Vanessa Backman

Director, Senior Legal Counsel – Global Trademarks at Alcon, a Novartis company

Vanessa brings over 20 years of intellectual property experience, dealing with the full spectrum of issues from IP selection through major litigation. As Director, Senior Legal Counsel Global Trademarks of Alcon, a Novartis Company, Vanessa handles trademark prosecution and maintenance, marketing and advertising review, enforcement and defense of claims. Utilizing her strong brand protection background, she places a special emphasis on the company’s anti-counterfeiting and gray market efforts, developing and implementing effective strategies, in collaboration with key business stake holders and global security.

Prior to Alcon, she ran her own IP consulting firm, Andra Brand Integrity Group. She launched Andra in 2011 to share her experience and expertise with brands across the globe. Andra offered organizations of all sizes, from start-ups to longstanding ventures, a variety of intellectual property tools to create, protect and police their brands.

Vanessa also previously spent time in-house at two of the world’s most recognized brands –adidas and Apple. In her role as Senior Counsel at Apple, she was responsible for Apple’s global brand protection efforts. As Associate General Counsel, Group Intellectual Property at adidas, Vanessa handled all aspects of intellectual property work, including anti-counterfeiting, infringements, clearance, litigation and claims, for the adidas brand, as well as anti-counterfeiting for the Reebok and TaylorMade brands in North America.

Vanessa was introduced to the world of Intellectual Property with her first job out of college –securing a Legal Assistant position at Trademark Management, where she worked for various sports-related clients developing and implementing global brand protection programs. At Trademark Management Vanessa represented a variety of clients, most notably the Coalition to Advance the Protection of Sports logos (CAPS), whose members include NBA, NFL, NHL, MLB and the Collegiate Licensing Company, in their joint anti-counterfeiting efforts.

Vanessa has been active in industry organizations such the International Anti-Counterfeiting Coalition (IACC) and the International Trademark Association (INTA). She has served on the IACC Board of Directors and co-Chaired the Internet Task Force and Pharmaceutical & Medical Device Industry Working Group. Vanessa has also served on the Non-Traditional Marks and Anti-Counterfeiting Committees of INTA. Vanessa currently volunteers her time in support of Alcon’s Women Innovating Now (WIN) Employee Resource Group, where she co-Chairs the WIN@FTW Talent Pillar.