The world's first purpose-built wireless factory opened in Chelmsford, and the city has been making and protecting technology ever since. The imaging sensors and radio-frequency devices still manufactured here descend from the Marconi works, and the companies behind them live on patents, know-how and the confidentiality agreements that keep both inside the building. Intellectual property solicitors in Chelmsford grew up around that industry and now serve a far wider range of clients.
Most of them are small. A brewery in the villages choosing a name that will survive a trade mark search, a software consultancy in the city centre licensing its code to a council, a food producer whose packaging has been copied by a supermarket own-brand, a photographer whose images have turned up on a letting agent's website: these are the everyday cases. Anglia Ruskin's design and media graduates ask who owns work created for a client, and the insurers and professional firms based in Chelmsford need their data, brands and documents protected when staff move on.
The solicitor's work is partly registration and partly enforcement. Trade marks and designs are registered at the UK Intellectual Property Office; copyright arises automatically but must be proved. Licences, assignments and non-disclosure agreements let rights be shared or sold cleanly. When something is copied, a letter before action settles most disputes, and the rest can be fought in London at the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court, built for smaller claims with capped costs and a damages ceiling of £500,000. For patents the solicitor usually works in tandem with a patent attorney.
A registration or a standard agreement is normally quoted as a fixed price; an infringement dispute is billed by the hour against a staged estimate.
Intellectual property solicitors within reach of Chelmsford are listed below, verified firms first. For background see what intellectual property law covers, the general IP solicitors guide and the business law solicitors in Chelmsford page; the capital's specialists are on the intellectual property solicitors in London page.
