John Syekei
John Syekei is a partner in our Nairobi office and heads the Intellectual Property practice group in East Africa.
His practice areas and experience cover commercial intellectual property advice, Technology law, E-Commerce, Payments, Fintech, IP litigation, advertising law and litigation, data privacy, advice on drafting and/or negotiation of information technology agreements on seller or buyer side, and advice on the protection and enforcement of trade mark, patent, copyright and industrial designs. He practices across Africa and also acts for clients in intellectual property infringement actions, anti-counterfeiting raids, due diligence investigations and reports, drafting of licensing and franchise agreements, trade mark oppositions, trade mark cancellations, and domain name dispute resolutions before World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), acquisitions and deployment of IT solutions and dispute resolution relating to IT contracts.
John is regionally and globally renowned for his excellence in the IP space, and has received several top citations and recognitions from international directories such as Chambers Global, World Trademark Reviews, IP Stars and WIPR Leaders.
He advises clients on IP issues arising within the financial services, manufacturing, IT, telecommunications and pharmaceutical sectors. He also runs a very busy filing practice (trademarks, plant breeders rights, designs and patents) across Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, Ethiopia, and Sudan. John also handles trademark opposition and cancellation actions before the Registrar of Trademarks in Kenya as well as domain name disputes on behalf of clients of the Firm. On the IT/TMT side, he advises a number of leading technology companies in the world including Uber, Google, Microsoft and IBM as well as a number of local clients in the acquisitions of IT for various businesses. He also acts as the Kenyan counsel on regulation, compliance and corporate matters for Philip Morris International, Proctor & Gamble, IBM and Uber.
Over the years, John has established a formidable reputation within the E-Commerce and FinTech space. He regularly advises FinTech clients on matters relating to Corporate Governance; Information Technology; Financial Services Regulation; Mobile Money and Payments Law. He has written extensively on topical issues around this area, having most of this articles getting published on international platforms such as Lexology. John is also well known for its 'outstanding' capabilities in Data Protection and Cyber Security.
John is a member of International Trademark Association East Africa (INTA), International Federation of Intellectual Property Attorneys (FICPI), International Bar Association (IBA), International Trade Mark Association (TOPC committee member), World Trademark Review (WTR), American Chambers of Commerce (AMCHAM) and Law Society of Kenya Intellectual Property Rights and Information Technology Committee.