Team size: 30 

Key team members: Frederik Tram and Michael Simmons

Major legal advisers: Legal Business Partners: Lise Brændstrup, Mette Bygum, Michael Pedersen, Michael Skjøtt Andersen and Xing Wang  

Can you give an idea of the most significant cases and/or transactions that your legal team has recently been involved in?

The Grundfos legal department has played a pivotal role in the global transformation of Grundfos which in 2021 saw the Grundfos Group transformed into four new customer segments to improve customer proximity and fuel innovation. Through its dedicated resources, the Grundfos legal department has been central to the planning and execution of this worldwide organisational change.  

To highlight an example, the Grundfos trademark was recognised as well known in 12 cases in China, strengthening the protection of the Grundfos trademark against infringers. There has also been a series of cases against a Chinese manufacturer copying Grundfos trademarks. This has led to more than 150 cases against the company since 2019. In January 2023 the logo of the Chinese manufacturer has been invalidated in all classes in Denmark, as the Danish Patent and Trademark Office concluded that several of Grundfos’ trademarks are extremely well known.  

Also, the legal department has been driving a large class action lawsuit that resulted in a settlement significantly lower than the anticipated exposure. The department has been key in overseeing the litigation with external counsel, coordinating with internal resources, stakeholder communication, and giving input on the root cause that resulted in hiring permanent resources to build up a compliance program.  

Finally, the legal department has acted as legal advisor on several M&A transactions adding significant value to Grundfos’ ambitious inorganic growth agenda.  

How do you suggest in-house departments build strong relationships with business partners?  

Even though the legal department is not directly responsible for business decisions outside the department, the business highly appreciates (and needs) input/feedback on business decisions and risk. In addition to providing legal advice, time must be spent together with the business to understand where and how the business is developing. In-house legal departments should continuously take the initiative to network/meet with business colleagues to understand their business and needs and as part of this demonstrate the value of a strong collaboration with the legal department.  

As knowledge about existing and new regulatory requirements can be of paramount importance in strategic business decisions legal teams must always ensure to join and play a role in such business strategic decisions throughout the organisation. Therefore, legal departments should be on top of business cycle activities and regularly follow up with key business stakeholders.  

Finally, an in-house legal department must fully understand the business partners’ legal needs and ensure to be proactive and organize the capabilities and structure of the legal department to meet such needs.  

Do you have an example of a time when you (or any member of your legal team) have come up with an innovation that improved how your legal team functions, while avoiding any large expense?  

The IPR Team has created a reporting tool which has been successfully rolled out both internally throughout the company and to external partners. The reporting tool has significantly increased the collection of intelligence on infringements against the Grundfos brand. Without the occurrence of large expenses, this has (combined with the collaboration with various anti-counterfeiting organisations) considerably helped with the protection of our brand. The result has been a situation, where a much larger group of people than before, has been enabled and encouraged to report possible IP infringement; enabling the IPR team a much quicker and broader ability to act against infringers.