London, 14 October 2006 – LAWFUEL – Trademark law news – Baker & McKenzie has been chosen by Unilever to help manage its global trade mark portfolio in a unique outsourcing partnership. Baker & McKenzie was selected from over 20 candidate providers after a comprehensive review and will manage the portfolio together with a core Unilever trade marks team in London and a worldwide IP network, and external approved agents. These will all be supported by the Firm’s Global IP Manager system, which is a single web-based platform providing secure data updating and access 24/7 from anywhere in the world.
Paul Rawlinson, who heads the Global IP Group, said: “We are delighted at the appointment, which is testament to our global IP capabilities and our ability to meet the needs of multi-nationals of Unilever’s stature. We believe we have set the gold standard for the provision of external global trade mark services and these are now being enjoyed by many of our clients.”
Unilever is the largest trade mark owner globally, with in excess of 160,000 registrations, including iconic brands such as Dove and Lux personal care products, Magnum ice cream, Cif cleaning products, Lipton tea, and Knorr cooking products.
“The decision is part of our much wider ‘One Unilever’ initiative to make Unilever simpler, global and more effective and to transfer our support services to someone else’s core business,” said Katrina Burchell, Unilever’s General Trade Mark Counsel. “We can also leverage Baker & McKenzie’s capabilities and expertise and take advantage of globally accessible technology, allowing us to create simpler, more agile Trade Marks support for Unilever’s growth agenda.”
Stephen Jones heads the London Trade Marks Unit at Baker & McKenzie, which has grown to become a market leader in its field. “The core Unilever trade marks team will be based in London and will be fully integrated with our existing Unit, which functions as part of our global trade marks operation” said Stephen. “We work with clients all over the world and regard this as a key area of our IP practice.”
The technology infrastructure is key to the service the Firm will provide to Unilever. Phil Behan, Director, Projects-Global IP Group, led the implementation of Global IP Manager. He commented: “Global IP Manager has proved very popular with our clients: fully web-enabled and supported by our global ‘wrap-around’ business and IT support, it gives them 24/7 secure world-wide access to their global IP portfolio.”
Trade Marks management is a core service at Baker & McKenzie. The Firm has managed IP portfolios for its clients for over 50 years and currently manages around 250,000 trade marks globally for some of the world’s largest companies.
