De Penning & De Penning

De Penning & De Penning is the oldest intellectual property law firm in India, and was named Patent Prosecution Law Firm of the Year in India at the Corporate INTL Global Awards 2024. Established in 1856, the firm traces its origins to George Alfred De Penning, who filed the first application for a patent in India in that same year, a founding moment that places the practice at the very beginning of the country's intellectual property history.

Across more than a century and a half of continuous operation, the firm has built a comprehensive intellectual property practice encompassing patent prosecution, trademark registration, copyright protection, design registration and domain-name enforcement. Its patent division represents a particular strength, drawing on decades of technical experience to guide clients through India's demanding patentability requirements. The firm employs specialised patent engineers capable of conducting searches and drafting across a wide range of technical fields, enabling it to serve innovators in complex and fast-moving sectors.

Patent prosecution, the discipline for which the firm has been recognised, is exacting work. It requires the drafting and filing of applications, the framing of claims that define the scope of protection, responses to examination reports and the navigation of a patent office's procedural and substantive requirements, all conducted with the technical precision that inventions in fields from engineering to life sciences demand. India's growing importance as an innovation economy has increased both the volume and the sophistication of this work, and a firm able to combine legal skill with genuine technical understanding occupies a valuable position. De Penning & De Penning's long specialisation and its bench of technically qualified professionals allow it to manage that combination at scale.

The firm operates from five regional offices in India's principal commercial centres, with its headquarters in Chennai and further offices in Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru and Kolkata. This national footprint allows it to manage filings and enforcement across the country while offering clients local access to its specialists. The practice reports handling a substantial volume of work, with thousands of cases filed each year, a scale that reflects both the trust placed in it by long-standing clients and its continued relevance to new entrants. Its client base is diverse, spanning multinational corporations, startups, educational institutions and individual innovators, each seeking to protect and enforce intellectual property assets tailored to their portfolios.

Recent recognition from leading independent directories, including The Legal 500 Asia Pacific and Chambers Asia Pacific, underlines the firm's continuing standing among India's foremost intellectual property practices. The 2024 Corporate INTL award in the patent prosecution category affirms its reputation in the area that has defined it since its foundation. As India's oldest IP firm, its enduring focus on patent work, combined with a national network and a deep bench of technically qualified specialists, continues to make it a natural choice for those seeking to secure patent protection in one of the world's largest and most important innovation economies.