Sarmad Hasan Manto

Managing Partner

With almost twenty-five years of experience in the Middle East, Asia and Africa, Sarmad is the go-to attorney in the MENASA region. Currently he acts as the managing partner at Audiri Vox (www.audirivox.com). He is also the global portfolio manager for a number of Middle Eastern companies.

Sarmad’s specialization includes trade mark and patent prosecution, negotiations, anti-counterfeiting, litigation, due diligence, franchising, licensing, corporate and regulatory affairs. He has extensive experience in advising rights holders on portfolio development, management, franchising, licensing, data protection and enforcement strategies in the tobacco, information technology, electronics, telecommunication, cosmetics, luxury goods, pharmaceutical, foodstuff and auto industries. He also provides advice on a wide range of legal and compliance issues and is well-versed with the requirements and demands of the in-house and outside counsel aspects of the legal practice. His work includes, but is not limited to, drafting, prosecution and enforcement of Patent and Trademark applications, handling oppositions and enforcement actions, franchising and divestiture of IP rights, providing expert advice on data protection, entering negotiations and drafting a wide range of commercial contracts and rendering advice on compliance issues.

Sarmad was instrumental in setting up an ISP in North Africa and was part of one of the biggest seizures of counterfeit medicines in the Middle East. He has successfully overseen prosecution of over 30000 trademark and patent applications in almost 180 jurisdictions worldwide. He actively advises numerous blue-chip companies on contentious and non-contentious issues.

Sarmad is a member of numerous IP organizations and regularly writes on IP issues for leading publications. He has received a number of accolades from prominent IP power houses.

Specializations

Trademark Prosecution
Intellectual Property
Anti-Counterfeiting
Negotiations
Litigation
Distributorship issues
Cyber Squatting
Franchising & Licensing
Corporate and Commercial
Data Protection
Mentoring

Committees

International Trademark Association (INTA) Committee Member

Publications Committee – 2022-23

Anticounterfeiting Committee 2019-09-24 – 2021-12-31

Europe, Africa and Middle East Roundtables Project Team 2014-01-01 – 2015-12-31

Anticounterfeiting Committee 2012-01-01 – 2013-12-31

Middle East, Africa and South Asia Subcommittee 2012-01-01 – 2013-12-31

Contributor Country Guides

Languages

English, Urdu, Hindi, Punjabi

Education

LLB – University of the Punjab

Advanced Course on E-Commerce & Intellectual Property – WIPO