IP Dispute Solicitors

The Briffa Credibility Advantage

We are well known as specialists. This means you can rely on the fact we work closely with leading intellectual property barristers on High Court cases, County Court and in the Patent Office and Trade Mark and Design Registry in the United Kingdom.

In choosing Briffa, your opponents and their advisors will understand that we are credible and experienced. Our solid reputation also may help if you decide to seek external cost funding funding via After-The-Event legal insurance.

An application for funding is generally more compelling when it comes via a specialist firm like ours. Insurers know us and take our opinions seriously in conducting an action or a decision on settlement or otherwise.

Cease and Desist Letters, Injunctions and Tactics in IP Disputes

All litigation is tactical and involves risks. With intellectual property, the risks and ante may be higher because of the value of the assets and the fact that waiting for a case to proceed to trial, if it has to, can take many months, during which time severe or irreparable damage may be done to your business, for example, where your confidential information, trade secrets or know how are being unlawfully used.

As a consequence, it is worth considering, in many cases, applying for an injunction or other urgent remedy from the court, to at least ensure that any breach of your rights does not get any worse until you can claim full damages later. Injunctions and other interim applications, where a Claimant is successful, often result in a claim being resolved, but they are inherently high risk, high cost and need to be very carefully considered with strong evidential support.

One of the challenges with breaches of IP rights is the issue of numerous small scale offenders. For example, if you have the trade mark for a logo, you may find it being used on clothing, media or other formats by numerous unconnected “chancers” in different locations all over the world. Aside from finding the wrongdoer, there is a dilemma as to whether it is worth taking action, on economic ground and in many cases, you shouldn’t assume that your legal costs will be recovered. Different clients adopt different approaches but all can rely on our experience, clear thinking and good advice as to options and pros and cons.

Other important considerations with dispute resolution will typically include :-

• Expert evidence and the value of goodwill
• Contract damages
• Patent, copyright and trade mark disputes

When you apply for a trade mark the trade mark registry is required to assess the application in light of trade mark law. Each country has its own trade mark laws. So, there will be differences of detail between countries even though there is a similar approach to trade marks at international level. Disputes that might arise during the registration stage include:

• if the relevant registry raises objections to the application
• existing trade mark holders may lodge an ‘opposition’ objecting to the application on legal grounds.

Applications may also be able to invalidate or revoke a trade mark. Often disputes centre on whether a mark is still being used in trade.

Trade Mark Disputes

It is common practice to initiate a trade mark infringement case using a cease and desist letter. The letter is crucial and with any issue of value or significance, we do not recommend using a template approach. It makes sense to consult experienced lawyers.

Defending Trade Mark Disputes

We can also advise if you are the defendant to a trade mark dispute. We have considerable experience in this area. It is sometimes possible to succeed in trade mark infringement disputes by demonstrating that your opponent’s trade mark should not have been registered.

Domain Name Disputes

We deal with the ongoing problem of Domain Name hijacking, Domain Name Kiting, Typosquatting and unlawful Domain Name Parking. The management of domain names including their acquisition and use is now a very important part of brand management and must be considered hand in hand with trade mark and brand strategy generally. Our service ensures clients stay abreast of new suffixes as they become available, monitoring of the registration activity of others and active challenges where competitors abuse registrations.

We employ the full range of tools and forums available, including alternative dispute resolution (such as those available at Nominet and ICANN) as well as court action.

Funding IP Litigation – Insurance Products and After-the-Event Insurance

We have been active in obtaining after the event insurance for businesses that required this. We have successfully structured insurance packages to allow the small business to take on a large multinationals keeping the risk as low as possible.

If you have a dispute and want an expert and honest opinion of your options please do get in touch.