This article is written by Ramanuj Mukherjee, CEO, LawSikho.

So, are you interested in IP law, and perhaps also in media and entertainment laws? That’s great. You are going to love this mail.

Before I tell you anything else, let me tell you about how IP is shaping up as a career option.

A vast majority of the IP related work in India these days relate to trademark laws. There is a little bit of copyright law-related work, and very minuscule amount of work related to patents when compared with the rest. So if you are going to be an IP lawyer, or deal with IP in any capacity, chances are high that we are talking about a lot of exposure to trademark law.

Nonetheless, you have to learn all the IP laws anyway, because rarer cases often offer the best margins (translates into better pay, more perks etc). Also, the trend is that being a disputes lawyer in the IP domain in most profitable rather than just doing just non-litigation work.

There is another major trend you need to note. IP law has two major areas of application these days. Only two industries churn out most of the interesting and well paid IP cases. One is media and entertainment. The other is technology.

In any case, chances are high that the best jobs in IP law are going to come from law firms that have deep expertise in IP litigation, and the media and entertainment industry, and to an extent from tech companies. Of course, other large organizations who have brands to protect or a lot of IP to license and enforce, such as a bank or an FMCG company will also need some IP lawyers, but the number would be much smaller comparatively.

As far as IP law is concerned, unlike earlier, niche is better.

When we decided to create a course on IP law, we realised that our best bet would be to create a niche IP course, focussing on the media and entertainment industry. Our goal is to teach the practical tasks, and it wasn’t going to be possible unless we focussed on a niche in this way.

In any case, these skills are relevant to all lawyers who want to practice IP laws. These are also relevant to business executives who want to learn IP laws in order to be empowered in their day to day business.

If you want to be a successful in-house counsel with an FMCG or media company, you have got to master these laws first.

If you are a director in an e-commerce or publishing company, knowing these laws is going to give you the edge that may get you ahead of others and earn you respect.

If you are a corporate lawyer in today’s day and age, having a good grasp on transactions in the media space will give you strength. The world is heading towards digital, so is media.

Whether you work in the TMT team in a law firm, or you are a compliance specialist, working in commercial litigation, arbitration or even working in the in-house legal team of a company, knowledge of IP laws coupled with media and entertainment laws will be appreciated and useful everywhere.

The laws are scattered, and difficult to wrap your head around. Even associates in top law firms stumble from time to time when it comes to these laws. Many do not even know what constitutes media and entertainment laws. The books are rare, fat and the volume to study is intimidating.

Since there are very few law schools that teach media and entertainment law in their coursework you learn precisely little about the actual work you have to do eventually. You learn some IP law concepts but do not learn how to do actual client work related to IP either. For example, can you do a basic task like drafting the terms and conditions of your company’s website? Do you know what exact steps to take in case the terms and conditions are breached? What will happen in case of multiple such breaches?

Can you enforce the IP when unknown pirates are violating your rights?

Do you know if your company is GDPR compliant? Is it required to be GDPR compliant? What is the penalty if you are found in violation of the GDPR laws?

Are you aware of all the compliances that need to be undertaken if you are working for an online business? How does it work when you do not have the appropriate mechanisms in place as mandated by law?

Are you aware of intermediary liabilities? Do you know how privacy laws shall apply to intermediary platforms?

Do you want to work for media companies, production houses, large distributors, digital media businesses? Or even social media companies like Facebook, Star India or Linkedin?

Would you like to learn how to get films certified from the Central Board of Film Certification? Or how to challenge the certification of a movie that seems unfair or unjust?

Would you like to learn to draft licensing and assignment contracts?

We researched long and hard to understand the most common applications of IP, media and entertainment laws and what one needs to do in day-to-day work as far as these laws are concerned.

We spoke to seasoned directors, compliance experts with decades of experience, litigators who act for largest corporations in India, in house counsel with national repute, partners at top most law firms and asked them about what we should teach in a comprehensive course on media and entertainment laws.

We were concerned that it should not be too huge, neither should it be less than adequate. Finding the balance was difficult but critical.

But before we tell you more about IP, media and entertainment law and what you need to learn, let me share with you some very valuable resources that you are going to appreciate.

Since you seem to be interested in IP, media  and entertainment laws, here are a few articles that may interest you:

• Laws You Need To Master To Become An Outstanding Media Lawyer
• How to Make a Career in Media and Entertainment Law
• Censorships of Films and the Law
• How to Bag Top Internships in Media and Entertainment Law
• Sports Law – A Viable Career Option?
• Bollywood’s Top Five Court Battles

These are just articles from our blog. Some of these are written by our alumni as a part of course work. I am also sharing a bunch of videos and course material from our very popular media law course as sample material from the course itself, absolutely FREE. The course is taken by entrepreneurs, key managerial personnel, media compliance experts, corporate and media lawyers who are already practicing and even they find tremendous value in it, so I am sure you will find it useful and valuable.

Start by reading these to get a flavour of media law.

Oh wait!

I know some of you easily get bored if you have to read a lot of text, so I am sharing some other videos too.

Here are a few webcasts from An Hour with LawSikho that we thought you’d be interested in:

Gaurav Gupta, Advocate, Delhi High Court – Defamation and Contempt of Courts – Reality of Practice

Amish Aggarwala, Advocate, Delhi High Court – Aftermath of a Media Trial

Nivedita Sen – A Career in IP and International Trade Law

Asaavari Jain, Associate, Anand & Anand – A Career in Intellectual Property Litigation

Rohit Rathi, Advocate, Delhi High Court – Media Trials and Constitutional Improprieties

We have some webcasts live on YouTube called An Hour With LawSikho. Industry insiders come and discuss their experiences in the legal industry. If you are interested in watching, do drop by our YouTube channel.

Next, we will tell you about how to make a career if you are focused on this area of law. We will tell you what kind of work IP and media lawyers do and what struggles they face in the next mail. After all, the well prepared always wins. We will prepare you for the best and the worst, so do not miss tomorrows email.

We will be glad to receive your feedback on the content and articles that we shall be sharing in the next few days. Please give your unabashed, raw feedback. Reply to the emails and it will reach us. If you think the material is useless, or substandard, just tell us.

If you want to schedule a consultation call with our experts about how our courses will help you take your career to the next level, please call us on 011-4084-5203 or send an email requesting a consultation call to [email protected].

My suggestion is that you think of some specific results that you want in your future so that you can make the most of your consultation session. You will also have the opportunity to explore how the online courses offered by LawSikho will help you advance in your career.

At LawSikho, our goal is to create a new generation of extraordinary lawyers. IP, media and entertainment law is critical. Since you are interested in building your career in IP, media and entertainment laws, you are welcome to the LawSikho community of lawyers and professionals striving to achieve legal excellence.