Microsoft hunts Aussie pirate fighter

Microsoft is on the hunt for an experienced attorney to help the software giant protect its intellectual property within Australia and New Zealand.

IP evangelist: Vanessa Hutley
(Credit: Microsoft)

The vacancy, posted today on careers website Seek, reveals the software giant is bolstering its local corporate legal team to assist in the fight against intellectual property abuse. Microsoft's intellectual property team is headed up by senior corporate attorney Vanessa Hutley.

Hutley led the Australian leg of Microsoft's Global Anti-Piracy Day, launched in October last year, where the software giant claimed to have netted the scalps of three South Australian retailers found to have sold counterfeit Microsoft software.

"For Microsoft, intellectual property is at the centre of who and what we are," Hutley said on Microsoft Australia's government affairs blog.

According to the vacancy posted today, the sought-after attorney would support litigation focusing on intellectual property protection in Australia and New Zealand as well as Microsoft's general commercial programs.

"The attorney should be generally familiar with copyright, trademark, trade secret, and antitrust law issues," Microsoft stated in the job description. They should also be licensed in the US, Australia or other Commonwealth jurisdictions.

Besides the requirement for the candidate to have at least seven years' litigation experience, the person should also have "a sense of humour" and must possess a "working knowledge" of Microsoft Word and Excel and be familiar with Outlook, Schedule+, PowerPoint and Access.

Until 2008, Microsoft's Hutley had touted a 2005 study by technology analyst firm IDC, which estimated that a 22 to 32 per cent reduction in piracy by 2009 would generate 9,770 Australian jobs and add $4.7 billion to Australia's gross domestic product (GDP).

In October last year Hutely quoted revised IDC figures, which estimated that cutting piracy by 10 per cent would generate 3,929 jobs in Australia over the next four years, and that the reduction would now contribute an additional $4.3 billion to Australia's GDP over the period.

Microsoft did not post the salary it would offer.