Intellectual property disputes

Intellectual property disputes

Intellectual property runs like a vein through everything a business does and a clear strategy for the protection of this significant asset is crucial to success. When issues emerge, be they allegations that your business is infringing another company’s intellectual property rights or a competitor is infringing your rights, you must take speedy and decisive action. You need advisers who can provide you with pragmatic, business-focused strategic advice which will support you in maintaining the competitive advantage of these critical assets to ensure that you stay ahead of the game.

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Make an enquiry Defending & protecting your key asset

Our Intellectual property dispute team advises businesses across a wide variety of industries on resolving disputes related to all intellectual property rights, including copyright, trade marks, design rights, patents, database rights and anti-counterfeiting and customs measures. We work with you closely in building a clear understanding of the intricacies of your business and the industry you operate in. We can then provide you with tailored, practical, and innovative solutions which defend or enforce your rights and align with your wider commercial strategy. We pride ourselves on developing lasting working relationships with our clients, often protecting their intellectual property rights through the entire lifecycle of the business.

Our team has the expertise to conduct intellectual property rights disputes through the courts in the UK and EU. We have a distinguished track record of successfully managing disputes in both IPEC (Intellectual Property Enterprise Court) and the High Court. We can also assist with alternative dispute resolution including mediation, expert determination, or arbitration.  We are at all times focussed on achieving a solution that will enable you to continue with your business as quickly and on the best achievable terms possible.

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Services

We support our clients with individually tailored legal advice, in areas such as:

Click an area of focus above for more information.

Make an enquiry Copyright disputes

Copyright protection allows you to control the use that others can make of the work. This means that using the work without the owner’s permission can amount to copyright infringement, which is a civil offence.

Find out more

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Make an enquiry Patent disputes

A registered patent comes with a set of claims. These specify the breadth of the patented invention. If a competitor’s product or process incorporates all of the elements of just one of the claims, that is enough to infringe that patent.

Find out more

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Make an enquiry Trademark disputes

If someone uses your trademark without permission, or if you think someone is using or trying to use a trade mark similar to yours, you may have a claim for trademark infringement.

Find out more

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Make an enquiry Design rights disputes

We specialise in filing and protecting design rights, as well as taking swift action to resolve disputes.

Find out more

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Make an enquiry Brand Protection

A brand is a valuable asset to any business and always worth protecting. Our expert team can help ensure that your company’s name, logo, trademarks and other brand assets are ring-fenced, registered, protected and not infringed upon by another business.

Our brand protection services

We help businesses of all sizes and maturity identify the distinguishing characteristics of their company and take steps to strengthen, protect and enforce them. Our services include:

  • Brand audits – a thorough examination of your company’s IP assets, including those you own, use or licence, to assess risk while helping business leaders make informed brand strategy decisions.
  • Brand creation – ensuring that the names, logos, slogans and mascots you are creating are protectable and registrable.
  • IP rights clearance – our specialist business IP lawyers will make the appropriate searches to uncover any third-party rights that may restrict the use of your chosen brand marks either now or in the future.
  • Brand protections – we look at your business as a whole to identify which potential rights and trade marks you should register to stop your brand from being used by others without your permission.
  • Brand ownership structures – sometimes, it is helpful to ring-fence brand assets and place ownership in a different company, to ensure you retain control of the brand if the trading company gets into financial difficulty. We provide guidance on this.
  • Enforcement – our dedicated intellectual property litigators can help enforce your IP rights in a variety of ways and where necessary through the courts, both inside and outside of the UK.

Why work with Collyer Bristow?

We have a strong reputation in the field of intellectual property and an even stronger reputation for creative problem solving, dealing with brand protection issues efficiently before they snowball into bigger problems. We work hard to get under the bonnet of your business. This tells us what’s important to your company, so we can develop strategies that protect you from copycat competitors.

Make an enquiryClose more information
 
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    Intellectual property disputes key contacts

    Latest content and downloads

    Check out our latest content and downloads View all our downloads

    Uncover areas of concern in one short test

    Your IP Rights Health Check

    Are you certain your business’ IP rights are protected?

    The Collyer Bristow IPR health check is a short test designed to focus on the way you currently manage your IPR and highlight potential risks and opportunities. Get an immediate diagnosis on the health your businesses IP rights.

    Recent experience

    • We defended and counterclaimed in a claim of breach of implied contract (a trade mark licence) and trade mark infringement regarding fashion clothing.  The claim was issued in the High Court but we succeeded in having the case transferred to the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court (IPEC).  

      INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY DISPUTES

      Fashion trade mark dispute

      Patrick WheelerPartner - Head of IP & Data Protection

      Case study

      We defended and counterclaimed in a claim of breach of implied contract (a trade mark licence) and trade mark infringement regarding fashion clothing.  The claim was issued in the High Court but we succeeded in having the case transferred to the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court (IPEC).  

      Read more

    • We successfully defended our clients in the High Court against allegations of infringement, misuse of confidential information and breach of employee’s duty of fidelity in an action brought by their former employer concerning the manufacture of surgical support devices. The successful outcome on all substantial claims also included an award of indemnity costs in our clients’ favour.

      INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY DISPUTES & MANUFACTURING

      High Court defence proceedings

      Tim BamfordPartner

      Case study

      We successfully defended our clients in the High Court against allegations of infringement, misuse of confidential information and breach of employee’s duty of fidelity in an action brought by their former employer concerning the manufacture of surgical support devices. The successful outcome on all substantial claims also included an award of indemnity costs in our clients’ favour.

      Read more

    • We successfully acted for our client, a designer watch manufacturer, in a ten year multi-jurisdictional trade mark infringement dispute against by a former licensee.  

      INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY DISPUTES & MANUFACTURING

      Watch trade mark dispute

      Patrick WheelerPartner - Head of IP & Data Protection

      Case study

      We successfully acted for our client, a designer watch manufacturer, in a ten year multi-jurisdictional trade mark infringement dispute against by a former licensee.  

      Read more

    • We acted for a pioneering Swiss-based medical laboratory, in High Court patent infringement and validity proceedings. This complex case considered the infringement of a patent for an innovative medical product under the newly developed doctrine of equivalents as recently formulated by the Supreme Court.  

      INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY DISPUTES & MANUFACTURING

      Medical patent infringement

      Tim BamfordPartner

      Case study

      We acted for a pioneering Swiss-based medical laboratory, in High Court patent infringement and validity proceedings. This complex case considered the infringement of a patent for an innovative medical product under the newly developed doctrine of equivalents as recently formulated by the Supreme Court.  

      Read more

    Intellectual property disputes latest updates PREV NEXT

    Related content

    Intellectual property disputes

    Intellectual property disputes

    Intellectual property disputes

    Intellectual property runs like a vein through everything a business does and a clear strategy for the protection of this significant asset is crucial to success. When issues emerge, be they allegations that your business is infringing another company’s intellectual property rights or a competitor is infringing your rights, you must take speedy and decisive action. You need advisers who can provide you with pragmatic, business-focused strategic advice which will support you in maintaining the competitive advantage of these critical assets to ensure that you stay ahead of the game.

    Read more

    Our Intellectual property dispute team advises businesses across a wide variety of industries on resolving disputes related to all intellectual property rights, including copyright, trade marks, design rights, patents, database rights and anti-counterfeiting and customs measures. We work with you closely in building a clear understanding of the intricacies of your business and the industry you operate in. We can then provide you with tailored, practical, and innovative solutions which defend or enforce your rights and align with your wider commercial strategy. We pride ourselves on developing lasting working relationships with our clients, often protecting their intellectual property rights through the entire lifecycle of the business.

    Our team has the expertise to conduct intellectual property rights disputes through the courts in the UK and EU. We have a distinguished track record of successfully managing disputes in both IPEC (Intellectual Property Enterprise Court) and the High Court. We can also assist with alternative dispute resolution including mediation, expert determination, or arbitration.  We are at all times focussed on achieving a solution that will enable you to continue with your business as quickly and on the best achievable terms possible.

    Make an enquiry

    Key Contacts

    Want to connect? Select someone below to view their profile.

    View the team

    We support our clients with individually tailored legal advice, in areas such as:

    Copyright disputes

    Copyright protection allows you to control the use that others can make of the work. This means that using the work without the owner’s permission can amount to copyright infringement, which is a civil offence.

    Find out more

    Patent disputes

    A registered patent comes with a set of claims. These specify the breadth of the patented invention. If a competitor’s product or process incorporates all of the elements of just one of the claims, that is enough to infringe that patent.

    Find out more

    Trademark disputes

    If someone uses your trademark without permission, or if you think someone is using or trying to use a trade mark similar to yours, you may have a claim for trademark infringement.

    Find out more

    Design rights disputes

    We specialise in filing and protecting design rights, as well as taking swift action to resolve disputes.

    Find out more

    Brand Protection

    A brand is a valuable asset to any business and always worth protecting. Our expert team can help ensure that your company’s name, logo, trademarks and other brand assets are ring-fenced, registered, protected and not infringed upon by another business.

    Our brand protection services

    We help businesses of all sizes and maturity identify the distinguishing characteristics of their company and take steps to strengthen, protect and enforce them. Our services include:

    • Brand audits – a thorough examination of your company’s IP assets, including those you own, use or licence, to assess risk while helping business leaders make informed brand strategy decisions.
    • Brand creation – ensuring that the names, logos, slogans and mascots you are creating are protectable and registrable.
    • IP rights clearance – our specialist business IP lawyers will make the appropriate searches to uncover any third-party rights that may restrict the use of your chosen brand marks either now or in the future.
    • Brand protections – we look at your business as a whole to identify which potential rights and trade marks you should register to stop your brand from being used by others without your permission.
    • Brand ownership structures – sometimes, it is helpful to ring-fence brand assets and place ownership in a different company, to ensure you retain control of the brand if the trading company gets into financial difficulty. We provide guidance on this.
    • Enforcement – our dedicated intellectual property litigators can help enforce your IP rights in a variety of ways and where necessary through the courts, both inside and outside of the UK.

    Why work with Collyer Bristow?

    We have a strong reputation in the field of intellectual property and an even stronger reputation for creative problem solving, dealing with brand protection issues efficiently before they snowball into bigger problems. We work hard to get under the bonnet of your business. This tells us what’s important to your company, so we can develop strategies that protect you from copycat competitors.

    Make an enquiry

    Recent experience

    • Fashion show

      Case study

      Fashion trade mark dispute

      We defended and counterclaimed in a claim of breach of implied contract (a trade mark licence) and trade mark infringement regarding fashion clothing.  The claim was issued in the High Court but we succeeded in having the case transferred to the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court (IPEC).  

    • Surgery

      Case study

      High Court defence proceedings

      We successfully defended our clients in the High Court against allegations of infringement, misuse of confidential information and breach of employee’s duty of fidelity in an action brought by their former employer concerning the manufacture of surgical support devices. The successful outcome on all substantial claims also included an award of indemnity costs in our clients’ favour.

    • trade mark dispute

      Case study

      Watch trade mark dispute

      We successfully acted for our client, a designer watch manufacturer, in a ten year multi-jurisdictional trade mark infringement dispute against by a former licensee.  

    • medical lab

      Case study

      Medical patent infringement

      We acted for a pioneering Swiss-based medical laboratory, in High Court patent infringement and validity proceedings. This complex case considered the infringement of a patent for an innovative medical product under the newly developed doctrine of equivalents as recently formulated by the Supreme Court.  

    Need some more information? Make an enquiry below.

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