What does a Leeds company own when it owns an idea? The answer depends on the idea. A brand name or logo can be registered as a trade mark with the UK Intellectual Property Office. Software, photographs, scripts and music are protected by copyright from the moment they are created. The shape of a product can be a registered or unregistered design. A genuinely new invention may be patentable. An intellectual property solicitor in Leeds works out which of these apply, secures what can be secured and drafts the contracts that let the rights be licensed, sold or kept confidential.
Leeds has more of this work than its reputation as a banking city suggests. Channel 4 and the independent production companies that followed it to the city need rights cleared in every programme. The health and data businesses that have grown up around NHS England need software licences and data agreements. Retail and fashion brands run from Leeds police their trade marks against copies, the city's games studios protect code and characters, and the universities spin out research that has to be patented before it is published. Smaller businesses have smaller versions of the same problems: a cafe in Chapel Allerton whose name has been taken by a rival, a joiner in Morley whose photographs are being used on a competitor's website.
Disputes rarely reach trial. A letter before action, a takedown request or a negotiated licence settles most of them. Where they do go further, the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court offers capped costs and damages of up to £500,000, and the Business and Property Courts in Leeds can hear intellectual property claims without a trip to London. For patent drafting, solicitors work alongside patent attorneys.
Intellectual property solicitors in Leeds are listed after this guide, verified firms first. Read what intellectual property law covers and the general IP solicitors page, or see business law solicitors in Leeds for contracts and company matters.
