What does a Head of IP Department do?

A Head of an IP Department plays a leadership role in managing IP professionals in an organization. He is experienced in drafting IP related legal documents, supports innovation, evaluation and protection strategy processes, conducts patent clearance evaluations and manages outside legal and IP counsel. He often manages IP related litigations, communicating with outside counsel, reporting to senior management.

What skills are required?

A Head of IP Department should preferably either an attorney or a (European) patent attorney. However, not every Head of an IP Department has a legal background, some of them have a background career in R&D, Marketing or Innovation. A Head of IP Department understands how to apply a business case approach to IP agreements, third party IP threats and strategic protection of company innovations. He or she must be comfortable communicating and presenting to senior management, opposing counsel, outside counsel and engineering teams in order to implement the overall IP strategy.