The Design District on the Greenwich Peninsula was built for businesses whose only real assets are ideas: design studios, architects, fashion labels, games developers and the companies that stage and film the shows at the O2 next door. Add the University of Greenwich, whose research produces inventions and spin-outs, and the tourist economy of the town centre, where the word "Greenwich" is a brand on everything from gin to watches, and intellectual property law in the borough is busier than its riverside image suggests.
Intellectual property solicitors in Greenwich do four things most often. They register trade marks at the UK Intellectual Property Office for names, logos and product ranges, and explain why a geographical name like Greenwich is hard for any one business to monopolise. They draft the assignments and licences that decide who owns work done by freelancers, students and collaborators, which is where most disputes in the Design District would otherwise begin. They prepare confidentiality agreements and licensing deals for university spin-outs before investors are approached, working with patent attorneys on the inventions themselves. And they enforce rights when a design, a photograph or a product is copied, usually with a letter and a negotiated fee, and where necessary in the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court, which caps costs and limits damages to £500,000 so that a small studio can afford to sue.
Event businesses around the O2 add a specialism of their own: performers' rights, recording and broadcast licences, merchandising, and the contracts that govern who may film what.
A trade mark application or a standard licence is normally quoted as a fixed fee in Greenwich; litigation is hourly.
The firms below offer intellectual property advice in and around Greenwich, verified ones at the top. The explainer on what intellectual property law covers is a good starting point, as is the general IP solicitors page; company matters belong with business law solicitors in Greenwich, and the London IP page lists the capital's specialist firms.
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