WTR Industry Awards: the 2019 shortlisted teams and individuals unveiled

WTR is pleased to reveal the shortlist for the 2019 WTR Industry Awards. Among the corporate teams featured on this year’s shortlist are those from Audi, Burberry, Danone, Dell, Groupon, Home Box Office, John Deere, Netflix, Pfizer, Richemont, Treasury Wine Estates and Under Armour.

The list of nominees is the result of four months of extensive research, with WTR surveying the global trademark community for nominations across key industry categories. The shortlist has been selected on the basis of a wide range of criteria, such as active prosecution and/or enforcement of trademarks; successful portfolio exploitation; strong industry/regional expertise; global attitude towards brand expansion and protection; and quality of internal organisation and in-house processes.

This year we have made two changes to the awards scheme. First, we have introduced a local team award, designed to shine the spotlight on excellence on the part of companies based in the host city (and its surrounds) of the awards reception. The second change is to the ‘In-house Counsel of the Year’ award, which we have renamed ‘In-house Leader of the Year’.  The motivation for this change is a desire to be more inclusive and explicitly expand the remit of the award to encompass non-lawyers who are engaging in high-level trademark work. The criteria for shortlisting remains the same – to demonstrate excellence in strategic brand-related work, and demonstrate leadership through example.

The nominees for In-house Leader of the Year 2019 are Netflix’s Ali Buttars, Courtney Laginess of Mars, Canada Goose’s Geoffrey Marr, Judy McCool of Home Box Office and Daniel Zohny from the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA). The winner of that award, and the team-based categories, will be announced at a private champagne reception in Boston next month.

However, as is tradition, there is one award winner that can be unveiled in advance. The recipient of this year’s Lifetime Achievement award is Jack Chang, currently special counsel to the chair of L Brands International. Over the course of his career, Jack has worked at Johnson & Johnson (where he established and led the IP protection office of its operating companies in China) and General Electric Company. Alongside his distinguished career in-house, Chang is one of the founders of both the Quality Brands Protection Committee (QBPC) and its predecessor, the China Anti-counterfeiting Coalition (set up in 1998). Between 2003 and 2018 he served the organisation – which has around 200 foreign IP owners as members and is dedicated to improving the IP environment and commercial rule of law in China – in a variety of roles, including vice chair, chair and honorary chair. Over the past two decades he has also provided, in person and writing, his observations on China’s IP environment and forwarded recommendations to the China State Council leaders and employees.

The 2019 shortlist in full:

Asia-Pacific Team of the Year

• Alibaba
• Louis Vuitton Malletier
• Danone
• Tencent
• Treasury Wine Estates

Europe, Middle East and Africa Team of the Year

• Daniel Wellington
• Jaguar Land Rover
• Richemont
• Sandoz International
• The Swatch Group

Latin America Team of the Year

• Enova Foods
• Grupo Boticário
• Grupo ZAP
• Natura
• PepsiCo

North America Team of the Year

• Apple
• Home Box Office (HBO)
• Netflix
• Starbucks
• Under Armour

Fashion, Cosmetics and Luxury Goods Team of the Year

• adidas
• Burberry
• Chanel
• Christian Louboutin
• Louis Vuitton Malletier

Financial and Professional Services Team of the Year

• Mastercard
• MetLife
• NASDAQ
• Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company
• PayPal

Food, Beverages and Tobacco Team of the Year

• Anheuser-Busch InBev
• Mars 
• PepsiCo
• The Hershey Company
• Treasury Wine Estates

Healthcare and Life Sciences Team of the Year

• Novartis Pharmaceuticals
• Pfizer
• Sandoz International
• Specsavers
• Zoetis

Household and Consumer Goods Team of the Year

• The 3M Company
• Procter & Gamble
• Reckitt Benckiser
• Spectrum Brands
• Unilever

Internet and Telecommunications Team of the Year

• Comcast
• Netflix
• RR Donnelley
• Sky International
• Verizon Communications

Local Team of the Year

• Bose
• Dunkin’ Brands Group
• Harpoon Brewery
• ‘47 Brand
• Sage Therapeutics

Not-for-Profit Organisation Team of the Year

• Conservation International
• Rotary International
• The American Red Cross
• The Scotch Whisky Association
• The Wikimedia Foundation

Retail Team of the Year

• 7-Eleven
• Chewy
• Inter IKEA Holding Services
• lululemon athletica
• Target Corporation

Software and Online Services Team of the Year

• Airbnb
• Amazon.com
• Groupon
• Honeywell International 
• Nintendo of America

Sports, Entertainment and Media Team of the Year

• Discovery
• Home Box Office (HBO)
• Nike
• The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA)
• Warner Bros Entertainment

Technology and Consumer Electronics Team of the Year

• Apple
• Dell
• Google
• Havells India
• Intel

Travel and Leisure Team of the Year

• American Airlines
• Caesars Entertainment 
• EasyGroup
• InterContinental Hotels Group
• Uber

Vehicles and Transport Team of the Year

• Audi
• BMW
• John Deere
• Toyota Motor Corporation
• The Volvo Group

In-house Leader of the Year

• Ali Buttars, Netflix
• Courtney Laginess, Mars 
• Geoffrey Marr, Canada Goose
• Judy McCool, Home Box Office
• Daniel Zohny, Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA)

Lifetime Achievement Award

• Jack Chang