Associate Partners / Directors


Tapan Shah

(Associate Partner – Pharmaceutical-Life Sciences Practice Group)

With 8 years of experience in providing specialized services in Patents and related Intellectual Property Rights, Tapan holds expertise in the technical domains of Organic Chemistry, Medicinal Chemistry, Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnological products and Medical Devices. He holds Master’s Degree with specialization in Medicinal Chemistry from National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER, Mohali). Prior to joining the team of Khurana & Khurana and IIPRD, Tapan has worked as Assistant Manager (Operations) at Effectual Services Pvt. Ltd. and has diverse experience of providing patent related search services to Fortune 500 Pharmaceutical and Chemical companies, US and European Law firms, independent patent attorneys and In-house patent counsels. Tapan has conducted more than 150 structure and sequence searches on STN databases and is well versed with Patentability/Novelty/Knock-out searches, FTO analysis/Clearance searches, Technology/Patent Landscape analysis, Invalidation studies, Infringement analysis, Claim chart/EOU preparation and Patent Portfolio Management.

Mita Sheikh

(Associate Director – Pharmaceutical – Life Sciences Practice Group)

Mita is an Associate Director at Khurana & Khurana. She has over 26 years of experience in patent matters relating to technologies in the field of Chemistry and Pharmaceuticals. She has expertise in all kind of Patent Searches, Patent Drafting and Patent Portfolio Management. She has worked at In-house Patent Cells of pharmaceutical companies including Reliance Life Sciences, Dr. Reddys, Ajanta Pharma, Themis, and Excel Industries. Mita also worked as a Senior Patent Associate with Krishna and Saurastri and has been actively involved in Client Counselling, preparing Patent Specification, undertaking Hearing and Prosecution mandates, and rendering various Patent Infringement and other Opinions in the field of Organic Chemistry, API Molecules, Drug Formulations and Finished Dosage forms. Prior to entering the Patent field, Mita gained hands-on technical experience in synthesizing and developing various Organic Chemicals and Pharmaceutical Ingredients in the laboratory of above-mentioned companies. Mita did her B.Sc. in Chemistry from Mumbai University, B.Sc. in Botany from Mumbai University, and Masters in Plant Physiology from Mumbai University. She is a certified patent agent with Indian Patent Office and also holds PG diploma in patents law from NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad.

Antony David

(Associate Partner – Pharmaceutical – Life Sciences Practice Group)

Antony is Associate Partner at Khurana & Khurana. He has over 15 years of experience in patent matters relating to technologies in the field of Chemistry and Pharmaceuticals. He has expertise in all kinds of Patent Searches, Patent Drafting, Prosecution, Opposition, and Patent Portfolio Management. He has worked at In-house Patent counsel of pharmaceutical companies including Neuland Laboratories and Shasun Pharmaceuticals. Antony also worked as a Senior patent analyst with Quatrro Legal Solutions Ltd. preparing comprehensive patent Landscape Reports and Patent Analyses in the field of Organic Chemistry, API Molecules, Drug Formulations, and Finished Dosage Forms. Prior to entering the patent field, Antony gained hands-on technical experience in synthesizing and developing various Organic Chemicals and Pharmaceutical Ingredients in the laboratory at Orchid Chemicals. Antony post-graduated from Bharathidasan University, Tamil Nadu specializing in Chemistry. He is a certified Patent Agent with Indian Patent Office and also holds a PG diploma in patent law from NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad.

Dhakshina Moorthy C

(Associate Director – Pharmaceutical – Life Sciences Practice Group)

Dhakshina is an Associate Director at Khurana & Khurana and IIPRD. He has over 12 years of experience in patent matters relating to technologies in the field of Chemistry and Pharmaceuticals. He has expertise in all kind of Patent Searches, Patent Drafting, Prosecution of Patent Applications Worldwide, Patentability and FTO Opinions, Patent Due Diligence and Patent Portfolio Management. He has worked at In-house Patent Cells of pharmaceutical companies including Orchid Pharma, Piramal and Suven Life Sciences Ltd. Prior to entering the patent field, Dhakshina gained hands-on technical experience in Process Research and Development for active pharmaceutical ingredients and intermediates in the laboratory of Orchid Pharma. He has patent publications as an inventor and also presented poster to his credit at ACS conferences. Dhakshina did his Masters in chemistry from University of Madras. He is a certified patent agent with Indian Patent Office and also holds PG diploma in patents law from NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad.

Swapnil Sanap

(Associate Partner and Patent Attorney – Software/Electronics/Mechanical Group)

Swapnil is an Associate Partner and Head Of Pune office at Khurana & Khurana, Advocates and IP Attorneys and IIPRD. Swapnil is a software engineer with a Bachelor of Engineering (B.E.) degree & a Master of Engineering (M.E.) degree in Information Technology from Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU), formerly the University of Pune. Swapnil is also a Registered Patent Agent (India) & Attorney-at-law (Attorney).
Swapnil is ranked among the top Patent Prosecution Practitioners in India by IAM 1000 and IAM 300 Strategists. Swapnil with his extensive and substantial 10+ years of experience in the IPR domain focuses on Patent Drafting, Patent Prosecution and overall Patent Portfolio Management mandate for numerous Indian and International Corporates ranging from Small Start-ups to Fortune 5 companies including Huawei, Xiaomi, ZTE, Fujitsu, Kyocera, SABIC, Indian Institute of Technology (Delhi/Guwahati/Roorkee/Hyderabad), Emerson, L&T, Glenmark, Simon, IISc, Marico, UPL, Electra, among many others.
Swapnil has worked for Indian, US, Chinese, Australian, German & Canadian clients for projects such as but not limited to patent research, patent drafting, preparing a response to office actions, etc. He has worked in domains like Electronics, Telecommunication, Software, Mechanical, Instrumentation, Automobile, Semiconductor, and Electrical for patent research, drafting of patent applications, and office action projects.
His primary responsibilities in the firm include patent drafting, office action response drafting, prior art searches, Infringement Analysis, clearance searches, and on projects relating to sophisticated technologies ranging from electronics, computer sciences, IT, electronics and telecommunication, mechanical, biomedical devices, and business domain.
Swapnil is currently focused on product conceptualization, getting early adopters infirm, client acquisition, Business development, building team, creating business systems/business processes, and facilitating start-up in Maharashtra, Gujarat & Goa Jurisdictions for motivating and assisting them in the filing of various IPR’s in best of their interest.

Abhijeet Deshmukh

(Associate Partner And Advocate – Litigation)

Abhijeet Deshmukh is an Associate Partner with Khurana & Khurana, Advocates and IP Attorneys. He heads Commercial and Corporate law practice at the firm. He specializes in all aspects of Intellectual Property, Contractual laws, Corporate Advisory and Litigation with focus on IP and Commercial disputes; UDRP disputes; Prosecution of Trade Mark and Copyright Applications. He has worked with more than 3000 Corporates in India and represented them in Litigation and Opposition cases across TM Offices. He represented clients in disputes pertaining to IP and Commercial Law at Various Judicial and quasi-judicial Authorities across India. He has also worked extensively on advising, negotiating, drafting, vetting and structuring various Agreements related to Intellectual Property laws such as Technology Transfer Agreements, IP Assignment Agreements, Strategic Alliance Agreements, Collaborative Research Agreements, Non-Disclosure Agreements, Agreements related to Media and Entertainment Law, Commercial agreement such as Joint Venture Agreements, Franchise Agreements, Share Purchase Agreements, Contract Manufacturing agreements inter alia. Abhijeet has an LLM from Symbiosis International (Deemed University).

Amarjeet Kumar

(Associate Partner and Advocate – Litigation)

With more than 12 years of successful litigation career behind him Amarjeet’s multi-faceted expertise includes Real Estate Litigations with specialization in RERA, Commercial Litigation, Insurance, Industrial and Consumer Disputes, Civil Litigation, Family Disputes, Environment Litigation, Carrier Laws, Intellectual Property Rights Litigation including Protection of Plant Varieties, Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, MSME Claims and Arbitration. He is a resourceful litigator with an uncanny ability to assess legal issues and produce result. He has achieved a great degree of success while arguing matters before different courts and forums including High Courts and District Courts apart from handling high stake matter before the Real Estate Regulatory Authority and Real Estate Appellate Authority.

He has an extensive experience in conducting Investigation & Litigation and has represented numerous corporate for devising their Prosecution and Litigation Strategies. Amarjeet also provides valuable and strategic advice in preparing various commercial contracts and agreements, explaining the companies on various contract conditions, ensuring that the contract made is in compliance with legal requirements, government regulations.

He has deep insight into the real estate issues and has successfully carried out the due diligence of various Real Estate Projects, and has been advising clients on strategies regarding Real Estate issues. His key areas of practice include: Infrastructure & Real Estate laws, Commercial & Civil laws.