• Wills, Trusts & Inheritance Tax Planning
• Administration of Estates
• Court of Protection
• Powers of Attorney
• Residence & Domicile
• Offshore Structures & Trusts
• Trust & Probate Disputes
• Family & Matrimonial
• Residential Property
• Employment Issues
• Intellectual Property
• Brand Protection
• Art & Cultural Property
• Freedom of Expression & Human Rights
• Libel, Defamation & Reputation
• Charities
• Business Crime
• Criminal
• Professional Discipline
• Litigation
• Directors & Families in Business

Our IP Media team advise on all aspects of exploiting, acquiring, protecting and enforcing IP rights. The team also provides specialist IP support on corporate transactions. Clients include businesses and individuals such as designers, artists and engineers. We work across a variety of sectors but are particularly well known for our work within fashion, retail and leisure and media and entertainment sectors.

Our services include:

• brand protection
• licensing and franchising
• IP enforcement and litigation
• anti-counterfeiting and piracy
• copyright
• designs, trade marks and passing off
• advertising, marketing and sales promotion issues

Recent experience advising:

• a leading PR agency on a worldwide advertising campaign for Aviva PLC where we advised on image rights and drafted agreements which allowed for the wrapping of iconic public buildings as part of the campaign and the projection of images on those buildings
• a celebrity client on their role in an upcoming Pixar animated film and the associated merchandising
• Steam Motion & Sound on the production of documentaries, particularly on defamation and libel issues regarding the documentaries’ content and also copyright
• on High Court proceedings for a major jewellery designer and retailer in a dispute over the infringement of trade mark and passing off by the retailer’s former UK distributor
• Simon Carter Ltd on contentious and non-contentious matters, including the negotiation of licences with Marks and Spencer and overseas companies, and the successful defence of a passing off claim by Ben Sherman
• Royal Bank of Canada on intellectual property and advising the client on taking security over intellectual property rights