Simon Webster

is the CEO of CPA Global. He is s a qualified management accountant, who spent 13 years in UK financial services organizations re-engineering and transforming service operations. Using a financially-driven and technology-enabled approach, he ran performance improvement, value creation and pre-disposal optimization programs and headed up both operations and finance functions across life and pensions, secured and unsecured lending organizations. Since 2000, he worked in the intellectual property sector at CPA Global. 12 years as Chief Operating Officer, 2 years as Chief Business Development Officer and 2 years as CEO. 

Recent Articles by

Challenges for Trademarks in a Digital World: A Review of INTA 2017

Social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram have provided the opportunity for brands to interact with mass audiences quickly and effectively, but this interaction is a two-way street. Increasingly the public is looking to social media as a vehicle to interact with brands when something goes wrong. Trademark professionals are having to consider not only which social platforms to deploy for their brands, but also work with marketing, communications and customer service teams to manage their brand’s presence online. Thinking of social media as “free” for those actively managing and promoting brands misses both the importance of the platform and the expectations of consumers in an increasingly connected world.

What is the future of IP management for law firms?

The breadth and scale of information now available to IP departments was previously unimaginable and using this information to drive insight remains challenging. The most progressive organizations will use insight from their own IP portfolio and the portfolio of others to drive the entire shape and direction of their business. The role of the future IP professional will be less about reactively protecting the innovation that a company creates, and more about using their unique insight to shape future product and service development, geographical expansion and even the future direction of research and development. In the four key phases of IP management – creation, protection, management and optimization – new technology, automation, data availability and collaboration are combining to shape IP management strategy.