Kingston School of Art has been sending designers, illustrators, fashion graduates and animators into the world for decades, and a fair number stay in the borough and start something. The question they bring to intellectual property solicitors in Kingston upon Thames is nearly always the same: who owns the work? A final-year project becomes a product; a client pays for a logo and assumes the files come with it; a studio hires a freelancer without a contract; a start-up's co-founders never agree who owns the code. Copyright arises automatically but belongs to the creator unless a contract says otherwise, and that one sentence settles or starts a great many arguments.
Beyond the art school the borough's intellectual property is commercial. The university's research produces patents and spin-outs; Kingston's shops, restaurants and riverside bars trade on names that need registering before a rival takes them; New Malden's Korean food businesses, from supermarkets to restaurant chains, have brands worth protecting across the country; and the technology and media companies in the town's office space hold software, data and trade secrets. Registered designs matter to product businesses in Chessington and Tolworth, and trade marks to anyone selling online.
An intellectual property solicitor here searches and files at the UK Intellectual Property Office, drafts assignments, licences and confidentiality agreements, and handles infringement, which usually ends with a letter and occasionally in the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court, where a cap on costs and a £500,000 limit on damages suit disputes of this size. Patent work is usually done with a patent attorney.
Filings and standard agreements are generally fixed-fee; disputes are charged by the hour.
Below are the intellectual property firms around Kingston upon Thames, verified firms first. The article on intellectual property law and the IP solicitors page give the background; company and investment questions go to business law solicitors in Kingston upon Thames, and the capital's specialists are listed under intellectual property solicitors in London.
Verified