A shop that has traded on the Rows under the same name for twenty years discovers that a chain has registered that name as a trade mark and wants it to stop. It is a common way for a Chester business to meet intellectual property law, and the answer is rarely simple: unregistered goodwill gives some protection, but a registration would have been cheaper than the argument.
Chester's intellectual property work is smaller than Liverpool's or Manchester's but surprisingly varied. Independent retailers, cafés and food producers across Cheshire need trade marks for names and logos; the zoo, the racecourse and the city's visitor businesses license their brands and images; the university produces spin-outs and graduates with software and designs to protect; engineering suppliers to the aircraft factory at Broughton and the car plant at Ellesmere Port handle drawings, confidentiality and patent licences; and the financial services employers on Chester Business Park still send contract and infringement questions to local solicitors. Cross-border trade is no complication: intellectual property is not devolved, the UK Intellectual Property Office is itself in Wales, and a registration covers the whole of the United Kingdom.
An IP solicitor in Chester searches and files trade marks and designs, drafts licences, assignments and non-disclosure agreements, advises creative businesses on who owns commissioned work, and writes the letter before action that ends most disputes. Those that continue go to the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court, where recoverable costs are limited and damages cannot exceed £500,000, or for larger claims to the Business and Property Courts. Patents are usually handled with a patent attorney.
Expect fixed fees for filings and standard agreements and hourly rates for disputes.
Intellectual property advisers around Chester are ranked below, verified firms first. What intellectual property law covers is the primer, the general IP solicitors page sets out typical fees, company matters belong with business law solicitors in Chester, and the bigger market next door is covered by IP solicitors in Liverpool.
