A takeaway on Lincoln Road finds that a new restaurant across the city has opened under the same name, with the same colours on the sign. Whether anything can be done depends on a question the owner has probably never asked: is the name registered as a trade mark? Intellectual property law in Peterborough rarely involves a laboratory; it involves the names, logos, recipes, packaging and websites of the city's shops, restaurants, hauliers, builders and online sellers, and a solicitor's first job for most of them is registering what they already have before someone else does.
The city's larger businesses bring more substantial work. Engineering firms, Perkins among them, hold patents and design rights and need supply and licensing agreements that protect them; food processors protect brands and packaging and guard recipes as trade secrets; the insurance and financial services companies based in Peterborough own software, data and brands that are licensed and occasionally copied. Franchising, common in the city's retail and service trades, is built on licensed trade marks and know-how, and a solicitor should read the franchise agreement before anyone signs it. Marketplace sellers on the distribution parks face takedown notices and counterfeit allegations that need a quick, informed response.
Most infringements end with a letter and a negotiated solution. Those that do not can go to the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court, which caps costs and limits damages to £500,000, keeping a dispute affordable for a small Peterborough firm. Patent drafting is done with a patent attorney, often in Cambridge or London, while the solicitor handles the contracts and any dispute.
Trade mark and design registrations and standard licences are usually fixed-fee; disputes are charged by the hour.
Firms offering intellectual property advice around Peterborough are listed below, verified firms first. Read what intellectual property law covers and the general IP solicitors guide; for company and franchise matters see business law solicitors in Peterborough, and for the south of the county's technology work, intellectual property solicitors in Cambridge.
