Irene Rodríguez Alonso joined global financial group BBVA in 2011, providing services in more than 30 countries to its 72 million customers. Rodríguez serves as the legal manager of the in-house global patent office that works to protect and manage inventions across BBVA’s group companies, as well as heading the team that manages the group’s local IP portfolio, trademarks, domain names and patents.

Covering the banks extensive network of branches worldwide, Rodríguez assists with the Bank’s leading franchises in South America and the Sunbelt region in the US, as well as its significant presence in Turkey. Within the last seven years, Rodríguez has acquired extensive experience in all matters relating to maintenance of the domain name portfolio and monitoring the online space, prosecution and enforcement of valuable trademarks. She has been involved in handling proceedings internationally, in multijurisdictional trademark clearance and portfolio management as well as advising on complex cross-border IP conflicts in most of the jurisdictions where BBVA has presence, including on the protection and enforcement of technically complex non-traditional marks.

Over the years, by working closely with other business areas of the group, she has fostered collaboration with them to the benefit of the Bank as a whole. She has also initiated the breaking down of barriers between the legal team and other business areas, as well as a better overall understanding of the needs to the business something which Rodríguez explains: ‘has remarkably improved the quality of our services and fine-tailored legal advice’.