Patent Counsel Digital Intellectual Property ‏(d/m/f)

At Henkel, you can build on a strong legacy and leading positions in both industrial and consumer businesses to reimagine and improve life every day. If you love challenging the status quo, join our community of 50,000 pioneers around the globe. The teams in our corporate functions enable the best in our dynamic businesses and in our people to maximize our company’s potential. With our leading brands, our cutting-edge technologies and our disruptive solutions, you will have countless opportunities to explore new paths and develop your skills. Grow within our future-led businesses, our diverse and vibrant culture and find a place where you simply belong. All to leave your mark for more sustainable growth.

Dare to make an impact?

YOUR ROLE

• Within the Henkel Global Law Group, the Intellectual Property department is responsible for protecting Henkel's new technical ideas and defending Henkel against third party claims to Henkel innovations. This includes all facets of intellectual property protection, from innovation consulting to securing and enforcing intellectual property rights, thus creating a secure legal framework for Henkel. We are looking for an experienced Patent Counsel (d/m/f) to manage the growing IP portfolio in the digital field.
• Your responsibilities will include all aspects of IP support for development projects in your technology area.
• You will be the primary contact for inventors and decision makers from R&D and Product Management regarding the protection of computer-implemented inventions and inventions related to Henkel's digital activities.
• You will proactively manage and continuously develop the global digital IP patent portfolio, considering business strategy aspects.
• You will develop strategies to protect our digital business models.
• You will proactively conduct invention harvesting workshops to identify new ideas worth protecting.
• You will also draft and prosecute patent applications and evaluate invention disclosures from a patent law and business strategy perspective.
• You will monitor competitors' digital activities and assist in IP landscaping activities.
• You will perform freedom-to-operate analyses and develop strategies to ensure freedom-to-operate for our business units with respect to third-party IP rights.
• You will advise our business units on IP-related legal issues in the context of external collaborations, such as joint development agreements.
• You will occasionally conduct IP trainings for new colleagues in R&D and product development.
• You will work closely with our internal and external patent attorney network in foreign jurisdictions.

YOUR SKILLS

• You have successfully completed a technical or scientific university degree, for example in physics, electrical engineering, chemical engineering, or computer science. Ideally, you will also have a good basic understanding of chemistry.
• You have proven knowledge and experience in patent law: qualification as a European Patent Attorney (EQE) and/or national accreditation.
• You have already gained experience in the protection of digital inventions and business models.
• You have a good knowledge of the Internet of Things and data-enabled services.
• You see patent management as a strategic tool to increase the company's competitive advantage.
• You have first experience with open-source technologies and legal issues related to Standard Essential Patents (SEPs).
• You have strong analytical skills and the ability to structure and present complex scientific issues in an understandable way.
• You are interested in legal issues and have a curious, open-minded personality.
• You are willing to travel occasionally, e.g., to the European Patent Office for oral proceedings.
• You enjoy working in an interdisciplinary and international team with regular contact to R&D, Product Management, M&A and Corporate Legal.
• You have strong communication and negotiation skills, in particular fluency in written and spoken business English. Good German skills are preferred but not required.

Henkel is an equal opportunity employer. We evaluate qualified applicants without regard to gender, origin, culture, mindset, generation, disability, religion and sexual orientation.