Venable partner Justin Pierce was quoted in the April/May 2012 issue of World Trademark Review magazine on the importance and benefits of outside counsel to help companies raise their trademark profiles.
Commenting on the role of outside counsel, Pierce said, “There is an unending list of value-adds that lawyers can give their client… Some depend on their creativity and the knowledge that they have of the particular business challenges that the company faces and the market it operates in. So it’s important for outside counsel to pay attention to where things are going in an industry, always giving advice in terms of what’s happening with the client and its competitors.”
On the role of in-house counsel, Pierce added, “In-house counsel need to make a special effort to make the business case for the advice that they give…They need to integrate that information with whatever their company is selling in terms of products or services, and show how trademarks add value in a way that businesspeople, management and the board of the company would understand. In-house teams that quantify the value-add of their function tend to do better than those who don’t.”
Commenting on the role of outside counsel, Pierce said, “There is an unending list of value-adds that lawyers can give their client… Some depend on their creativity and the knowledge that they have of the particular business challenges that the company faces and the market it operates in. So it’s important for outside counsel to pay attention to where things are going in an industry, always giving advice in terms of what’s happening with the client and its competitors.”
On the role of in-house counsel, Pierce added, “In-house counsel need to make a special effort to make the business case for the advice that they give…They need to integrate that information with whatever their company is selling in terms of products or services, and show how trademarks add value in a way that businesspeople, management and the board of the company would understand. In-house teams that quantify the value-add of their function tend to do better than those who don’t.”