Giedrė Rimkūnaitė-Manke

Practice Areas

Giedrė Rimkūnaitė-Manke is an intellectual property, digital business and technology lawyer with more than 20 years of experience in the legal profession, including over a decade focused on intellectual property, IT law and the legal aspects of e-commerce. Her practice is particularly recognised for her work at the intersection of intellectual property, digital platforms, software development, creative industries and innovation-driven entrepreneurship.

Giedrė’s background in M&A and complex contract negotiations adds a distinct transactional dimension to her intellectual property practice. She is frequently engaged in matters where IP intersects with financing, investment rounds, commercial agreements and growth-stage structuring, including high-value licensing transactions. She also advises startups on attracting investment, including the structuring and negotiation of investment agreements, ensuring that intellectual property assets are properly protected and aligned with investor expectations. Clients benefit from her ability to seamlessly integrate intellectual property matters into broader commercial deals, often involving sophisticated international counterparties such as broadcasters, specialised financing institutions, product developers and manufacturers.

Giedrė is known for her pragmatic, business-oriented approach to legal advice. Her work is guided by the principle that intellectual property protection should support innovation, enable commercial growth and create a stable legal framework for business development.

● Intellectual Property Strategy and Protection ●

Giedrė advises clients on the full spectrum of intellectual property matters, including copyrights, trademarks, designs, trade secrets, know-how and unfair competition. Her work frequently begins with a strategic assessment of the client’s business model and innovation pipeline in order to determine the most effective approach to protecting intangible assets.

She assists companies in identifying protectable IP assets and developing strategies for their registration, licensing, commercialisation and enforcement. Her advice often includes trademark strategy and portfolio management, copyright ownership structures, protection of software and digital content, protection of confidential information and trade secrets, and the structuring of IP rights within collaborative projects.

In addition to advising on the protection of intellectual property, she frequently drafts and negotiates a wide range of IP-related agreements.

Where necessary, Giedrė represents clients in out of court disputes involving trademarks, domain names, copyrights and other intellectual property rights. Her experience includes both preventive advisory work and representation in contentious matters where the commercial value of IP assets is at stake.

● Digital Platforms, Software and Technology Businesses ●

A core focus of Giedrė’s practice lies in advising businesses operating in the digital economy. Her clients include software developers, SaaS providers, mobile application developers, online platforms, data-driven businesses and companies building digital products or services.

She assists these clients in structuring the legal foundations of their technology businesses, including the ownership and licensing of software, the protection of proprietary algorithms and data assets, and the drafting of platform terms and conditions, user agreements and technology licensing arrangements.

Because digital platforms often combine multiple regulatory and contractual layers, her work typically integrates intellectual property protection with data protection, consumer protection, competition law and commercial contract considerations. Clients particularly value Giedrė’s ability to translate complex legal frameworks into practical and scalable contractual structures suitable for rapidly growing digital businesses.

● E-Commerce and Online Business ●

Another important pillar of Giedrė’s practice is advising e-commerce companies and online marketplaces operating in both B2C and B2B environments. She assists businesses selling physical and digital products through their own online stores as well as through international marketplaces.

Her work in this field includes drafting and reviewing e-commerce terms and conditions, return policies, digital product licensing terms, marketplace agreements and consumer-facing documentation. She advises on consumer protection compliance, digital services regulation, and the structuring of contractual relationships with payment providers, logistics partners and marketplace operators.

In addition to bespoke legal advisory work, Giedrė is the founder of Dokas, a LegalTech platform that enables businesses to generate tailored legal documents for e-commerce and digital operations. Through Dokas, she actively promotes accessible legal infrastructure for startups and small businesses and contributes to raising awareness about intellectual property protection in the digital economy.

● Creative Industries and Content Businesses ●

Over the past several years, Giedrė has been increasingly active in the creative industries, where intellectual property plays a central role in business operations. Her clients include musicians, producers, record labels, audiovisual creators, publishers, influencers and media monitoring companies.

She regularly advises on copyright licensing, neighbouring rights, music rights management, content production agreements and distribution arrangements for audiovisual and digital media content. Her work also includes advising on co-branding arrangements and content collaborations between creators and commercial brands.

In the music and audiovisual sectors she assists clients with licensing negotiations, rights transfers and contractual frameworks governing the creation, production and distribution of creative works. She has also advised media monitoring companies and digital content platforms on the lawful use of press publications and copyrighted material in the context of the European Union’s Digital Single Market framework.

Because creative businesses increasingly operate in digital environments, her advice often combines copyright law with digital platform regulation, licensing models for online distribution, and data-driven monetisation of content.

● Artificial Intelligence, Data and Emerging Technologies ●

Giedrė is increasingly consulted on the legal implications of artificial intelligence and data-driven technologies, particularly where intellectual property and data rights intersect.

Her work includes advising companies on the legal use of data for AI training, assessing intellectual property risks in generative AI systems, and structuring contractual frameworks for the development and commercialisation of AI-enabled products.

She also advises on regulatory developments affecting digital innovation, including the EU Digital Single Market Directive and emerging European legislation relevant to digital platforms, data governance and artificial intelligence. Her clients frequently seek guidance on how new regulatory frameworks affect licensing practices, rights of authors and publishers, and the use of digital content in technology products.

In parallel with her legal practice, she actively explores the application of artificial intelligence in business and legal contexts and has completed professional training in AI for Business Analytics. This background allows her to engage with technology-driven clients not only from a legal perspective but also from a broader strategic and technological standpoint.

● Transactions, Start-Ups and Investment ●

Giedrė’s earlier career in corporate law, mergers and acquisitions and commercial contracts adds a strong transactional dimension to her intellectual property practice. She is often involved in matters where IP assets play a key role in investment transactions, financing structures or corporate restructurings.

She advises founders, startups and growth-stage companies on structuring IP ownership within corporate groups, preparing companies for fundraising rounds and ensuring that intellectual property rights are properly documented during investment processes.

Her work frequently includes drafting and negotiating founders’ agreements, shareholders’ agreements, employee stock option (ESO) schemes and investment agreements where intellectual property assets represent a significant part of the company’s value. She also assists in due diligence processes, assessing intellectual property portfolios and contractual arrangements in the context of mergers, acquisitions and venture capital transactions.

● Regulatory and Policy Engagement ●

Beyond client work, Giedrė plays an active role in the development of intellectual property law and policy in Lithuania. She serves as the Chair of the Intellectual Property Committee of the Lithuanian Bar Association, where she contributes to discussions on legislative initiatives and professional standards in the field of IP law.

She is also one of a limited number of lawyers in Lithuania authorised to provide the EUIPO IP Scan Enforcement service, an initiative designed to help small and medium-sized enterprises identify and enforce their intellectual property rights.

Through both her professional work and educational initiatives, Giedrė actively promotes greater awareness of intellectual property in the digital economy and encourages businesses to treat IP not only as a legal necessity but also as a strategic business asset.

Career

Giedrė runs her own independent legal practice, advising clients on intellectual property, technology and digital economy matters with a highly specialised, flexible and business-oriented approach. Prior to that, she spent more than 20 years at Glimstedt, one of Lithuania’s most experienced and highly regarded business law firms, where she developed a strong foundation in IP, digital business and commercial law, as well as significant experience in corporate and M&A transactions.

Professional Memberships

Giedrė is an active member of the legal community, with a strong focus on intellectual property and technology law. She has been a member of the Intellectual Property Law Committee of the Lithuanian Bar Association since 2020 and has served as its Chair since 2022, contributing to policy discussions and developments in the field of IP law. She is also a long-standing member of the ITechLaw International Technology Law Association, with over 15 years of involvement in the global technology law community.

Education