A boutique on the King's Road finds its name, its logo and its most popular print on a website selling cheaper copies from abroad. Whether anything can be done depends on what was registered. Intellectual property solicitors in Kensington and Chelsea act for a borough of small luxury businesses, fashion labels, interior designers, galleries, restaurants and beauty brands, whose value sits in a name and a look rather than a patent, and the first conversation is usually about trade marks: whether the name was registered, in which classes, in which countries, and whether the lookalike can be stopped.
Design is the second strand. Chelsea's interior designers, the furniture makers and fabric houses around the borough and the fashion graduates who stay in Kensington after college produce patterns, prints and products that are protected by unregistered design right and copyright as soon as they are made, but far more easily enforced once registered at the Intellectual Property Office. Galleries and artists deal with copyright in images, the artist's resale right on secondary sales and the licensing of reproductions; the museums of South Kensington license their collections and police their brands. Restaurants and bars protect names and formats, and the Portobello Road traders discover the limits of what a market stall can own.
Infringement is handled first by letter, then, if necessary, in the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court, whose capped costs and £500,000 damages limit keep a small brand's claim proportionate; larger disputes go to the Chancery Division. Both sit in the Rolls Building in the City. For patents, a solicitor works with a patent attorney.
Fixed fees cover registrations and standard licences at most firms; disputes are hourly.
IP firms serving Kensington and Chelsea are listed below, verified first. See the explainer on intellectual property law, the general IP solicitors guide and, for company matters, business law solicitors in Kensington and Chelsea.
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