2 mins

A conversation with Wahl Clippers’ IP Expert

Table of Contents:

Last updated on: June 8, 2022

The Wahl-known grooming products corporation, Wahl Clipper, makes sure both human and pet hair are on-point. They’re the leaders in the industry, and their products set the global standard for hair grooming. Wahl Clipper carries over a hundred years of experience, and is headquartered in Sterling, Illinois.

As part of Red Points’ Brand Protection Heroes podcast, we’ve spoken to Michael Baima, Intellectual Property Counsel at Wahl Clipper.

If you want to get to know the full story of the Hero behind Wahl Clippers’ brand protection efforts, head over to our podcast Heroes of Brand Protection. For a sneak peek into his journey, continue reading.

Key takeaways:

Wahl Clippers’ business overview
Challenges faced as Intellectual Property Counsel
Advice for budding Brand Protection experts

The following is part of the transcript of Heroes of Brand Protection podcast, Episode 4 featuring a conversation between Michael Baima 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?

Michael:

We’re an American company, with over a hundred years of experience, and we make the best hair clipping and hair trimming devices you can buy. We make fantastic electric hair grooming tools for both humans and pets. We have a consumer division that sells directly to consumers as well as a very successful professional division where we sell tools to professional barbers and stylists. We also sell massagers in our consumer market. Then, we’ve got an entire animal division which is bifurcated in a very similar manner.

We’re headquartered in Sterling, Illinois, however we have offices worldwide. The company started in Sterling, and a majority of our devices are manufactured here. Everybody in this area knows Wahl Clipper, probably has a family member that currently works here or did work here in their past. Our community is something that we’re very proud of.

Q: What’s the hardest thing you have to do as Intellectual Property Counsel?

Large merger and acquisition transactions, those are always quite stressful, and I was involved in a lot of them. There’s a lot to it from the IP side to bat and go through, whether you’re on the buying side or selling side.

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

How do you eat an airplane? How do you eat an elephant? It’s one bite at a time. Don’t get intimidated by that huge amount of work that it takes from start to finish to be a patent attorney. There’s a lot to do, there’s certainly a lot to learn, and it’s an ongoing education. If you bring it down to what’s the one little thing I need to get done this semester, this month, this week, etc. That seems to be very effective, at least it was for me anyway. It was some advice that my mom gave me and it stuck with me.