About

Nilfisk is a Danish company that supplies professional cleaning equipment in industrial, commercial and consumer markets. With 5,500 employees globally and with sales companies in 45 countries, Nilflisk requires several sources of legal support in its various regions and companies. Lena Ernlund Malmberg acts as Nilfisk’s head of intellectual property in a dedicated, Denmark based IP team that cover full and global intellectual property legal support for Nilfisk across their full line of products. The team’s support goes across all levels and covers the worldwide operations of the company, the only division within the Niflisk group to have such a broad responsibility. The team’s wide remit forced them to earn respect within the organisation quickly, as well as earn the same respect from external parties, achieved via a plethora of internal and external networking and talks on responsibility and co-alignment. Malmberg describes the team as ‘a part of the engine room, being out there and getting our hands dirty’. Malmberg goes on to explain how the team’s primary task is to fully accommodate the overall strategy of the Nilfisk business in both a ‘practical and tactical’ sense to help the group reach its goals. Legal tasks are effectively incorporated into the business setup to support overall strategy whilst also serving as a practical tool for handling issues and conflicts, the team’s commercial mind-set shown via their focus to ‘create value instead of strictly focusing on the law as such’. Truly valued as business partners thanks to this integration, which includes meetings with senior management on a near-daily basis, Malmerg explains the dedication with which the team follow business strategy; ‘the value increases when we develop, move and optimise – and if our team can support such a process, then we add value’.