BananaIP (BIP) Counsels, formerly Brain League IP Services is a renowned, premier intellectual property (IP) firm in India. The firm started out of IIM-B in 2004 as Brain League IP Services, and was re-structured as BananaIP in 2014. BananaIP’s mission is to help clients maximize business value from their IP/Patents, and gain competitive advantage in the market place. In its evolution from Brain League, BIP carries forward the firm’s core values – Merger of Technology, Business and Law, Swift Adaptation to Changes in a Competitive Environment, and a Business-Driven Approach to IP/Patent Services.
The firm has worked with more than 600 clients across diverse industries including: Electronics, IT, Manufacturing, Automotive, Life Sciences, Entertainment and Academia. These clients are located in India, US, Europe, Japan and other countries. BIP distinguishes itself as the best new-age Intellectual Property firm in the country.
BananaIP is led by its founder Dr. Kalyan C. Kankanala, a recognized national IP expert. Over the last fifteen years, he has helped many companies move up the IP/Patent value chain and gain business/financial value from their intellectual assets. Senior Partners, Somasekher Ramakrishna, Nitin Nair, Vinita Radhakrishnan and Sanjeeth Hegde bring long term experience in IP/patent filing, prosecution, management, commercialization and valuation to the firm.
BananaIP’s technology experts and attorneys bring both expertise and the experience of working with Fortune 500 companies, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), international governmental agencies, educational/research institutions, and start-ups. A blend of industry experience and domain expertise, along with a keen understanding of business dynamics, give BIP the edge in helping clients maximize business value from their intellectual assets.
Why the Name BananaIP? Why Not?
“Are you the Bananas?” the client asked, laughing loudly when we entered.
“Yes, we are,” I said, laughing with her.
Almost everyone laughs when we introduce ourselves for the first time.
“Hi, I am from BananaIP.”
“Where did you say you are from? Ha Ha Ha”
They can’t help laughing.
One even went to the extent of proclaiming, “Who in the right frame of mind calls an IP firm Banana!”
“Me,” I said instantly, summoning all my energies to put up a poker face.
Laughter again. They laugh, and keep laughing, but never forget. BananaIP is engraved in their memory forever.
“Why did a person like you call your firm Banana?” one CEO asked me seriously after a meeting.
“Because I love Bananas,” I said smiling.
“I love my firm and my work as much as I love the wonderful fruit,” I added, rather unnecessarily.
“Really! What a name,” he said, touching my shoulder before walking away quietly.
If I was religious, I would have thanked God a million times a day for creating the luscious fruit, and many varieties of it. Every day, I spend time planning and dreaming about eating bananas – How many? Which variety? At what time? In what form? Several questions plague my mind. I think if I spend half the time I spend on these questions on work, my productivity will double and treble.
Talking about eating bananas, one of my partner’s sons did not like the name at all.
“Papa, please don’t call your firm Banana. One day, monkeys will come and eat up your firm,” he warned.
We didn’t take his sensible advice, and went ahead with the name. Monkeys never showed up, and the name did not matter for a long time until one day, an in-house counsel informed us that he cannot work with us because we call ourselves BananaIP, an unprofessional and despicable name for an IP Firm.
“We will never work with a law firm that calls itself Banana,” he said contemptuously.
“But, how does that matter? Shouldn’t you be looking at the abilities of the attorneys working with the firm?” I asked, unable to hold myself back.
“The name is very important for us,” he said with an element of finality.
We lost the client, and were naturally disappointed and dejected. That incident set off a serious discussion among the partners about whether we should change the name. True to our professional instincts, we argued, and kept arguing for a few months before coming to a firm conclusion.
“BananaIP it is, and BananaIP it will be,” we finally decided one rainy evening.
We just couldn’t let the name go. Unknowingly, the brand of our firm had become an integral part of each of us, our identity, and our personality. We realized that it meant more than a name or a word for us, and couldn’t separate it from ourselves. It was too precious for us to let it go.
As IP attorneys, we assist creators; people, who think differently; people, who get rights because they think differently; people, who make a difference because they think differently; and people, who thrive on thinking differently. Novelty, Distinctiveness, Inventiveness, Dissimilarity, Differentiability, and Severability, are the foundations of creativity and intellectual property. Why should normative limitations pervade the minds of IP attorneys who work with creativity day in and day out? I am glad that all of us strongly believe that those so-called norms shouldn’t limit us.
Diverging from established norms is the essence of our work, and we are proud to have a distinctive, unique, and inventive name with which to identify ourselves. BananaIP reflects our creativity, our ability, and our difference, and it is an unchangeable part of our identity and personality.
We are happy, very happy to be identified, recognized, and remembered as BananaIP Counsels.
Thank You very much for recognizing who we are, for what we are.
Yours Truly,
Kalyan.
