
Karnika Vallabh
Counsel
Professional Affiliations
Bar Council of Maharashtra and Goa
Education
B.A. LL.B. (Hons.) – Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, Delhi
Languages Known
English, Hindi
Office
New Delhi, India
Overview
Karnika advises clients throughout the entire life cycle of content, beginning from the planning and production stages, advising on content distribution and advertisements, and up to navigating any disputes brought before various fora, including various High Courts and the Supreme Court of India. She routinely assists clients with respect to their brand development and strategy, and the exploitation and protection of their intellectual property across jurisdictions.
Karnika has experience in advising technology companies and start-ups on various business needs, including aligning their business and operations to ensure compliance with applicable data protection regulations.
Practice Areas
Data Privacy
General Corporate Advisory
Regulatory & Compliance
Indicative Experience
- Advising A.R. Rahman in a suit filed against him by a Hindustani Dhrupad musician seeking inter-alia, injunction, and damages for alleged copyright infringement of a musical work before the Delhi High Court.
- Representing the British Broadcasting Corporation in relation to negotiation of commissioning and licensing agreements, compliance with foreign direct investment regulations, renewal of channel license, and change of their channel license logo.
- Assisting NDTV with the drafting of a channel placement agreement for execution with Multi System Operators, or any other Distribution Platform Operators.
- Advising Minnow Films, a UK-based production house, through the pre-production, production, and post-production phases of several journalistic documentaries released in India and globally on platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime, including:
- Advising during the production of a documentary project titled ‘Bad Boy Billionaires’ with regards to licensing, assignment, and fair use of intellectual property, obtaining broadcast insurance, and representation before the Supreme Court, Telangana High Court, and multiple district courts in matters filed by the documentary’s subjects i.e., Subrata Roy and Ramalinga Raju.
- Advising during the production of a documentary project titled “Crime Stories: India Detectives”, with regards to licensing, assignment, and fair use of intellectual property, obtaining broadcast insurance, and representation before the Bangalore High Court, and district courts in Bangalore in matters filed by the documentary’s subject.
- Advising during the production of a documentary film titled “Mumbai Mafia: Police vs the Underworld” with regards to licensing including content licensing and assignment of intellectual property, privacy concerns, and obtaining broadcast insurance.
- Advising Notice Pictures Inc. pertaining to issues of intellectual property licensing, privacy concerns, potential contempt actions, and exhibition of the documentary film “To Kill a Tiger” in India and representing the director Nisha Pahuja in a suit filed against the Academy Award nominated documentary, before the Delhi High Court.
- Advising Tanvi Gandhi, an executive producer in the Bollywood industry, with regards to IP rights acquisition, and the transfer, drafting, and negotiating of various agreements during the production of feature films and web series & films such as ‘Laar’ and ‘Love Sex Aur Dhokha 2’.
- Advising ALT Digital Media Entertainment Limited on content moderation for the live-streamed reality show ‘LockUpp’, legality of the show as a game of skill under Indian law, drafted platform policies including terms and privacy agreements for ‘ALTBalaji’ and represented the client in a commercial dispute with MX Player Pte Limited before the Delhi High Court.
- Advising M/S Uprising Science Private Limited, which offers clean beauty products under the brand ‘Minimalist’, with regards to defamatory and infringing posts by a competitor on their social media regarding Minimalist products, and defamatory and infringing posts made by influencers on YouTube at the behest of the competitor.
- Advising Burberry UK with respect to data protection compliance requirements in India.
- Advising and representing Vedantu Innovations Private Limited on addressing a complaint regarding misleading advertisements featuring Aamir Khan before the Advertising Standards Council of India.
- Representing Vodafone Idea Limited in various matters with respect to prosecution and opposition of trademarks.
- Advising Torrent Pharmaceuticals with respect to their pharmaceutical advertisements to ensure that they are compliant at Indian law.