Unify Wins 2014 World Trademark Review Industry Award

MUNICH and RESTON, Va., June 11, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Unify today announced the company's in-house counsel team was named a winner in the 2014 Industry Awards presented by World Trademark Review (WTR), the world's only independent international magazine dedicated exclusively to trademark law and practice.

The winners were announced on May 13, 2014, during the International Trademark Association's annual meeting at the Happy Valley Racecourse in Hong Kong. The event was attended by more than 200 senior in-house counsel from nominated companies and representatives from a number of prominent law firms.

"Trademarks are a key corporate asset and those tasked with protecting – and enhancing – the value of these critical rights contribute directly to their company's success," said Trevor Little, editor of WTR. "Yet, too often trademark counsel are unsung corporate heroes and it is vitally important that the work they undertake is recognized. All of this year's shortlisted teams and individuals represent the best in class. This made judging the awards a very difficult process and the winners really do represent best practice in the trademark industry, and deserve special recognition for their exceptional achievements."

The WTR awards are divided into geographical, individual, and industry categories, where Unify was named best in-house counsel team in Internet & Telecommunications. The team was recognized for the more than two years of work done to implement a global rebranding for the new company across six continents, helping Unify rebrand on Oct. 15, 2013, and changing the conversation about the way enterprises collaborate and communicate.

Under the direction of Johannes Schulte, Unify general counsel for Europe and Pacific (Munich), and Patricia Lee, general counsel for the Americas (Reston, Virginia), trademark attorney Katrin Hufnagel (Munich) led a global team of attorneys working the rebranding effort. The team filed nearly 200 applications to register the new company brand in approximately 100 jurisdictions, securing and acquiring the right for the company to conduct business globally under the new Unify brand.

"Our in-house counsel team directed their legal expertise, business acumen, creative problem-solving skills, and extraordinary time and resources to meet the objective of rebranding the company worldwide," said Dean Douglas, chief executive officer of Unify. "The team's commitment, perseverance and creativity in this significant rebranding effort played a vital role in supporting the company's mission to transform business communications for the new way to work."

To arrive at the award shortlist, WTR conducted in-depth research of in-house counsel worldwide by surveying the global trademark community. Almost 1,000 nominations make the awards unique in clearly identifying those counsel–both teams and individuals–that have excelled in their sector or region. The nomination process was followed by a two-month research process, conducted by the WTR editorial team.

For a full list of winners, please visit www.industry-awards.com. For more information contact:

Trevor Little
Editor
World Trademark Review
e: [email protected]
t: +44 20 7234 0606

About the Industry Awards
Each year WTR honors leading in-house departments or groups through the WTR Industry Awards. The awards are designed to recognize the vitally important work carried out by in-house trademark counsel, and to identify the teams and individuals that are performing their functions to the highest possible standards. The awards are divided into geographical, industry and individual categories, and the winners are selected from nominations received from the global trademark community.

About WTR
World Trademark Review is the world's only independent daily news and information service dedicated to the issues that matter to international trademark professionals. In addition to a daily email bulletin, each issue of the magazine provides in-depth coverage of industry trends, considers the strategic application of trademarks and conducts interviews with leading industry personalities.

WTR is part of The IP Media Group (www.theipmediagroup.com), which brings together several market-leading IP journals, events and online publications to form one of the world's largest IP-focused publishing groups.

About Unify
Unify is one of the world's leading communications software and services firms, providing integrated communications solutions for approximately 75 percent of the Fortune Global 500. Our solutions unify multiple networks, devices and applications into one easy-to-use platform that allows teams to engage in rich and meaningful conversations. The result is a transformation of how the enterprise communicates and collaborates that amplifies collective effort, energizes the business, and enhances business performance. Unify has a strong heritage of product reliability, innovation, open standards and security.

This release contains forward-looking statements based on beliefs of Unify's management. The words "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "forecast," "expect," "intend," "plan," "should," and "project" are used to identify forward-looking statements. Such statements reflect the company's current views with respect to future events and are subject to risks and uncertainties. Many factors could cause the actual results to be materially different, including, among others, changes in general economic and business conditions, changes in currency exchange rates and interest rates, introduction of competing products, lack of acceptance of new products or services and changes in business strategy. Actual results may vary materially from those projected here. Unify does not intend or assume any obligation to update these forward-looking statements.

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SOURCE Unify