Intellectual Property

IP Disputes

Being caught up in an IP dispute, either because a third party is infringing your rights, or you are potentially infringing a third party right, is often very concerning. Disputes can be expensive, uncertain and take up a significant amount of management time.

At Foot Anstey, our IP team understands these concerns and has various strategies in place to assist clients with the management and resolution of disputes. The team has an unrivalled record of resolving disputes at all levels and helping clients achieve their underlining objectives in a cost effective way.

If you have received a cease and desist letter from a third party or need to send such a letter, please do get in touch and our experienced IP dispute resolution team can advise you and assist with its resolution.

Why choose Foot Anstey?

Our team is one of the most experienced teams in the UK, with some of our lawyers being recognised as leaders in the field. We regularly assist clients with disputes relating to patents, trade marks, copyright, designs, confidential information, and licensing and franchising agreements in the UK and overseas by working closely with our carefully selected partner firms. Such clients include start ups, small to medium sized enterprises, and large national and international clients. We work with clients across all sectors including, but not limited to, retail and consumer, financial services and energy. We routinely act for both claimants and defendants, providing us with a unique insight into both angles, allowing us to provide practical advice to our clients and help them resolve conflicts.

Whilst most disputes are resolved before formal proceedings are commenced, the team has significant experience litigating disputes in the various IP specialised courts in the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court and High Court, with some team members having represented clients in the Court of Appeal and the Court of Justice of the EU.

The team's experience includes:

  1. Advising clients on the strength of legal claims being made by them or against them
  2. Resolving disputes in relation to all IP rights
  3. Litigating claims in the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court and High Court
  4. Representing clients in the Court of Appeal and the Court of Justice of the EU
  5. Obtaining interim injunctions, search orders and other preliminary relief
  6. Drafting and sending cease and desist letters for businesses wishing to enforce their rights
  7. Representing clients in IP ownership disputes
  8. Brand enforcement campaigns for large international clients including anti-counterfeiting work
  9. Copyright clearance work
  10. Defending claims brought by third parties
  11. Taking part in other forms of dispute resolution, such as mediation
  12. Negotiating and drafting settlement and co-existence agreements

Guides

Our people

Our team, led by renowned IP specialist Paul Cox, will understand what you are trying to achieve and then will advise on the best and most cost effective solutions to enable you to maximize the value and achieve your commercial objectives. Paul has also been admitted into the Legal 500 Hall of Fame for Intellectual Property (South East).

Meet our teams

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Intellectual property rights are essential to enabling a business to achieve its ambition, and are hugely valuable commercial assets.  When understood and protected effectively, they can provide competitive advantage by allowing you to prevent your competitors from standing on your ground and will enable you to maximize your product or service’s value or even generate further revenue through licensing models or the like.

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By having a strong and distinctive trade mark, consumers and businesses can easily make repeat purchases in confidence that the additional products and/or services originate from the same undertaking.

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For businesses that design and manufacture products either for themselves or others, they should seriously consider obtaining registered design protection for their products.

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At Foot Anstey, our IP team can assist clients with licensing rights and agreements.

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Anti-counterfeiting

Foot Anstey takes a global and holistic approach to anti-counterfeiting using all the tools available to tackle the problem in the most efficient way.

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Dispute resolution

Disputes are an inevitable part of any business, introducing unwanted risk and high stress. Ranging from day to day commercial disagreements through to business critical claims, each dispute will require its own unique response. And that is where we can help.

More about Dispute Resolution

Related services

Intellectual Property

Intellectual property rights are essential to enabling a business to achieve its ambition, and are hugely valuable commercial assets.  When understood and protected effectively, they can provide competitive advantage by allowing you to prevent your competitors from standing on your ground and will enable you to maximize your product or service’s value or even generate further revenue through licensing models or the like.

More about Intellectual Property

Trade marks

By having a strong and distinctive trade mark, consumers and businesses can easily make repeat purchases in confidence that the additional products and/or services originate from the same undertaking.

More about trade marks

Patents

If you have developed a new invention that improves the way of doing something and it brings a real benefit, you may have something to patent.

More about Patents

Designs

For businesses that design and manufacture products either for themselves or others, they should seriously consider obtaining registered design protection for their products.

More about Designs

IP Agreements

At Foot Anstey, our IP team can assist clients with licensing rights and agreements.

More about IP Agreements

Franchising

Franchising is a powerful tool for businesses with ambitions to grow. A successful franchising model can unlock the hidden value in a franchisor’s brand and know how developed over many years and pair it with a franchisee’s enthusiasm and knowledge of a certain market or audience.

More about franchising

Anti-counterfeiting

Foot Anstey takes a global and holistic approach to anti-counterfeiting using all the tools available to tackle the problem in the most efficient way.

More about Anti-counterfeiting

Dispute resolution

Disputes are an inevitable part of any business, introducing unwanted risk and high stress. Ranging from day to day commercial disagreements through to business critical claims, each dispute will require its own unique response. And that is where we can help.

More about Dispute Resolution

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