IP Product Counsel

📋 Description

• • Own the end-to-end intellectual-property life-cycle for every product line at Freshworks—from the first white-board sketch to global launch—translating complex patent, trademark, and open-source rules into clear, business-friendly guidance that keeps innovation moving at SaaS speed.
• • Serve as the single point of contact between our engineers and outside USPTO counsel, drafting and prosecuting patent applications that protect breakthrough AI-driven features, workflow automations, and customer-experience enhancements. You will run invention-disclosure brainstorming sessions, rank opportunities, and present recommendations to the Patent Review Committee every month.
• • Build and defend the Freshworks brand portfolio across 50+ jurisdictions: run global trademark clearance searches, shepherd applications through the Madrid Protocol, and respond to infringers with surgical cease-and-desist letters or UDRP actions that safeguard brand equity without slowing marketing campaigns.
• • Design and operate the company-wide open-source compliance program—evaluating inbound and outbound OSS usage against GPL, MIT, Apache, and custom licenses; integrating scanning tools into CI/CD pipelines; and creating lightweight playbooks that let engineers ship code faster while eliminating license conflict surprises.
• • Counsel product squads on privacy-by-design mandates under GDPR, CCPA, DORA, and emerging AI regulations. You will review data-flow diagrams, draft DPIAs, and green-light feature launches only after confirming that personal data is lawfully collected, processed, and stored.
• • Draft and negotiate IP-centric clauses in customer agreements, partnership MOUs, and API developer terms—balancing revenue growth with risk allocation, indemnities, and warranty caps that stand up to enterprise procurement scrutiny.
• • Partner with Marketing to clear every campaign asset, product name, and tagline for trademark conflicts, regulatory claims, and AI-generated content risks, ensuring that creative storytelling never exposes the company to litigation or reputational damage.
• • Monitor global legal developments in software patents, open-source enforcement, AI governance, and SaaS liability. Translate regulatory change into two-page briefs and lunch-and-learn sessions that keep executives, engineers, and sales teams ahead of the curve.
• • Lead cross-functional war-room responses to inbound DMCA notices, patent-assertion letters, and competitor disputes—marshaling technical evidence, outside counsel, and business stakeholders to resolve threats quickly and cost-effectively.
• • Continuously refine legal templates, checklists, and self-service portals that scale your expertise across 5,000+ employees. Measure success by reduced cycle times, fewer escalations, and higher stakeholder NPS scores.
• • Champion a culture of IP literacy: run quarterly boot camps for engineers on patentable inventions, monthly brand-protection workshops for marketers, and ad-hoc Slack AMAs that demystify open-source licenses and data-privacy obligations.
• • Report directly to the Senior Product Counsel while collaborating daily with Product Managers, Engineering Directors, Security Architects, and Revenue Operations leaders—becoming the trusted legal voice that helps Freshworks deliver customer delight without legal regret.