Press Release

Mr. Rodney D. Ryder has recently joined the Delhi office of Kochhar & Co. as a partner with the Technology, New Media and Intellectual Property (IP) Practice. As an additional responsibility, Rodney will also be managing the firm’s IP Practice in Chennai, Tamil Nadu.

Rodney is one of India’s leading legal luminaries and enjoys the unique distinction of having authored several books on Technology and Intellectual Property law. His treatise such as "Guide to Cyber Laws [E-commerce, the Information Technology Act, 2000, Data protection and the Internet]"Intellectual Property and the Internet”, published by LexisNexis are seminal works. The latter is the only publication of its kind in Asia and has been acknowledged by the Supreme Court of India as an authoritative work and has also been quoted in the first and only judgment by the Apex Court on domain names. An illustrative list of the various books and guides authored by Rodney are mentioned herein below.

Rodney is an advisor to the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, Government of India on the implementation of the Information Technology Act, 2000. Rodney is also an adjunct professor/visiting faculty for Internet related laws, intellectual property, telecommunications and media laws to the National Judicial Academy [NJA] Bhopal, the National Law School of India University [NLSIU] Bangalore, NALSAR Hyderabad, National Law University [NLU] Jodhpur, Campus Law Centre, Faculty of Law, University of Delhi, Amity Law School, Indian Institute of Technology [Kharagpur], the Indian Institute of Management Lucknow [IIML], the Delhi Police Training Centre and the CBI Academy [Ghaziabad].

In the past, Rodney has been nominated as a 'Leading Lawyer' in intellectual property, technology, communications and media law by Asia Law, Who's Who Legal and Asia Legal 500 amongst other International publications. With Rodney joining Kochhar & Co., the firm’s Delhi office now possesses special and substantial expertise in the practice of Technology and New Media. This also complements the technology practice in the Kochhar Bangalore office where the firm has been and continues to be the leading technology law service provider in the silicon valley. Technology and New Media Law Practice" Kochhar & Co has a formidable reputation in the Technology and Media law practice. With full service offices in six cities in India - Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Gurgaon and Hyderabad, a branch office in Atlanta, Georgia, USA and a foreign law office in Singapore; the firm is well positioned to serve client interests in this practice domain. The firm acts as legal counsel for the Controller of Certifying Authorities under the Ministry of Information Technology, India. It advises the Ministry on a host of legal issues arising from the Information Technology Rules and Procedures. Additionally, the firm has also advised clients on their applications to be instated as Certifying Authorities under the Indian Information Technology Act [2000]. Also, in the area of internet-related crime, the firm advises the Government of India and in particular the Computer Emergency Response Team [CERT] and prestigious associations such as NASSCOM.The firm’s key services in this sector include: Advising, negotiating and drafting contracts relating to all information technology issues; Advising on regulatory compliances under the Information Technology Amendment Act, 2008; Advising on legal issues arising from data privacy, information security and corporate compliance; Advising on intellectual property issues such as cybersquatting, linking, meta tags and search engine issues; Advising on law and practice related to electronic commerce.

This practice group works along with the firm’s Media and Entertainment practice which provides business and litigation services to clients in sectors such as film, television, publishing, music, audio visual, interactive and arts.

Please find herein below an illustrative list of books and guides authored by Mr. Rodney Ryder:
•“Intellectual Property: Law, Policy and Management – Strategic Issues for Managers and Lawyers [Tentative Title] {Universal Law Publishing, to be published in 2009}.
• "Guide to Cyber Laws [E-commerce, the Information Technology Act, 2000, Data protection and the Internet]". {LexisNexis Butterworths Wadhwa Nagpur, India}. Third Edition 2007.
• “An Introduction to Internet Law and Policy: a course book on cyber law”. { LexisNexis Butterworths Wadhwa Nagpur, India, 2007}.
• “Drafting corporate and commercial agreements: legal drafting guidelines, forms and precedents”; {Universal Law Publishing, 2005; Reprint 2007}.
• “Right to Information – Law, Policy and Practice”. {LexisNexis Butterworths Wadhwa Nagpur, India, 2006}.
• “Intellectual Property Law – Concept to Commercialization”. {Macmillan, 2005}.
• “Brands, Trademarks and Advertising”. {LexisNexis, 2004}.
• “Intellectual Property and the Internet”. {LexisNexis, 2002}.