A modern jet engine contains thousands of patented components and a great deal more that is protected only by secrecy. Derby's largest employer files patents by the hundred and guards its know-how with contracts, and the smaller engineering firms around Sinfin, Raynesway, Pride Park and the A50 that design and machine parts for it, for Toyota and for the train builders at Litchurch Lane live inside that system: non-disclosure agreements before a drawing is shared, design rights in the parts they create, licences for the processes they use, and who owns an improvement devised on a customer's project. Intellectual property solicitors in Derby spend more time on confidentiality, ownership and licensing than on trade marks.
That does not mean trade marks are absent. Royal Crown Derby has made porcelain in the city since the eighteenth century, and its name and patterns are assets in themselves; Denby pottery, Bakewell puddings, Buxton water and the breweries of the Peak all trade on names that need registering and defending; and the University of Derby and the engineering consultancies produce software and designs that rest on copyright. Employee inventors sometimes ask whether they are owed compensation for a patent of outstanding benefit to their employer, a right that exists but is rarely won.
A Derby IP solicitor drafts and enforces those agreements, registers trade marks and designs at the Intellectual Property Office, works alongside a patent attorney on applications, and takes infringement to the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court, where damages are capped at £500,000, or to the Business and Property Courts in Birmingham. Most disputes end with a well-judged letter.
Registrations and standard agreements are fixed-fee; disputes are charged by the hour.
Intellectual property firms serving Derby are listed below, verified firms first. Read what intellectual property law covers and the general IP solicitors guide; for shareholder and contract matters see business law solicitors in Derby, and the larger specialist teams are in Nottingham and Birmingham.
