Mr. Greif is currently a Director at the S&O Intellectual Property law firm, where he manages a team of more than 30 IP practitioners in five offices in Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos, as well as the firm’s practice across the rest of Southeast Asia. However, Mr. Greif’s geographic footprint is far broader than that.

Mr. Greif grew up in Washington, D.C., and hails from a family of lawyers. He has lived in twelve cities around the world (on four continents) and traveled to over one hundred countries for business and pleasure.

After doing his undergraduate work at Tulane University and attending law school at the University of South Carolina, he served as a federal judicial clerk on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. He became enamored with trademark law after working at an IP firm in DC (where he was first introduced to INTA). That was followed by an in-house counsel position in Atlanta, Georgia with Coca-Cola as International Trademark Counsel. It was at Coca-Cola that Mr. Greif’s interest in pro bono work and volunteer activities took hold.

Mr. Greif served as a mentor, advisor, and fundraiser for more than 15 years to the Bankhead Boys Association, a non-profit organization that provides mentoring to at-risk boys in some of Atlanta’s most poverty-stricken neighborhoods. He has also volunteered with many professional organizations including the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe Advisory Group on the Protection and Implementation of IPR for Investment; the United Nations (WIPO) as IP Trainer in SE Asia; and the Coalition for Intellectual Property Rights— Executive Committee (a coalition focused on IP in Eurasia).

For the last 10 years, Mr. Greif has been Worldwide Trademark Counsel for Trash Hero World—a United Nations certified non-profit organization involved in environmental causes—including hands-on cleaning of beaches, education, and sustainability projects. He assisted in the initial setting up of Trash Hero World and has provided ongoing trademark and other IP advice, as well as legal advice on its corporate activities and regarding setting us various non-profit entities and fund-raising entities in multiple countries. Mr. Greif says that it has been one of the highlights of his career to have the opportunity to assist Trash Hero World since its inception and to see it grow into an organization with a network extending to 17 countries around the world: Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Czech Republic, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Switzerland, Poland, Holland, Georgia, Germany, USA, Australia, and Japan, with more than 150 chapters and tens of thousands of volunteers.  He plans to continue assisting Trash Hero World as it grows further and makes an even greater long-lasting positive impact on the environment and the world.

Mr. Greif’s fulltime job and his pro bono and volunteer activities have not stopped him from also being very involved at INTA. Over his career, he has served on the INTA Global Advisory Council, the Well-Known Trademarks Committee, the Non-Traditional Trademarks Committee (East Asia and Pacific Subcommittee, Subcommittee Chair), the Enforcement Committee, the Asia Pacific Roundtables Project Team, the Trademark Office Practices Committee, and the Pro Bono Committee. He is an annual INTA Contributor for Thailand for INTA’s Trademark Opposition Guide and INTA’s Guide to GIs and Certification & Collective Marks.Ssince the 1990s, has been a speaker at many INTA events in China, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, and Hong Kong to name a few.

In the midst of this seemingly sleepless schedule, Mr. Greif found time to be a family man. He has been married to Ratchaklaw (Bonny) for 19 years and they have three teenage boys together—William Napat, Michael Nathagorn, and Matthew Nagorn. His wife is from Thailand and, although born in China, his boys have lived most of their lives in Thailand. Not surprisingly, his boys have already traveled to a number of countries, experienced many different cultures, and are multilingual. It remains to be seen if any will continue the family legacy in the law.

So why take on pro bono work when Mr. Greif’s life is already so full? In his own words, “I see IP itself as a positive contributor to society. It assists countries to enhance the well-being of their people. I saw this first-hand when I was based in Eastern Europe in the 1990s and worked in over forty countries and saw them transition to much more economically prosperous countries. I also saw the positive contributions IP makes in many countries in the Asia Pacific that were developing in the 1990s/2000s and beyond such as China, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, Bangladesh, and India.” He believes that doing IP pro bono work, in particular, provides many people, companies, and non-profits with the ability to further their businesses and charitable entities, where otherwise they would be unable to do so, and allows positive developments in society and for the people of the countries where the pro bono IP services are provided.

Reference Link: https://www.inta.org/resources/pro-bono-clearinghouse/#layout-2-section-13