Finland-based TactoTek develops and licenses injection-moulded smart structure technologies to companies in the automotive, aviation and consumer electronics industries.
Sonja London, general counsel and IP strategy lead, joined TactoTek in September 2021 from Nokia Technologies. At Nokia, she held an array of roles in the company’s IP department, most recently including head of its consumer electronics licensing program and head of licensing and intelligence operations.
At TactoTek, Mrs. London coordinates with an IP team of around 10 people who work together with outside counsel to manage and commercialise the company’s portfolio of over 280 active, granted patents. She is also president of the Licensing Executives Society International (LESI). She sat down with ip fray to discuss balancing the two roles successfully, her time at Nokia and how she has carved out a more holistic IP strategy for TactoTek over the last four years.
You have held an array of very different roles throughout your career. What are some highlights?
At Nokia, I built and expanded various licensing programs for infrastructure products, consumer electronics and connectivity technology. My last role there was leading the consumer electronics licensing program globally, including video standards and certain connectivity standards (such as WiFi). My biggest highlight had to be a significant, standalone deal in video standards we signed – with Samsung in 2021 (March 11, 2021 Nokia press release).
Meanwhile, at TactoTek, we have signed an array of license agreements in the past three years – and I am very proud of the deal flow we have produced, and the rate at which we’ve been able to close them. This has contributed to a four-fold growth in IP licensing, with some remarkable automotive players on our list of licensees.
The most satisfying things for me (among closing deals) has always been building programs and strategies, holistically approaching them from end-to-end, whether it is the creation of a new program or an entire IP strategy. This approach means building a strategy on data and insight, creating the whole process for execution and including IP assets holistically.
How have you leveraged your experience from previous roles to help you in your current role?
I was already experienced in the international setting at Nokia – and also well-connected through my LES activities – and this is something I was able to leverage immediately. Knowing the best practices in international dealmaking and being able to engage with a vast network quickly was helpful. Additionally, over my 15 years at Nokia, I did pretty much everything a lawyer can do in licensing: from creating and executing programs to managing licensees and royalties to managing the performance of programs to drafting, negotiating and closing deals. This experience helped me create a whole IP and licensing strategy for TactoTek, where I now have responsibility for the overall IP commercialization.
How would you describe your approach to leadership?
Some people call leadership a “team sport”, which I think is a nice way of describing it. But I would use a different concept here.
Good leadership, in my opinion, is like conducting an orchestra. It’s about putting different players together, helping and organising every instrument or every team to achieve in the setting together and setting expectations for the outcomes and the pace. Everyone has their own role, but they are in sync so they can achieve together. And fundamentally, IP is a cross-organisational business, with its legal, business and technical capabilities – and all of these would need to be orchestrated to work together. To make a great symphony, people must be playing together, even if each team is playing their own part of the melody – and the best outcome happens when everyone is contributing according to the plan/notes.
On a personal level, I tend to believe in servant leadership – meaning that the leaders, no matter what they are doing, must be enabling others. This is clearing the obstacles for others, not creating them. During my time at Nokia, I was orchestrating teams across the organization to work together to accomplish large deals, and if I wasn’t well organized, nice to work with, diplomatic and giving credit to those contributing, it would not have worked. The importance of these so-called “soft skills” is often forgotten in leadership thinking, even if it has a major contribution to the performance of an organization.
What goals did you set out for yourself when you were appointed general counsel at TactoTeK and how have they fared so far?
When I started, I saw the need for a more holistic IP strategy. TactoTek had a typical but smart tech company thinking about the details of patent filing strategy – but that alone is not an IP strategy. A patent filing strategy alone doesn’t answer: how are you going to use these IP assets and to achieve what? It doesn’t provide guidance on licensing, tech transfer, or other commercial or strategic questions. The company already had a strong IP savvy culture, but as a technology licensing business, it needed a more holistic and forward-looking IP strategy. I set out a strategy based on four pillars to transform the way IP value is perceived at TactoTek: Leading IP position, smart IP contracting, building the ecosystem and market intelligence. This is what I created and achieved and it is working well. TactoTek is a technology developer and licensor, so ultimately business and company value is based on IP and IP strategy. I believe our IP strategy has built a huge amount of value for the company.
Another key target for me was to change the licensing model and multiply the licensee base with a new licensing strategy. And this has been achieved. Thirdly, of course, was to build out the legal team. This has unfortunately been delayed – like many other tech growth companies we had a rough period during the recent global turbulence in the financing market. I expect this team building will continue now we have completed a recent funding round (November 19, 2024 TactoTek press release).
What makes TactoTek’s approach to licensing stand out in the electronics market? Are there any licensing deals/recent litigation wins you are able to comment on?
TactoTek’s main markets are automotive and aviation, but we are expanding to consumer electronics. We adopted the typical approach in licensing for automotive – the licensing is done mainly to tier manufacturers, not the OEMs, and this works for us because this is manufacturing technology (not just patents). The business environment in auto is conservative, although some changes are already taking place. The key ambition for our team this year will be to support our licensees to win awards from the auto OEMs and take the technology into the market in their products. There has been no litigation yet. When the tech is taken into the market, I expect there will be infringement at some point – but, so far, anyone who has been thinking of infringing has turned to being a licensee without resorting to litigation.
What are some key ambitions/goals you set out for yourself when you became president of LESI last year? How have those goals fared since?
I wanted the organisation to have a clear mission and vision statement so we could all understand and align to achieve here (LESI mission and vision). The vision (shortly) is to be the global go-to organisation for IP leaders and professionals. I took some learnings from corporate thinking: first, have the vision and mission – and then set the plan and priorities to achieve them. I asked: what do we need to be to achieve being the global go-to organization?
As the presidential term is short, I needed to set a limited number of priorities:
- Raising the visibility of LESI globally
- Engaging and activating our members and stakeholders, especially the industry
- Diversifying the funding of the organization (to leverage our content and platforms) and create new revenue streams
Everything I do as the president has something to do with these priorities. Every month, I post on LinkedIn what I have been up to over the past four weeks (calls, meetings etc..). I wanted people to have a bit of transparency about what the president does. I have also been working on getting more industry leaders involved in discussions during our conferences. This has developed successfully, as we have seen leaders engaging in our conversations from China to Europe and the Americas.
Obviously, being both LESI President and general counsel at TactoTek would be a lot for anyone. How do you ensure you do not burn out and are able to give both your teams adequate time and energy?
This is a fair question and many have asked how I manage my time. I have to say I am grateful to TactoTek for giving me flexibility in my work time and enabling me to contribute to LESI.
I am very rigorous with my time management: I pretty much know where I am going to be and what I will be doing for the next six months. I reserve time for LESI, work, family and rest. The presidency term is only one year and most things can be arranged on short-term. At the end of the day, both paid work and non-profit work can take as much as you are giving to it. Maintaining balance is the key to success.
My strategy to maintain my energy and commitment is:
- Enjoy the things I do;
- Reserve enough time for family and recovery, which I do. I am very strict about getting enough sleep and I try to make time for myself to unwind even when I am travelling;
- Have good habits of exercise, healthy eating and drinking. I am quite stoic about my habits as they help in maintaining life balance.
I have always felt that my internal clock has a faster pace than most have. I have always needed something more than just the regular work to put my energy into, keep me happy, and keep me entertained. LESI work is very fulfilling and over the years I have also had many board and advisor positions outside of my main work. Such a full life is deeply meaningful to me. I am in my happy place when I am doing a lot; I wouldn’t have it any other way.