Alt Legal WebinarWin/Win Partnerships: In-House and Outside Counsel Collaboration on Trademarks in the Restaurant Industry
Alt Legal Team | September 29, 2020
Understanding how an in-house legal team works on trademarks can be key to developing added value and building a win/win partnership. In this webinar, Panda Restaurant Group’s General Counsel, Monte Baier, and its IP Counsel, Charles Chen, share insights on their roles at the company and restaurant industry, and what they look for in outside counsel selection. Topics include:
- Insights on the restaurant industry, including weathering the pandemic
- What trademark issues matter most to in-house counsel
- What in-house counsel values most about their trademark outside counsel
You can download the presentation here.
Speaker Bios:
Monte Baier, General Counsel and Senior Vice President of International Development
As General Counsel and Senior Vice President of International Development, Monte Baier is responsible for Panda Restaurant Group’s global legal affairs and for expanding the brand beyond the United States through partnerships with like-minded restaurant companies – this includes protecting Panda’s valuable intellectual property in over 90 countries. Monte brings to Panda a strong background in corporate acquisitions and financings, corporate governance and litigation management from a career working in corporate legal departments and law firms. His corporate experience includes roles as Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary of K2 Inc., a leading sporting goods equipment manufacturer, and as Assistant General Counsel and Assistant Corporate Secretary of Asia Global Crossing, an Asian telecommunications company. Prior to this, he was an associate at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett in NYC and London.
Charles Chen, Intellectual Property Counsel at Panda Restaurant Group
Charles Chen currently serves as the Intellectual Property Counsel at Panda Restaurant Group, Inc., which owns and operates Panda Express®, the leading American Chinese food, fast casual restaurant with over 2,300 stores in the US and in 11 other countries. Prior to Panda®, Charles was the IP Counsel at HICKIES®, a leading e-commerce company that sells footwear accessories in over 45 countries. HICKIES® started out as a crowd sourced campaign on Kickstarter®, and Charles helped build the global IP portfolio and the robust IP enforcement program that it enjoys today.