Bachir A Chakra
Bachir, a Gowling WLG Partner based in Riyadh, has over 17 years of regional and international legal experience in IP, technology, corporate commercial matters, procurement, and media. He is proficient in both common law and civil law and has a strong track record of providing practical, clear, and legible legal advice to clients. Having previously worked at top law firms and in-house roles in Saudi Arabia, UAE, Singapore and Canada, Bachir brings with him a deep understanding of the regional and international legal landscapes. People he has worked with in the Middle East, Far East and North America, greatly appreciate Bachir's leadership, project management, contract drafting and negotiation skills.
With his most recent private practice experience in, and commercial sector awareness of, Saudi Arabia, Bachir has an acute appreciation of the Saudi market. He is very familiar with, and has advised many foreign clients looking to enter the Saudi market, on the Saudi vision as well as the manner of doing business, culture and custom there. Moreover, Bachir's latest in-house experience and understanding of business commercial needs, risks, and compliance matters, in North America, allow him to deliver the innovative and creative legal solutions sought after by clients. Overall, Bachir is an effective problem-solver and clients respect him for the clarity of his analysis and his grasp of facts, data and evidence. He is structured and logical in his thinking and is able to synthesise complex information into a coherent whole that clients are able to easily understand and leverage.
When delivering positive results for his clients (both in-house and in private practice during his current and previous roles) Bachir always aims to:
- know/understand their business;
- have the right commercial mind-set to be well integrated within that business;
- challenge established practices in order to manage work more effectively and efficiently;
- prioritize, be responsive and incisive to the clients' needs to inspire confidence from them in Bachir and his team's ability to service and protect their interests; and
- grow and nurture a trusted relationship where the client values Bachir and his team as their trusted partners and advisors.
Recognising the importance of client experience, Bachir believes it is about putting oneself in the client's position and asking the right questions as to what:
- challenges they are facing;
- would they value most from their lawyers when facing those challenges; and
- their sources of frustration are when working with lawyers.
Experience
- During previous in-house role:
- Successfully oversaw, managed, and completed former employer's rebranding from Corel to Alludo, having worked closely with the marketing and creative services team on this rebrand and secured registrations through outside counsel for the new brands in major jurisdictions worldwide, including Canada, the U.S., the U.K., the E.U., Japan, China, India and Australia.
- Revamped the template distribution, OEM bundling, VDI as a service, master vendor, non-disclosure, content submission and licensing, audit settlement release and discharge, business and end user license agreements and the social media policy, contest rules, online branding and copyright guidelines and marketing release forms, and worked closely with all relevant stakeholders (including finance, sales and product teams) on the foregoing.
- Collaborated with other legal team members, research and development team members, product engineering team members and marketing team members, on developing and implementing the company's new artificial intelligence policy, new cloud computing (desktop as a service) terms, and compiling the clause bank library, fall back language to rely on for revising key contractual provisions in negotiations, and FAQs for sales teams to use when discussing licensing terms with customers, using best practice standards.
- Drafted and negotiated software distribution agreements, OEM bundling agreements, maintenance and support services, and licensing agreements, with third party partners and customers and worked closely with relevant team members (sales and finance primarily) on closing associated sales deals.
- Reviewed, negotiated and revised third party cloud computing agreements, service agreements, service level agreements, data processing agreements, and IT outsourcing agreements, with external vendors and worked closely with relevant team members (R&D, product engineering and security primarily) on closing associated procurement deals.
- Successfully led, managed, supervised, and completed a court cancellation action in favour of a Japanese leading provider of stationery materials against the registration of a trademark that infringes its brands in Saudi Arabia. Work involved reviewing and drafting pleadings and response statements and training the Saudi lawyers on that.
- Successfully represented a global toys and games company on the enforcement of its brand rights to curb the sale of knock-off and counterfeit board games and on the management of its trademark registration renewals and assignments in Saudi Arabia.
- Successfully represented a global chocolate and confectionery company on the enforcement of its brand rights to curb the sale of knock-off and counterfeit chocolate and confectionery products and on the management of its trademark registrations, renewals and assignments in Saudi Arabia & the UAE.
- Successfully drafted, negotiated and closed a multi-million US dollar technology transfer agreement for a leading regional industrial projects company in Kuwait and a multi-million US dollar advertising campaign and documentary production deal for a government entity in the UAE with a global news network.
- Managed global IP portfolios for various clients in the advertising, music, TV, FMCG, fashion and real estate industries. Advised on IP protection, product registration, clearances and on labelling requirements and pharmaceutical regulations in Saudi Arabia & the UAE.
- Advised the Al Ghurair Group on the trademark filing strategy to pursue in the UAE, wider GCC and under the Madrid Protocol for the registration of the Group's brands in key jurisdictions across the globe.
- Developed a Singaporean-based IT service provider's precedent IP assignment and intergroup licensing agreements in the context of its acquisition and counter-licensing of IP assets from another Singapore-based entity.
- Completed a group-wide project for developing the vendor selection process, procurement agreement template, negotiation playbook, risk and compliance policy and contract life cycle management system for a Lafarge Holcim in Asia Pacific. This process streamlined and fast-tracked the company's procurement and outsourcing of goods and services for the region.