Martin is a Brand Protection Consultant, currently working in our London office, overseeing and supporting the implementation of anti-counterfeiting programmes for leading companies in various industries, including Luxury Goods, Pharmaceuticals, and Fast-Moving Consumer Goods. He has extensive relevant legal and technical experience, including working with a next-gen gaming technology producer.
If you decide to study Law or Physics, or any number of other subjects, you probably won’t very often be asked, ‘why’? But that’s not the case if you decide to study Philosophy – in fact, it will often be the very first thing people ask. There are a lot of obvious answers: Philosophy explores fundamental questions about the nature of reality and human existence, knowledge and ethics, and it develops sound reasoning methods and problem-solving skills, things that are useful in whatever field you ultimately choose. For someone like Martin – creative, intellectually curious, energetic, and an enthusiastic debater of the big issues – it seemed an obvious choice, and It has certainly turned out to be a good one, particularly with the work he is doing now. His philosophical approach really underlies all he does - in particular, his development and use of IP management and enforcement technology to free up more professional time for concentration on the complex issues.
Martin’s study of Philosophy has certainly been valuable, but closely linked and perhaps equally important is his natural creativity, energy and enthusiasm, and his fascination with brands. All of this he probably inherited, at least in part, from his mother who has been an important influence in his life. She is the creative director of a highly successful advertising agency that started in Poland and is now in the UK. Although small, the agency has been acting for a number of large international brands and from a very early age Martin was featuring in its advertisements and promotional material. He really grew up in the world of brands.
His early childhood was spent in Warsaw in Poland, then, when he was 12 years old, he moved to London with his mother and started secondary school in South London. It was a completely different world – English speaking, obviously, but also extremely multi-cultural, which Martin loved, and very soon he was thriving. Back in Poland he had started playing the guitar, but didn’t have one of his own; here, he had access to an unbelievable array of musical equipment and was soon a member of the school band and writing his own songs. Music became an important part of his life, and still is. It also opened up a second path to IP when he became aware that the English band Radiohead was claiming that the American singer-songwriter Lana Del Rey had infringed the copyright in its worldwide hit, Creep. Martin became fascinated by the idea of copyright in music and every time he heard a musical similarity began to wonder if it might provoke a claim of copyright infringement.
When the time came to choose a University course, his mother’s influence was, as usual, both important and useful. He had already decided to study Philosophy, which she didn’t oppose, but she suggested it might be a good idea to do something more practical as well. So he opted for Politics and enrolled for a course in Politics and Philosophy at Oxford Brookes University. Studying both Philosophy and Politics reawakened his interest in the concept of justice, which had been one of his favourite topics of discussion at school. Given that, and his interest in brands and IP, he decided, when he graduated, to enrol in a Law conversion course at BPP University.
When he subsequently qualified during Covid, it was difficult to get a legal job due to market stagnation, so Martin turned to a field that was booming during lockdown: he became a Client Coordinator for Fortnite, a highly successful American online video game and a great example of the Metaverse. For Martin, it was a stroke of good fortune – as a Client Coordinator he learned a huge amount about both technology and IP. His job was essentially talking to clients and helping smooth their gaming experience, but at the same time he was learning different rules and regulations concerning online gaming and being exposed to IP issues. As his IP and technology expertise grew, so did his interest and expertise in the Metaverse – in fact, he’s convinced it is the way we will be communicating in the future.
At this point, Martin knew that he wanted to work with IP and brands and he secured a position with the online brand protection company Corsearch, supporting a global IP infringement programme for a leading technology company. He was involved in extensive online searching, from social media and e-commerce to paid search and domains, diligently reporting results to the client. As a result of his efforts many strategical points of sale were removed. Although he was in many ways in his element, when a career opportunity with Rouse was advertised, he thought the role would be broader and more challenging and would enable him to make use of all his past experience. He was right. As well as working directly on a number of anti-counterfeiting programmes, he has already been able to optimise Rouse’s internally developed enforcement and data solution, CHORUS, by automating a task that is now done four times faster than it was before. He says of his technical skills: “I am not a programmer, but I have a good understanding of how systems work”.
Martin brings a particular mix of energy, creativity, intelligence, enthusiasm, and experience to his current role, but he also owes a lot to his study Philosophy. It has enhanced his innate desire to get to the bottom of things and find solutions and provided him with a disciplined way of tackling problems. He also obviously owes a lot to his mother who has been a continuing source of both inspiration and sound advice. Not surprisingly, she is enormously proud of what her son has achieved so far.