A film shot at Twickenham Studios belongs to a long list of people before it belongs to anyone who watches it: the writer, the composer, the production company, the financiers, the distributor, and the actors whose performances carry rights of their own. The studios in St Margarets have been making films for more than a century, and intellectual property solicitors in Richmond upon Thames have grown used to the paperwork of the screen trade, from chain-of-title documents and option agreements to music licences and the contracts that decide who gets paid when a film is sold abroad.
The borough's creative economy is wider than film. Richmond and Barnes are full of writers, illustrators, photographers, composers and designers working from home, whose copyright is their income and whose contracts with publishers, agencies and clients decide how much of it they keep. Television and production companies cluster around Twickenham and Teddington; the National Physical Laboratory generates patents and licensable measurement technology; Kew's scientists publish research with commercial potential; and the borough's restaurants, independent shops and garden businesses trade on names that should be registered before someone else does. The rugby stadium defends its own brands vigorously, as local traders discover each autumn.
An intellectual property solicitor here files trade marks and designs at the UK Intellectual Property Office, drafts the licences, assignments and non-disclosure agreements the creative industries run on, and handles infringement from the first letter to the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court, whose capped costs and £500,000 damages limit make it the usual venue for claims of this size. Patents are handled alongside a patent attorney.
Registrations and standard agreements are generally fixed-fee; disputes are charged by the hour.
Intellectual property solicitors near Richmond upon Thames are listed below, verified firms first. The explainer on intellectual property law and the IP solicitors page cover the basics; for company structures and investment see business law solicitors in Richmond upon Thames, and the capital's specialists are at intellectual property solicitors in London.
Verified