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Michelle Ray-Jones

Partner and Director, Vietnam

Biography

Michelle Ray-Jones is a partner and the director of Tilleke & Gibbins’ Vietnam offices. She is an experienced practitioner in intellectual property and corporate and commercial law, and has been advising and assisting investors in Southeast Asia since 2014.

As an expert in international IP protection, commercialization, and enforcement, Michelle has handled legal matters for clients in a broad range of industries, including hospitality, entertainment, music, fashion, and consumer products. She has served as a strategic advisor to international clients in Southeast Asia, as well as to ASEAN clients expanding outward toward other parts of the world, and regularly assists with IP due diligence exercises, IP commercialization strategies, and local and international IP protection and enforcement. Her many years guiding clients in Southeast Asia—particularly Vietnam, Thailand, and Cambodia—informs her strategic advice on complex global and regional IP and corporate strategies.

Michelle represents clients in the media and entertainment industry in relation to television and film production in Southeast Asia, including drafting, reviewing and localizing agreements. She also assists clients in reviewing chain of title, content compliance, and legal policy. She is also a leading practitioner in domain name disputes, and regularly represents clients in arbitral tribunals and helps them secure satisfactory outcomes.

Michelle has served as president of the Licensing Executives Society of Thailand since September 2021 and is an active member of the International Trademark Association, having sat on multiple subcommittees. She is a frequent speaker and author on topics such as intellectual property rights, fashion law, licensing, and franchising law.

Michelle is licensed to practice in the State of New York and is admitted in the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York. She has successfully represented clients in the U.S. federal court system and before the U.S. Trademark Trial and Appeal Board.

Experience

  • Manages the worldwide trademark portfolios of fast-growing clients in the hospitality and food and beverage industries, and provides guidance on trademark filing, maintenance, and enforcement strategies.
  • Acts as external IP counsel for an American streaming service to provide legal assistance relating to the production of films and series.
  • Handles the Southeast Asian trademark portfolios of three of the top ten hotel companies in the world.
  • Performed IP due diligence on behalf of a buyer of a music catalog in a deal worth over USD 40 million.
  • Performed due diligence on behalf of a U.S. buyer of IP assets from a Southeast Asian seller.
  • Orchestrated the completion of a worldwide trademark coexistence agreement between a client in the hospitality industry and a U.S.-based food and beverage company.
  • Successfully stopped a large Thai manufacturer and distributor from infringing the trademark of a global life sciences company.
ABOUT Michelle

Locations

Languages

    English

Education

    JD, Brooklyn Law School

    BA, New York University

Insights

Awards & Rankings

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