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John Green holds an enviable in-house role for IP enforcement enthusiasts. As TikTok’ s Global IP Counsel for Platform Governance, Enforcement, and Protection, he guides one of the world’ s most closely watched platforms, safeguarding IP for 1.5 billion monthly active users while fueling growth.“ I see the legal department as the guardian of the company’ s ethics,” John shares.“ You need to partner with the business to be effective, but you still have to stay true to that legal role.”
The fire burns
If the house where John lived with his parents had not burned down when he was 12, his life might have gone in a completely different direction. Before the future IP attorney had entered his teens, he was confronted with how important a lawyer’ s work can be.
One night, John awoke to smoke, filling his family’ s home. His father rushed everyone outside, and the family stood in the street watching the house burn to the ground. In the months that followed, they found themselves in the middle of litigation involving the insurance company, the fire department, and the home builders over construction defects.
The family’ s attorney was the first lawyer John ever met. As an Ivy League law graduate, he made a lasting impression and showed John career paths he hadn’ t imagined.“ I didn’ t know what discovery or a deposition was, I didn’ t know anything about the legal profession,” John recalls.“ Watching him represent us opened my eyes to new possibilities.”
Law didn’ t seem like the obvious choice for a kid from a construction family who grew up working on job sites. John’ s mother encouraged him toward medicine, but chemistry and calculus soon steered him away. A pivotal conversation with his father and grandfather shifted his view of law.“ They told me,‘ If you know the law, you don’ t have to rely on someone else to tell you what it is. You can answer the questions yourself,” John explains.
That idea was stuck. John applied to law school not because he intended to practice law, but because he wanted to understand it. His real plan at the time was to become a sports agent.
From sports to the small screen
John’ s passion for sports runs deep. He played several sports in high school and took up rugby in college, so becoming a sports agent felt like a natural way to stay connected to athletics. After law school, he joined a leading sports agency and experienced both the glamorous and gritty sides of the business.“ If you have a client athlete who approaches their career as a professional, you don’ t have to tell them to go to practice or hit the gym,” John notes.“ But many young athletes haven’ t yet learned how to be professionals, and I realized pretty quickly that the challenge would be tough to overcome in light of my own lack of experience at the time.”
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