When it comes to starting a business, one of the most challenging but interesting tasks you must...
How much intellectual property does your business own – and what’s it worth? Chances are, more than you think.
From trademarks to brand identities, inventions to ‘know-how’, almost every business has valuable intellectual property that deserves protection.
For advice about all types of intellectual property, get in touch with our business solicitors in Chelmsford and Colchester or fill in our online enquiry form for a quick response.
Our intellectual property solicitors’ expertise
At Gepp Solicitors, we understand what’s at stake – so you can be confident we’ll work hard to ensure your intellectual property stays safe. As your legal partner, we’ll give you practical advice and support that includes:
- Reviewing and drafting contractual terms
- Website audits for businesses trading online
- Drafting software licences
- Identifying rights such as trademarks and copyright
- Enforcing your rights and advising on avoiding infringement
- Advice on e-commerce
- How to protect your business from passing off
- Fixed fee trademark registration
Intellectual property strategy
The law surrounding intellectual property can be complex and confusing. Without a specialist to advise you, it can be easy to miss something and end up leaving parts of your brand and product designs unprotected. We can help you develop an ongoing intellectual property strategy designed to fulfil your commercial needs.
As business-minded individuals, we fully appreciate the risks and opportunities available to you and look forward to working in partnership with you to propel your business to success.
Contract terms and conditions
We can draft, review and update intellectual property clauses in your contractual terms and conditions. We will ensure your rights are set out clearly with no room for ambiguity. We can provide practical solutions within your contracts for dispute resolution issues and advise on your methods of enforcement should someone infringe on your rights.
Trademarks
Registering trademarks will protect your brand, your reputation and prevent others from profiting from your commercial ideas and identity.
We are happy to offer a fixed fee trademark registration service for many businesses, so get in touch to discuss your needs with a member of our intellectual property team.
Our expertise includes:
- Registering trademarks in the UK
- Registering EU trademarks (EUTM) to protect your brand in all Member States
- Registering international trademarks to protect your brand in up to 122 countries
- Advising on trademark infringement
- Advising on licensing trademarks
Copyright
We have expertise in handling a variety of copyright law related matters, including:
- Advising on your rights under copyright law
- Drafting and reviewing copyright agreements, copyright licences and assignments
- Taking action on copyright infringement
- Defending claims for copyright infringement
E-Commerce and IT intellectual property
We have in-depth experience of e-commerce trade and the legal issues and opportunities associated with it. We can provide advice on matters such as:
- Forming an e-commerce company
- Website audits for businesses trading online
- IT contracts
- Software licensing
- Website hosting and licensing
- Acceptable use policies
- Content licensing
- Online trademarks and copyright
- Terms and conditions
- Linking agreements
Acquiring and transferring intellectual property rights
We can provide advice on acquiring or selling intellectual property licences, entering into agreements and transferring rights to other businesses. We can undertake intellectual property due diligence to assess the quality of the IP you seek to acquire and ensure that your rights are adequately protected to avoid infringement.
Taking action to protect your rights
Where intellectual property infringement has occurred, we can provide advice on enforcing your rights. Infringement might occur when someone:
- Uses your copyrighted work without your authorisation
- Trades under your business’ trademarked brand
- Copies or resells your designs for commercial gain
- Creates a trademark that is similar or identical to yours
We will utilise robust negotiation skills with the aim of stopping the infringement without the dispute escalating. In our experience, a firm letter from an intellectual property lawyer is often enough to get them to stop. We can also help you take court action if necessary and we have a specialist team of commercial litigation solicitors who can assist.
Why choose our intellectual property lawyers?
At Gepp Solicitors, we advise all types of businesses across a vast range of sectors. Whether you are a sole trader, entrepreneur, start-up, partnership or established limited company, we are dedicated to supporting your development, solving your problems and helping you achieve your commercial goals.
We work in partnership with our clients, tailoring our advice to provide a truly bespoke service. This is why many of our clients return to us time and time again as their go-to commercial lawyers.
Get in touch with our intellectual property solicitors in Chelmsford and Colchester
If you want to find out more about the services we can offer you, please feel free to get in touch with our intellectual property solicitors in Chelmsford and Colchester.