About the role
This is a newly created position within JD Worldwide's International Legal and Compliance Department, created to support the business as it scales across the UK and EU. You will guide the business on intellectual property and brand protection across its retail and marketplace operations - protecting JD's own IP, managing third-party IP risk on the platform, and shaping how brands are authorised to trade. As JD scales, this role helps the business protect its brands and run a credible, well-managed approach to IP across Europe.
What you'll do
- Advise the business on IP across its operations - trademarks, copyright and design rights - both protecting JD's own portfolio and managing infringement risk
- Shape the brand-authorisation approach and the agreements behind it - authorised reseller, brand-gating and distribution arrangements - and act as a first point of contact for brands on the platform
- Advise the brand-protection and marketplace teams on third-party IP risk - counterfeit, infringing listings and grey-market goods - and the basis for enforcement, delisting and seller action
- Look after notice-and-takedown and counter-notice processes, oversee how brand notices and complaints are handled, and advise on the IP-related parts of the DSA, including trader traceability and notice-and-action
- Draft, negotiate and standardise brand, licensing, distribution and authorisation agreements, with templates and playbooks that work at scale
- Handle pre-litigation matters such as cease-and-desist and settlement
- Advise on use of brand, labelling and advertising, and on copyright in content and imagery across the platform
- Partner with brand protection, category and commercial teams, and seller onboarding to build IP and authorisation requirements into onboarding and listings
What we're looking for
- A qualified solicitor or lawyer (England & Wales or equivalent EU jurisdiction; dual qualification an advantage), with 7-10 years' post-qualification experience and a strong IP and brand background
- Fluency in a second EU language an advantage - German, French, Dutch, Spanish or Portuguese all valued
- A background combining IP work at a recognised law firm - contentious and/or non-contentious - with in-house experience at a scaled e-commerce, marketplace, retail or consumer-facing business
- Good knowledge of trademark and copyright law and of brand-protection and anti-counterfeit practice in an online or retail setting
- Experience drafting and negotiating distribution, licensing and authorisation agreements at scale
- Familiarity with platform and intermediary liability and the IP dimensions of the DSA a strong advantage
- A practical, action-oriented operator who is highly organised and able to bring structure to a fast-moving environment
- A confident communicator, comfortable partnering directly with the business and seeing matters through to resolution
- Resilient under pressure and comfortable dealing with external counsel, opposing parties and senior internal stakeholders
Why this role
JD Worldwide is scaling fast, and protecting its brands - and managing IP risk across a busy marketplace - is central to how the business grows with confidence. This role offers real breadth, from trademark and copyright work to brand authorisation, anti-counterfeit and the newest platform regulation, with meaningful ownership of your area and direct exposure to senior leadership. For a commercially minded IP lawyer who enjoys variety and wants to shape how a fast-growing business protects its brands, this is a genuine opportunity to contribute to a function that is still being built.