademark law, copyright law or patent dispute, or if you want to get into the in-house legal team of digital media companies like ByteDance, or if you want to join the IP department of a top tier firm like Lakshmikumaran & Associates…

We suggest you take a look at this course instead if you want to learn about (media & entertainment + intellectual property) laws. 

This is a Diploma course spanning over 12 months and helps you cover EVERYTHING that you need to know to become an IP, media and entertainment lawyer.

What sets this course apart from the rest?

• 24/7 online access to study materials

• Live classes with industry experts and lawyers

• Doubt-clearing over WhatsApp, email and LMS

• Practical assignments on real-world issues

• Personal one-on-one feedback

• CV enhancement & interview training

• Regular job and internship opportunities

• And much more

When you pass out of this course, you won’t have a paper certificate in hand. You would be READY to take on new clients and start your practice right that instant.

Click here to read full details.

Want to know more about it? Get on a call with us on 011 4084 5203 and have a free consultation with our career counsellors. Or you can comment below to this article with your phone number and a message “I want to specialize in IP, media and entertainment laws.” We will get back to you.

This is a great time to enter into this dynamic legal niche, and if you do it right, you might end up making lots of money and a well-set legal career for life. 

To your success.

P. S. LawSikho is running hour-long webinars every day. Want to learn how to improve your learning skills? Prepare an LLM application to a foreign university? Career opportunities in new, upcoming areas of law? Don’t miss these high-quality webinars with industry and academic experts.

P. P. S. All our premium courses are covered under an unwavering 45 days full money-back guarantee. 

After taking a course, if you feel like it is not working out for you, maybe you are not getting enough value out of it or it is not meeting your expectations, just get in touch with us. We will refund every rupee you paid for the course.

No questions asked, as long as the minimum requirements of the refund policy are fulfilled.