Biography
Edward is General Counsel to the Rouse Network and Head of the UK Business Unit.
Appointed as Head of Compliance in 2017 and then General Counsel in 2019, Edward is responsible across the Rouse Network for all issues involving ABAC, AML, company secretarial, conflicts of interest, data privacy, KYC, office and general liability insurance, PII, sanctions, terms with clients and agents and policies in other areas such as anti-modern slavery and preventing the facilitation of tax evasion by others.
In March 2020 Edward was appointed as Head of the UK Business.
Having managed the Trade Mark team for MENA from Dubai from 2012, Edward became involved in various roles supporting the provision of the Rouse Network's Global Trade Mark services from 2014 to 2020 with a particular emphasis on process efficiencies, best practice, data, objectives, performance, service alignment and systems.
Until 2017, Edward's focus was advising on the clearance, acquisition, maintenance, enforcement and commercialisation of soft IP, principally trade marks, with an emphasis on the Middle East and North Africa. He gained experience across a wide range of industry sectors including automotive, chemicals, clothing and footwear, consumer healthcare, electricals and electronics, food, personal care, perfumes, pharmaceuticals, refrigerants, retail, sports goods, tobacco, and many others. From 2010 to 2017 Edward split his time between Dubai, Riyadh and London and was responsible for:
- advice to clients on a range of soft IP issues across the MENA region, for some clients that advice extended into Europe, Asia and America
- our trade mark prosecution practice in the MENA region
- our association with Kadasa & Partners in Saudi Arabia, including maintaining an overview of all our work in the Kingdom
- our formalities team in the MENA region, handling processes across our professional and support services
- overseeing and co-ordinating our marketing efforts in the MENA region
His practice from 1992 to 2007 was very heavily focused on anti-counterfeiting.
Edward is a solicitor. He joined Rouse in 1992 and became Principal in 1998. He has worked for Rouse in the UK (1992 to 1996, 2007 to 2010 and 2017 to now), Hong Kong (1997 to 1998) and Dubai (1998 to 2007 and 2010 to 2017). He worked in-house, on secondment, twice – in 1996 and again from September 2007 to August 2008.
Edward has spoken at events in Dubai, Europe, Hong Kong, Japan, South Africa and the US, written articles for a variety of IP publications, been involved in various INTA committees, and led the creation of the Gulf Brand Protection Group.