Recently, the World Trademark Review (WTR) conducted a series of interviews with past award winners reflecting on changing corporate IP practices. As the winner of the WTR 2014 Global In-house Counsel of the Year, Jerry Xia, a partner of GEN Law Firm and former deputy general counsel & chief IP counsel of Honeywell in Asia Pacific, shared his insights together with Sophie Bodet, vice president & head of IP, GSK Consumer Healthcare, Colm Dobbyn, general counsel of IP, Mastercard, and J Scott Evans, director of IP and advertising, Adobe, on the topic of "How to lead a stellar in-house team".
近日，《世界商标评论》(WTR, World Trademark Review)策划推出了往届获奖者采访名录。己任律师事务所合伙人夏锋律师作为2014年“WTR全球最佳公司法务奖”的获得者接受了采访，他与葛兰素史克公司(GSK)副总裁及知识产权部负责人Sophie Bodet，万事达卡公司(MasterCard)知识产权总顾问Colm Dobbyn，和Adobe公司知识产权/广告部总监J Scott Evans一起，围绕“如何领导一个出色的团队”主题发表了各自的见解。
首先，夏律师分享了获得该奖项对其个人职业发展所带来的影响；其次，夏律师阐述了他认为公司法务领导应当具备的素质，包括领导力、关系管理和对内外部变化的敏感度；此外，他还就疫情、互联网和中美关系对知识产权行业的影响和对公司法务带来的挑战发表了他个人的看法。
采访详情可参见下文
What is your recollection of the ceremony at which you won the award and has the award proved beneficial in any way after the event?
Jerry Xia, former deputy general counsel and chief IP counsel Asia-Pacific at Honeywell International, now partner at Gen Law Firm:
Winning the award was a very memorable moment. I was so happy that my work at Honeywell received WTR and peer recognition and once again, thanks to everyone especially my colleagues at Honeywell for their support. I have been very proud of this award. I remember after the event I even received congratulations from Honeywell’s top leadership including the CEO and general counsel. It was a huge encouragement to me to advance my career at Honeywell and later back in private practice.
What qualities do you think are essential for any in-house leader to possess?
Jerry Xia:
First is leadership. An in-house leader must be able to drive things proactively(eg, designing strategy, managing budget and training people).
Second is relationship management. This is important everywhere and especially so for in-house leaders. It requires excellent communication skills and a high EQ.
Third is being sensitive to changes, both internally and externally. The world is full of changes in terms of the business and legal environment nowadays. A true in-house leader must be sensitive to changes, plan ahead of time and react and adjust quickly and smartly.
Reflecting on the past year, how do you think the pandemic has changed work or trademark practice for good?
Jerry Xia:
The pandemic has changed the world including trademark practice. More and more work is going online and becoming paperless (eg, efiling), even including court hearings. People also increasingly work and communicate from home. However, on-site investigation and enforcement have become more challenging as people don’t travel or meet in person. So intelligence searching and evidence collection on the Internet will be more important.
The role of brands as social actors has become a hot topic over the past 18 months. To what extent do you think that this is a permanent shift and what role should trademark professionals play in that conversion?
Jerry Xia:
As the Internet and AI become increasingly dominant, I think [brands taking on the role of social actors] will most likely be a permanent shift. Trademark professionals should be well prepared and learn to deal with emerging brand protection and risk management issues in the digital world that may require intimate interactions with different social actors.
Looking ahead, what do you see as the biggest challenge that in-house professionals will face in the next five years?
Jerry Xia:
“Enforcement will probably be more difficult assuming that the pandemic and the tense US-China relations will last for some time”
The biggest challenge will perhaps be how to deal with new cutting-edge issues in a highly connected world based on the Internet under even more limited budgets due to the uncertain economic situation. Again, enforcement will probably be more difficult assuming that the pandemic and the tense US-China relations will last for some time.
