Enforcing intellectual property is very largely a matter for its owner (or in suitable circumstances their licensee).
Practically, the threat of legal action often provides enough leverage to achieve your commercial goals. Using this lever firmly but wisely in pre-action correspondence is part of our job and the attorneys at Bartle Read have seen many such negotiations through to a successful conclusion over the years.
Of course we also deal with the reverse side of the coin – assisting clients who have received infringement allegations. In that context the starting point is very often a calm and careful examination of the intellectual property rights that are being asserted, keeping in mind that patents and related rights can prove to be invalid when tested in court, and that rights holders sometimes take an excessively robust view of what their rights actually protect. These questions of infringement and validity are at the core of our professional experience. One’s perspective on a dispute can be radically changed by a clear view of the legal issues.
If litigation does become necessary, as complainant or defendant, we have the expertise for that as well.
Founder/director David Read is a Patent Attorney Litigator with the right to conduct litigation in our field of law in the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court (formerly
Patents County Court), the UK High Court and Court of Appeal.