Microsoft CVP And Deputy General Counsel Horacio Gutierrez Leaves Worldwide IP Group To Take A New Job Within The Company

Horacio Gutierrez who is a corporate vice president and deputy general counsel at Microsoft has left the Worldwide IP group at Microsoft to take a new job within the company. As per his LinkedIn profile, he was previously responsible for Microsoft’s Worldwide Intellectual Property and Innovation Groups, including the legal teams supporting the following functions: Advanced Strategies and Research, Patents, Copyright, Trademarks, Licensing, Standards, as well as Regulatory Counseling and Compliance. Under his new job, he will be in charge of the Products and Services division in Microsoft’s Law and Corporate Affairs department.

Horacio Gutierrez is corporate vice president and deputy general counsel of the Products and Services Group in Microsoft’s Law and Corporate Affairs department. As the head of LCA’s Products and Services Group, he leads the work of over 200 attorneys and legal professionals who provide front-line legal support to all of Microsoft’s business and products teams, including the Operating Systems, Cloud and Enterprise, Devices, Applications and Services, Business Solutions, Technology & Research and Marketing groups. The legal work and activities that Horacio oversees encompass a wide variety of matters, including complex commercial transactions, intellectual property licensing, development/design of products and services, compliance issues, and regulatory counseling.

IAM magazine named Horacio  as the most influential driver of the global IP market citing the following reason,

There are those that dabble in the IP market and others that specialise in a certain part of it. Then there is Microsoft, the company that does everything. Whether it is buying or selling patents for hundreds of millions of dollars, generating billions in Android-related licensing revenues, investing in NPEs (Intellectual Ventures), part-owning them (Rockstar) or just working with them in one way or another, Microsoft is involved in all of it. Beyond monetisation, intellectual property underpins myriad Microsoft collaborative ventures, guarantees freedom to operate and generates value in countless other ways too. The man responsible for rolling out what is undoubtedly one of the corporate world’s most sophisticated and successful IP strategies is Horacio Gutierrez. With deputies of the calibre of Micky Minhas (head of patents and patent strategy) and Nick Psyhogeos (head of licensing), there is little doubt that Gutierrez will keep Microsoft at the top of the corporate IP tree for many years to come.

Source: IAM magazine