Bruno Nunes

You have over 20 years of experience navigating the complexities of the international IP field. What is your greatest professional achievement to date?

Coordinating the defence of a Macau company involved in a worldwide dispute, encompassing the biggest IP office against one of the largest multinationals. Professional rules of conduct prevent us from disclosing more details of a case that reached a settlement agreement.

Which recent decisions or legislative developments have had the biggest impact on IP strategy in Macau in the past few years?

With the exception of regional agreements and regulations, Macau has not passed any relevant decisions or legislative developments.

In addition to Macau, your firm’s IP services division operates across Portugal, Singapore and mainland China. What is the biggest challenge in protecting brands across such diverse jurisdictions?

The reasons we operate in these three jurisdictions are because most of our clients are from Mainland China and we provide bilingual support. As Portugal and Macau share, with limited differences, the same legal framework in terms of solutions, the biggest challenge is bridging the gap with solutions in Singapore.

However, even such a minor challenge is mitigated by Singapore having one of the most robust, modern and easy-to-operate IP systems. We find that Singapore is dedicated to becoming the best IP jurisdiction in the world.

How has your role on the INTA’s Brands and Innovation committee influenced your view of brand protection?

This committee has helped me reshape my view of the multitude of ways that brands can be impacted by new forms of digital communication or interaction. NFTs, cryptocurrency and Web 3.0 have the potential to completely reshape not only brands but also the way they are protected and promoted.

As managing partner of your firm, what steps are you taking to improve your hiring process to increase DEI in the workplace?

We routinely review our hiring process, as it is essential to analyse and refine our job descriptions to be clear, concise and free from any language that could be interpreted as excluding certain groups of people. This includes avoiding words like ‘young’ or ‘energetic’, which can subtly discourage older candidates from applying. Additionally, we ensure that our job descriptions highlight any DEI initiatives in place at our company, such as flexible or remote work opportunities, if applicable.

We also routinely evaluate the channels through which we source candidates for open positions to determine if they are reaching diverse applicants who may not have otherwise found the position on their own.

We also assess our interview questions to ensure they are free from bias and do not exclude certain groups of people due to their race, gender identity or sexual orientation.