A new variety of wheat or potato bred on the Norwich Research Park is protected not by a patent but by plant variety rights, a form of intellectual property most solicitors never meet. Norwich meets it constantly. The John Innes Centre, the Sainsbury Laboratory, the Quadram Institute and the University of East Anglia produce plant science, food science and genomics that reach the market through licences, spin-out companies and collaboration agreements with seed companies and food manufacturers, and the intellectual property solicitors in Norwich who work with them handle patents alongside a patent attorney, plant breeders' rights, know-how and the confidentiality agreements that protect them before publication.
Away from the research park the work is more familiar. Norwich University of the Arts sends out designers, illustrators, animators and game artists every year, and the city's creative businesses live on copyright and design rights and need contracts saying who owns the work they make for clients. Norfolk food and drink producers want to register names and labels, and learn that the county's name cannot be monopolised. Lotus and the engineering firms around it protect designs and trade marks; the insurance companies own brands, software and data that are licensed and occasionally copied; and online sellers across the county face takedown notices and counterfeit claims.
Most infringements are settled by a letter before action and a negotiated licence or undertaking. Where they are not, the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court hears smaller claims with capped costs and damages of up to £500,000, and the Patents Court takes the larger ones; both sit in London, but a Norwich solicitor runs the case from here.
Trade mark and design filings and standard agreements are generally fixed-fee; disputes and licensing negotiations are hourly.
Firms offering intellectual property advice in Norwich are listed below, verified firms first. Read what intellectual property law covers and the general IP solicitors guide, and for the company side of a spin-out see business law solicitors in Norwich.
