About

Purnima Thacker, Partner of Mulla & Mulla & Craigie Blunt & Caroe is a commercial lawyer and heads the Intellectual Property Practice Group of the firm.

Commercial Laws:

Purnima’s experience of over 25 years includes advising on contentious and non-contentious issues related to various commercial laws and regulations in India. She negotiates and drafts commercial transaction terms such as for manufacturing, supply, service, logistics and distribution and franchise agreements.

She joined the firm as a Senior Associate in 2010. Armed with years of experience at a leading Indian M&A law firm where she commenced her practice in India after training under an IP specialist at a London City Firm in her early days, she has the vision and legal skill to advise both Indian and foreign players in transactions involving cross border issues and their business interests in India.

Purnima’s practice also covers competition laws, consumer protection, product liability, packaging and labeling and advertising laws and regulations and employment issues which enables her to provide clients holistic legal backing on their commercial transactions.

Intellectual Property and Data Protection Laws:

With a core specialization in intellectual property, Purnima advises clients in respect of trademarks, copyrights and media laws including new media, trade secrets, designs, domain names, aspects of cyber laws, and related areas which impact client’s development and use of their own, and third-party intellectual property. She has significant experience in negotiating and drafting licensing agreements, franchising deals and endorsement arrangements for players in various industries from tourism, FMCG, publishing and luxury goods to name a few.

She has extensive experience in IP due diligences including in the FMCG and media industries and negotiates transaction terms, drafting documentation for clients in various industries such as media and entertainment, fashion, luxury goods, publishing, pharmaceuticals, software and technology.

Devising portfolio management strategies along with clients, she handles their trademark portfolios in India and liaises with legal advisors in the Indian sub-continent to protect client’s interest in the region. Successfully representing both Indian as well as foreign brand owners in opposition and cancellation proceedings, she has effectively negotiated complex settlement terms with a solution oriented and commercially viable approach. As lead advisor and contact person for clients, she represents them in enforcement actions in India in various High Courts and District Courts in India. Purnima has effectively handled UDRP actions and advised clients in relation to their e-commerce presence as well as in relation to counterfeit issues online.

As an extension of her core practice, she also advises clients on the rapidly evolving and dynamic data protection and privacy laws and the impact of these on both Indian as well as foreign individuals and entities with an India interest, partnering with clients to devise strategies for data management and compliance to mitigate risks.

An active member of the INTA (International Trademarks Association), she has served as co-chair of the first India Global Advisory Council at INTA (2014-16), co-chaired the India Project team (2013-15) and on various INTA Committees (2012 to Present), moderated panels and presented papers at the INTA Annual Meetings and several INTA meets in India. Some of the INTA Committees she has served on include the Parallel Imports Committee and the Copyright Committee and the Data Protection Committee. She is presently serving on the Alternate Dispute Resolution Committee.

Media & Entertainment Laws:

As lead advisor, Purnima has negotiated media contracts such as for film financing, film production and distribution, publisher and author’s agreements, endorsements, photography exhibition agreements, sound recording agreements etc., and providing advice on related issues such as fair dealing, pre-publication and pre-broadcast measures, personality and image rights and rights of publicity. From time to time, she has advised clients on compliances with various advertising codes and regulations in India.

Purnima has extensive experience in media due diligences including for the acquisition of motion picture films and content in various other programmes for a leading US MNC media and entertainment company and drafting documentation in relation to the same. She has also provided pre-release opinions on content for risk assessment of docu-series broadcast on leading OTT platforms and has advised from time to time on gaming and gambling laws and regulations, sports law and fantasy gaming.