About

Director of legal affairs Marcus Palm oversees the internal legal department of building materials company Välinge, and the department of five lawyers has bountiful experience and knowledge in its ranks. As Palm explains, all of the members of the Välinge legal team have ‘at least 10 years of experience working on different IP matters. The team has different roles, but in general all work broadly [on] all legal aspects relevant for the company. All lawyers consequently work extensively with license negotiations, contract drafting, litigations and more.’ In addition to Palm the team contains senior legal counsel Susanne Lindeskog, as well as three legal counsel; Jenny Svärd, Emmy Dahl Malmborg and Catharina Althini. Each member has developed their own specialty; Palm oversees the legal function and other strategic matters in his capacity as a member of Välinge’s management team, and mainly focuses on complex cross license agreements with other third party patent holders, as well as managing Välinge’s infringement actions and contractual litigations on an international basis. Additionally, Lindeskog is responsible for managing Välinge’s many license agreements which extend to over 220 licenses worldwide. Svärd handles legal matters and contracts related to Välinge’s furniture business as well as supporting the start-up of Välinge’s new flooring production facility. Malmborg is responsible for Välinge’s licensing activities in China and spends a substantial time of her work on implementing different measures to prevent underreporting and infringements of Välinge’s IPR. Lastly, Althini is responsible for the implementation and monitoring of GDPR routines, and is also actively involved in different litigations and license negotiations. Significant examples of the team’s work has come in a variety of different ways, including its involvement in two acquisition processes where the former minority owners of the company have made successful exits. In addition, the team has handled several international arbitrations at the ICC and SCC, as well as patent infringement procedures in US, German and French courts. The team has also negotiated and drafted several complex cross-license agreements with other patent holders in the flooring industry, consolidating Välinge’s market position. Summing up the team’s effectiveness, Palm states: ‘The team has become a responsive legal department that delivers quick and effective advice within a broad spectrum of legal areas and integrates it into the business’. He continues: ‘The department is a natural and crucial part of the business, which is based on the concept of innovation, patenting and licensing. Owing to this business model, commercial and legal disputes arise constantly due to the company’s fast growing and expanding development. The legal team contributes to company profits through successful litigations, balancing the demands of the business with a legal risk assessment and by actively working to stop infringement in the industry’.