Every summer the degree show at Winchester School of Art fills the Park Avenue building with textiles, fashion, illustration and graphic design, and every summer a few of those graduates sign their first contract with a brand or a studio without reading the clause that assigns everything they create. Intellectual property solicitors in Winchester see the consequences later: the pattern that reappeared on a high-street product, the illustration licensed for a book and used on merchandise, the design business whose founder never owned the designs. The cure is dull and effective, a written assignment or licence, clear terms of business and a registered design where the product warrants it.
Winchester's second source of intellectual property is software. IBM's laboratory at Hursley, a few miles south-west of the city, sits at the centre of a scatter of software and consultancy businesses whose assets are code, confidential know-how and licences; for them the questions are ownership of work done by contractors, open-source compliance, escrow and the licensing terms that let a product be sold without being given away.
Food and drink make up the third. Hampshire watercress from the beds around Alresford, sparkling wine from the vineyards on the chalk, gin, beer and cheese from the villages all depend on trade marks, labelling that complies with the rules and, for some products, protected names that a single producer cannot monopolise. A Winchester solicitor registers marks at the UK Intellectual Property Office, opposes conflicting applications and deals with the online marketplaces where copies appear.
Disputes mostly end with a letter before action. Those that do not go to the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court, with its costs cap and £500,000 damages limit, or to the High Court. Patents are handled with a patent attorney.
Registrations and standard agreements are generally fixed-fee; disputes are hourly.
Intellectual property solicitors serving Winchester are listed below, verified firms first. Read what intellectual property law covers, the general IP solicitors guide, and the business law solicitors in Winchester page.
