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About the Role

This role is built around a genuine legal problem: the IP frameworks that governed technology companies for the past thirty years do not cleanly map onto how AI-era innovation works. Patents remain important, but inventorship rules are being tested across the world, copyright matters more than it ever has but the rules on AI-generated output are still being written, and trade secrets may become the dominant protection strategy for proprietary systems - but only if the program is built and maintained with rigor. In practice, you will lead the IP aspects of Cisco's AI legal & governance strategies, evolve and run Cisco's copyright program in the AI era, evolve and run Cisco's trade secret program as a genuine enterprise function, work with the patent team to advise them on AI-specific patent-related strategies, work with the AI legal team to audit and run AI vendor IP exposure, and serve as the IP team's legal intelligence function on AI.

Responsibilities

Lead the IP aspects of Cisco's AI legal & governance strategies, including updating mentorship on human conception documentation and partnering cross functionally with other subject-matter guides in Legal to establish the approved-tool standards to ensure IP protection and IP risk mitigation related to how engineers use AI in invention development.
Evolve and run Cisco's copyright program in the AI era — both the traditional function and the emerging questions: what Cisco can own in AI-generated technical and creative output, how to structure human authorship records to improve protectability, and how to lead the downstream copyright liability composed by foundation model training data in Cisco's vendor stack.
Evolve and run Cisco's trade secret program as a genuine enterprise function; not just a policy document. That means: identifying the best methodology and systems to classify our proprietary assets that deserve trade secret protection; detailing the reasonable protective measures required to establish and defend that protection; and craft the legal and technical governance that makes the program defensible in litigation.
Work with the patent team to advise them on AI-specific patent-related strategies, including AI-assisted inventorship documentation and any inter-jurisdictional differences that affect how we run patent protection.
Work with the AI legal team to audit and run AI vendor IP exposure, including being the IP critical issue point for AI-related agreements and establishing the IP contractual standards that Cisco requires before deploying AI tools at scale.
Serve as the IP team's legal intelligence function on AI: translating USPTO mentorship, Copyright Office reports, Federal Circuit decisions, and legislative developments in the US and abroad into timely executive-ready mentorship.

Requirements

JD and active bar membership: J.D. from an accredited law school with active bar membership in at least one U.S. jurisdiction.
10+ years IP legal experience: Minimum of 10 years of intellectual property legal experience, with at least 5 years focused specifically on technology-based IP matters, including copyright ownership and/ trade secret protection.
AI & IP proficiency: Deep working knowledge of copyright and/or trade secrets as applied to AI-generated works.

Skills

AI-generated works
Copyright licensing
SaaS platform output
API-delivered content
Enterprise software products
EU AI Act transparency obligations
Trade secret protection
Trade secret litigation
Executive communication

Location

select locations

Work Type

hybrid work model

Experience Level

10+ years IP legal experience
5+ years focused specifically on technology-based IP matters

Education Level

J.D. from an accredited law school

Salary/Compensations

$205,600.00 - $260,000.00
$225,000.00 - $336,300.00
$205,600.00 - $298,900.00

Benefits

medical, dental and vision insurance
a 401(k) plan with a Cisco matching contribution
paid parental leave
short and long-term disability coverage
basic life insurance
Cisco restricted stock units
10 paid holidays per full calendar year
1 floating holiday for non-exempt employees
1 paid day off for employee’s birthday
paid year-end holiday shutdown
4 paid days off for personal wellness
16 days of paid vacation time per full calendar year (non-exempt)
flexible vacation time off program (exempt)
80 hours of sick time off provided on hire date and each January 1st thereafter
up to 80 hours of unused sick time carried forward
Additional paid time away may be requested to deal with critical or emergency issues for family members
Optional 10 paid days per full calendar year to volunteer
annual bonuses (non-sales roles)
performance-based incentive pay (sales roles)

About the Company

At Cisco, the Intellectual Property team sits at the crossroads of technology, business, and law, with insight into an outstanding breadth of innovation spanning networking, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, cloud infrastructure, collaboration, and observability.
We work together inside a legal organization that treats IP as a strategic business asset and are building the institutional frameworks that let Cisco's engineers translate invention into durable protection.
AI is changing the terms of that work, including what we can protect, through which legal instruments, and with what level of certainty. And it creates new categories of exposure — in copyright, in trade secrets, in vendor contracting, and in prosecution validity — that require a dedicated function to manage.
At Cisco, we’re revolutionizing how data and infrastructure connect and protect organizations in the AI era – and beyond.
We’ve been innovating fearlessly for 40 years to create solutions that power how humans and technology work together across the physical and digital worlds.
These solutions provide customers with unparalleled security, visibility, and insights across the entire digital footprint.
Fueled by the depth and breadth of our technology, we experiment and create meaningful solutions.
Add to that our worldwide network of doers and experts, and you’ll see that the opportunities to grow and build are limitless.
We work as a team, collaborating with empathy to make really big things happen on a global scale.
Because our solutions are everywhere, our impact is everywhere.
We are Cisco, and our power starts with you.