Global Trade Mark Counsel - Beauty & Wellbeing

Job title: Global Trade Mark Counsel - Beauty & Wellbeing

Job location: London

Department: Beauty & Wellbeing

Company Overview

Are you interested in brands, passionate about IP, a people person, a problem solver and looking for a new challenge? If so, then look no further! We are recruiting for a Trade Mark Counsel to join our Beauty and Wellbeing Business Group which comprises Prestige brands, Vitamins, Minerals and Supplements and hair and skin brands. This role will report to the Senior IP Counsel.

Unilever is one of the world’s leading fast-moving consumer goods companies. Our products are sold in over 190 countries and, on any given day, 2 billion consumers worldwide use them. We own some of the best known and best loved brands, from long-established names like Dove, Persil, Lipton and Ben & Jerry’s to new innovations such as Blueair, our innovative in-home air purifier.

The role of the Legal Group is to protect Unilever and help it to win by providing objective advice and creative legal solutions.

Summary

IP is a centralised function at Unilever under the leadership of the Chief Intellectual Property Officer. The trade marks team is based in London and Rotterdam and has global responsibility for all trade mark work. Brands and Trade Marks are a key enabler to product launches and marketing campaigns. As a brand led company, the number of innovations is fast and exciting!

The Trade Mark team provides specialised legal intellectual property advice, risk management support and creative legal solutions to the global business, with a focus on trade mark and copyright law, including searching, clearance, filing, renewals, oppositions, infringement, look-a-like products, unfair competition and passing-off, licensing, assignments, mergers and acquisitions as well as domain name registrations, recoveries and acquisitions. The Global Brand IP Counsel is expected to provide appropriate strategic input to maximise the value of Unilever’s IP and add value by developing the IP awareness, knowledge and expertise of the business. The role reports to the Senior IP Counsel.

In this role you will assist the Senior IP Counsel and be responsible for all aspects of clearance, filing and prosecution. You will also be responsible for counselling the business and working with them to navigate legal risk.

Key Responsibilities:

• Clearance: develop strategies and conduct and advise on all aspects of TM clearance using a combination of tools (Corsearch, TM Now) and external legal support on a global basis;
• Protection and maintenance: build strategies for what TMs to protect and where, considering ownership structures to deliver optimal protection; dealing with all aspects of prosecution and evidence requirements.
• Watching: using external tool (Corsearch) to analyse results and ensure Unilever assets are appropriately monitored and protected

• Working with Senior IP Counsel, provide support on all administrative TM work such as oppositions, cancellations and invalidity actions.
• Oversee the preparation of necessary official and evidentiary documents.
• Work closely with the legal team on other IP areas such as licensing, copyright issues, designs, patents, usage rights as needed
• Pro-active involvement in team meetings including regular presentations and education of team members on relevant issues.
• Input and participate in wider team discussions to ensure optimum delivery of external vendors to ensure systems and processes meet evolving business needs.
• Educate the business on IP issues and policy.
• Provide IP advice in relation to licensing opportunities and M&A.
• Work closely with Patent Attorneys and Design Counsels, and wider legal team on all areas of product launch.
• Spot wider legal issues e.g. competition risk, design rights, marketing and advertising law.

Person Specification

• Qualified TM Attorney (2-3 years PQE)
• Proven track record in international TM portfolio management, preferably within an FMCG
• Self-starter, curious with strong attention to detail.
• Ability to provide advice in plain non-legal jargon.
• Strong organisational and prioritisation skills to cope with multiple stakeholders, competing deadlines and priorities, often at very short notice.
• Experience of using and interrogating data from TM database systems and searching tools is essential.
• Creativity in problem solving.
• Team player.
• Self-confident integrity – ability to objectively judge risk and when to counsel or influence business.
• Excellent project management skills and strong understanding of stakeholder management.
• Experience of working in-house within a global matrix organisation preferable.
• Proficient in Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint.

Business Skills

• Champion IP within the business and pro-actively communicating the value of IP and advocating for changes in business behaviour where needed.
• Collaborating with other team members to leverage and drive best practice.
• Business partnering and stakeholder management are key requirements of this role.

WHAT WE OFFER

Diversity at Unilever is about inclusion, embracing differences, creating possibilities and growing together for better business performance. We embrace diversity in our workforce. This means giving full and fair consideration to all applicants and continuing development of all employees regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, marriage and civil partnership, and pregnancy and maternity.

Location:

In September 2020, Unilever announced the intention to build a new sustainable campus site in Kingston, London to house the employees who currently work in 100 Victoria Embankment in Blackfriars, Lever House in Kingston, Unilever House in Leatherhead and Graze in Richmond. We are creating our own Unilever sustainable, agile work environment, purposefully bringing us together in our own Unilever ecosystem. The campus is due to be completed in early 2025 and will consist of two interconnected buildings, as well as landscaped surrounding areas.

Recruitment Fraud:

Cyber criminals advertise fake job adverts with prestigious employers as a way of stealing information or even defrauding individuals out of money.

In the most sophisticated cases, they will set up fake websites, which have a similar address to companies like Unilever. They even conduct fake telephone interviews and then offer candidates a role with the proviso they pay a fee for background checks or to cover work visa costs.  These types of attacks are becoming more common as more people are looking for employment in the economic climate.

How is Unilever tackling this?

Many of Unilever’s recruitment sites publish a warning to candidates about recruitment fraud. The Cyber Security team also proactively scan for signs of people setting up fake Unilever sites and act to close them down.