PAKISTAN - SHIPPING LAW FIRM OF THE YEAR
LIAQUAT MERCHANT ASSOCIATES AKBAR H. MIRZA - PARTNER T: +9221 35835105 a.mirza@liaquatmerchant.com www.liaquatmerchant.com
Liaquat Merchant Associates (LMA) was established in 1972 and has its roots in banking, insurance and company law as well as in commercial litigation. The firm is now one of the largest in Pakistan and provides a broad range of legal services. These services are divided into practice areas managed by partners who are specialized in particular fields and lead teams comprising of the firm’s associates. LMA’s shipping practice area is managed by Akbar Mirza who was called to the Bar at Lincoln’s Inn, London in 1957 and practiced in East Pakistan until he moved to Karachi and started his own practice in 1971. He subsequently joined LMA as a partner in 1991 and specializes in contentious and noncontentious shipping and insurance related matters working alongside a team of six associates at LMA. His team currently handles an impressive portfolio of several hundred shipping cases ranging from vessel arrests and releases, cases of wrongful delivery, misappropriation/loss of cargo, contamination, and short landing/delivery claims in the High Court and District Courts of Karachi. Regular sources of contentious work for the shipping team are a large number
of P&I Clubs across the globe such as American P&I Club, Japan P&I Club, UK Mutual and London Shipping Co. Other notable clients include Maersk Shipping Line, American President Line and Hanjin Shipping. Akbar Mirza is also a member of the Sindh Bar Council, Supreme Court Bar Association, International Law Association and the Honorable Society of Lincoln’s Inn. The firm’s other contentious teams provide services in litigation as well as mediation and arbitration in banking, commercial, construction, corporate, finance, insurance and medico-legal matters. LMA’s barristers and advocates are qualified to provide litigation services in the District Courts, Specialist Courts/Tribunals and High Courts up to the Supreme Court of Pakistan. The contentious practice areas are managed by Liaquat Merchant, Akbar Mirza, Murtaza Malik and Khalid Shah. The firm’s non-contentious teams provide legal services in banking & finance, capital markets, competition/antitrust, corporate/commercial, energy & power, information technology, insurance, mergers & acquisitions, projects, real estate & construction as well as regulatory & compliance matters. These practice areas are managed by Liaquat Merhant, Faresa Ahsan, Darakshan Vohra and Sheryl Johns.
PHILIPPINES - INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAWYER OF THE YEAR
SAPALO VELEZ BUNDANG & BULILAN ATTY. IGNACIO S. SAPALO - MANAGING PARTNER T: +632 891 1316 to 19 info@sapalovelez.com www.sapalovelez.com
With 35 years of experience in intellectual property prosecution and enforcement, Sapalo Velez Bundang & Bulilan (SVBB) is one of the country’s top IP law firms. Its excellent service is made possible by the reservoir of experience and expertise of its lawyers, paralegals and researchers, who have academic degrees in both law and science. The firm counts among its clients some of the world’s biggest conglomerates such as Nestlé, Toyota, Microsoft, Toshiba, Cadbury, Yamaha, etc. Atty. Ignacio S. Sapalo, the firm’s Managing Partner, was the Director of the Bureau of Patents, Trademarks & Technology Transfer (BPTTT) from 1987 to 1996. As a professor of intellectual property, he authored a textbook and many articles on the subject. He led the group that crafted the current law, the Intellectual Property Code of the Philippines, R.A. 8293. It introduced the first-to-file system in the country, aligned the law in the Philippines with the standards set in the Trips Agreement and established a financially independent Intellectual Property Office. Atty. Neptali L. Bulilan, a mechanical engineer and a former patent examiner at the BPTTT, is the partner assigned to supervise the firm’s IP department. The firm has contributed to the development of IP law by enriching jurisprudence in the country. In Societe des Produits Nestle S.A. vs. Court of Appeals, the Supreme
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Court affirmed SVBB’s argument that the use of Nestle’s competitor of “FLAVOR MASTER” for coffee is not registrable, in view of Nestle’s prior registrations for ”MASTER ROAST” and “MASTER BLEND” also for coffee. This is one of the first of a series of decisions where the court applied the “dominancy test” over the “holistic test” in determining whether there is colorable imitation of a mark by another that would likely mislead or deceive the purchasers as to the source of the goods. Recently in Societe des Produits, Nestle S.A. vs. Martin Dy, the high court once again, applying the dominancy test, sided with the firm’s position that Mr. Dy’s “NANNY” mark is confusingly similar to Nestle’s “NAN” mark, despite the fact that “NAN” is used for infant milk, while “NANNY” is for older children and adults. In 2010, the firm won the Philippine Trademark Firm of the Year and shortlisted as Philippine Patent Firm of the Year Award by Asia IP. It has also established four branch offices in the fast developing cities in the country, namely: Cebu, Davao, Iloilo and Cagayan de Oro. SVBB has grown through the years to become a multi service firm. It has developed its expertise in corporate, tax, immigration, tort, labor, energy and environmental laws. This year, it will start providing services to clients’ needs in the areas of banking and finance. It champions seafarers’ rights and as its contribution to the promotion of social justice, provides pro bono services to the poor.
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