A conversation with Belron Group’s Brand Protection Hero

Last updated on: September 15, 2021

The Belron Group delivers technical excellence and customer satisfaction, and has brands in 40 countries. Carglass is the leading vehicle glass repair and replacement company in Europe, so is Safelite in the USA, and Autoglass in the UK and Ireland. 

As part of Red Points’ Heroes of Brand Protection podcast, we’ve spoken to Dr. Marion Woessner, Head of Trademarks and Domains at Belron Group. 

Head over to our podcast for the full interview or continue reading this article for a sneak peek into his journey. 

Key takeaways:

• Belron Group’s business overview. 
• Challenges faced as an intellectual property expert.
• Advice for budding brand protection professionals. 

The following is part of the transcript of Heroes of Brand Protection podcast, Episode 10 featuring a conversation between Dr. Marion Woessner and Daniel Shapiro, Red Points’ VP of Brand Relationships. 

Q stands for questions from Daniel Shapiro.

Q: For those that may not know about your business, can you give a brief overview?

Belron Group is the worldwide leader in vehicle glass repair and replacement. It has more than ten major brands worldwide, including Carglass in central Europe, Autoglass in the UK, and Autoglass in the U.S. It has almost thirty thousand employees, and operates across over thirty five countries, and six continents. The Belron Group has its roots in South Africa, and the company’s history dates back over a hundred years. In 2019 we served over eighteen million customers in thirty countries, so it’s been quite a successful journey.

The business has a strong focus on quality and customer service. Every glass repair and replacement job is carried out along the same standards. We have a technical handbook that’s called ‘The Belron Way of Fitting’. Every technician worldwide follows the same rules, which ensures safety and enables us to constantly increase customer service. 

Q: What’s the hardest thing you have to do as Head of Trademark and Domains?

With global responsibility comes the need to litigate in a large number of different countries. Systems can be so extremely different from each other, and different from what I know. The challenge is to be really open-minded, and not to come with preconceived expectations for supposedly standard things.

One of the most difficult cases I had to look after was a very long lasting brand protection battle in Morocco. After four or five years we were eventually able to stop a competitor from abusing our Carglass trademark.

Q: What advice would you give someone wanting to pursue a career similar to yours?

I would generally strongly recommend going for the IP business. It’s a fantastic area of law, it’s exciting, and it’s lively. Another advice is to take your time to reflect on things, and to ask questions. Dare to question things, because it’s through the questioning we really get to the bottom of things. For an in house counsel I believe it’s key to get to know your colleagues well, as well as your internal clients.