Our services
Intellectual Property is in principle quite straight forward, and yet IP issues can get hugely complex. Seeking professional help at an early stage could turn out to be a very wise move and be an important investment in the future of your business. We aim to give you clear, understandable and commercially sensible advice and help you obtain what you need for your business right when you need it. And we do this in a friendly but professional manner and at a very reasonable cost. Call us for a free initial consultation.
A. Trade Marks
We can advise you on how best to protect your brands and other valuable IP assets in the UK, Europe and beyond. We then go about helping you obtain and maintain this protection.
Why bother investing resources in a registered trade mark? Legal protection by means of registration is the best, quickest and most cost-effective way of protecting the unique way you have of identifying your products or services in the market place. You can use your rights to stop others using anything similar which might cause confusion or make you lose potential customers.
We recommend that when you choose a name for your brand you have a clearance search done to make sure you are free to use it, that is that you are not infringing someone else’s rights. We would then recommend that you register it.
Our core trade mark services include:
- Clearance searches for trade marks - seeing if and advising on whether a proposed trade mark is available for use or registration;
- Filing and prosecution of UK and European trade mark applications;
- Facilitation of world-wide trade mark registration;
- Advising on world-wide trade mark filing strategy;
- Trade Mark Portfolio maintenance and management;
- Advising on keeping records of use for the purpose of challenges against or objections from third parties;
- Advising on infringement issues;
- Monitoring third party competitor applications;
- Objecting to competitor marks if too close;
- Advising on proper maintenance and use of your trade mark(s);
- Renewal of trade mark registrations;
- Recording changes in proprietorship (assignments and changes of name/address).
For more on trade marks,
click here.
Back to top of page.
B. Designs
Innovative designers have an important potential means of protecting and exploiting their creativity in the form of registered designs and unregistered design rights. We will advise you on these rights in relation to your designs.
- Undertake searches in design registers to let you know who has registered what before you;
- File and prosecute your application for a registered design at the UK Intellectual Property Office;
- File and prosecute your application for a registered EU design at the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (OHIM) in Alicante, Spain.
Read more about designs
here.
Back to top of page.
C. Copyright
Copyright is something that subsists in original creations such as literary, dramatic, musical or artistic works, and is an IP right that drives many businesses, such as the music, games, software, publishing and film industries.
- We can advise on what copyright you might have and how to protect, manage and exploit it;
- We can explain how the copyright system works in the UK and elsewhere, and what to do when you think someone has been copying your work without authorisation, or if you have been accused of copying without authorisation.
Read more about copyright
here.
Back to top of page.
D. Patents
Patents protect innovative ideas if they fulfil certain criteria, namely they are new, are technically inventive and are capable of industrial application. Patents are crucial to the development of technology and to the economy. Once a patent is granted, in most countries an annual tax is paid to the government to keep it in force until it expires, usually after 20 years from filing.
- We advise on general requirements for patentability;
- We assist with patent portfolio management;
- We help you with patent commercial exploitation and licensing;
- We do worldwide patent renewals at rates generally unavailable to SMEs.
More on patents
here.
Back to top of page.
E. Patent Renewals Service
Why pay more for your annual patent maintenance fees? Patent renewals can be a huge financial burden on small companies. We provide a service that minimises renewal costs, involving a mixture of renewing directly with national patent offices and using trusted and highly-competitively priced local agents.
Go to
patents renewal section.
Back to top of page.
F. Domain name registration and dispute resolution
We provide advice on domain name registration and strategies for cyberspace name protection. In the event of conflicts we can help in domain name dispute resolution.
Back to top of page.
G. Licensing
We can advise on and help you produce bespoke licence agreements to allow you to get the most from your IP.
Back to top of page.
H. IP audits
We can audit your Intellectual Property assets, actual or potential, and advise on how to best move forward with them and how best to protect them. We will advise on the most appropriate strategy, always keeping in mind your budget constraints and your own commercial goals and targets.
Back to top of page.
I. Training and educational services
We provide highly qualified speakers to give presentations, lectures, seminars and workshops to companies and to organisations on all aspects of intellectual property and intellectual asset management. Please contact us for more details.
Back to top of page.