We’ll help you to manage, protect and make the best of your intellectual property. We have expertise across all fields, whether it’s to assist or support a business transaction or to protect your interests by engaging with our litigation and dispute resolution team, we’ll ensure that you’re always well protected. We are up to speed with all modern forms of communication which has developed rapidly over the last few years, and ensure that you get the robust advice you need so that your intellectual property isn’t taken advantage of.

Copyright

Even though Copyright protection subsists automatically in the UK to protect your creative endeavours, it is important you know where you are protected, and what you can do to exploit it. We can ensure you have advice and support when you need it most, and to help you get the most from your rights when things are going well.

We understand that businesses and entrepreneurs create IP assets attracting copyright every day. Our team has the expertise to work with you and ensure you are making the most of these valuable assets, to maximise their value. Whether you need advice on whether your asset benefits from protection or who is the owner, or need help to protect against infringement, we can assist.

Trademark

We understand that a company’s brand is its most important asset, acting as a badge of trade origin of goods or services from a particular supplier. The brand itself is an inherently useful and commercially exploitable piece of property. You have spent a lot of time and money in building your brand, it is important that you protect it. That’s why you need our help to advise, support and defend your brand. Whether you need advice on registrability, help with strategy of protection or someone to fight your corner, we have the expertise to manage your brand.

There are many benefits of registering a Trademark, especially if you are keen to protect your investment. At BTMK, we can help to protect and exploit this valuable asset. If you are forced to litigate, we can also steer you through the dispute process with straightforward, commercially practical advice.

If you want to make the most of your brand financially, we have the experts to help with drafting the licences and assignments necessary to do so.

Passing off

Here at BTMK, we pride ourselves in Brand Management. We understand that not all companies will protect their IP rights by registration. Even if you haven’t registered your brand, that doesn’t mean you are without cause of action if the worst happens and another attempts to steal your hard earned identity. Passing Off allows you to stop an infringer in their tracks and offers protection to your brand, even if you haven’t registered it.

Passing Off is about stopping the infringer from selling their goods or services by making unfair use of your hard earned reputation. We recognise the importance of acting quickly in these circumstances and our dispute resolution experts can guide you through the process with clear, cost effective advice, without the jargon. We have a wealth of experience with alternative dispute resolution procedures, but should it come to it, we also have the expertise to steer you through the UK High Court or the UK Intellectual Property Enterprise Court.

Confidential Information

The law will uphold a person’s obligation to keep a secret in certain circumstances. We know from experience that this can either be contractually agreed, or imparted by the law to give protection in its own right. We understand that businesses’ trade secrets are its blood stream, and that’s why it is important to know you have the best support behind you at your time of need. Whether you require help drafting non disclosure agreements to protect your valuable assets from the offset, or the secret has been breached and you need help with injunctive relief, we have the expertise.

We understand that confidential information touches all sorts of work, not just in the strict sense of protecting your IP assets. Our team of litigators have vast experience and are adept at working quickly to obtain an injunction to protect our client’s confidential information. This means we can advise about potential dispute triggers at all stages, such as within employment contracts, as well as assisting in any contentious matters, large or small.

Design Rights

The UK offers protection for the creative efforts of way things look, the shape and appearance of manufactured goods via both registered and unregistered design rights. A basic form or unregistered design right can exist automatically to protect designers, however, an arguably stronger form of protection exists for designers to register and protect their designs. We know from experience that successful shapes and appearances of designs cost money and time to design, and are worth a great deal to their owner. The value of the design of manufactured goods is often intrinsically linked to the success of the product, for example: the coca cola bottle.
A registered design protects the appearance of a product and can be used to prevent competitors from marketing products which produce the same overall impression on an informed user. Used properly, registered design rights can therefore be a very effective method of protecting your creative assets. However, we know that protection of a registered design is limited and so appreciate the limitations of registration. We at BTMK can advise you on the most suitable method of protection, and help you to successfully manage your brand.

Unregistered design rights protect the shape or configuration of a product and can be used to prevent competitors from reproducing products of that design for commercial purposes. We have the expertise to advise you upon applicability of this protection and further, can guide you through the litigation process if your unregistered design rights have been infringed.

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Key Contacts

Ian Powell

Corporate & Commercial, Commercial Property | BTMK Solicitors

Lee Emptage

Corporate & Commercial / Commercial Property | BTMK Todmans

Adam Fleming

Litigation & Dispute Resolution | BTMK Todmans

Fiona McAnaw

Litigation & Dispute Resolution , Employment | BTMK Solicitors

Gethan Burgess

Corporate & Commercial, Commercial Property | BTMK Todmans

Gabriella Shepherd

Litigation & Dispute Resolution | BTMK Todmans

Holly Stevens

Corporate & Commercial / Commercial Property | BTMK Todmans

Sonia Elmer-Soman

Corporate & Commercial / Commercial Property | BTMK Todmans

Umut Tarhan

Corporate & Commercial / Commercial Property | BTMK Todmans

Leigh Scott

Corporate & Commercial | BTMK Todmans

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