Intellectual Property overview

Combining careful planning with good judgement to help you protect your intellectual property

Careful planning and good judgement are vital to the effective handling of intellectual property matters. To this end, we combine our different areas of expertise to develop and help you to implement thoughtful intellectual property strategies.

Our Intellectual Property team handle transactions, disputes and strategy relating to trade marks, patents, copyright, design, data and privacy and our trade mark work includes UK and EU trade mark filing and oppositions and domain name disputes. The team helps to protect some of the world's most famous brands.

Our team handle intellectual property disputes in the English High Court and Patents County Court, the Court of Appeal, the House of Lords and the European Court of Justice as well as representing clients in the UK Patent Office and at OHIM. In addition to solely UK based work we advise a mix of UK enterprises operating in world markets and overseas entities looking to safeguard their interests in the UK and across Europe, overseeing the protection of our clients’ rights in more than 220 countries.

Key areas of expertise include:

  • Trade mark and patent litigation
  • Trade mark clearance filing and oppositions
  • Copyright and design right
  • Domain name disputes
  • Licensing technology, content, and trademarks
  • Franchising
  • Data protection, confidentiality and privacy

Our specialised life sciences team have advised on some of the world's most important products. Work includes class actions, clinical trials, patent licensing and litigation, product liability and trade marks. For more information about the life sciences team please click on the link at the right of this page.


Our latest alerts, briefings & reports
Nabarro briefings and reports
  • Health sector update: abandoned patient records result in ICO fine  
The U.K. Information Commissioner's Office (the ICO) has imposed a fine of £100,000 on Stockport Primary Care Trust (Stockport PCT) for a serious breach of the Data Protection Act 1998. View full briefing
  • EU Working Party issues Opinion on Big Data use  
On 2 April 2013 the European Union Article 29 Working Party (the Working Party) issued an Opinion which will have important ramifications for all those involved in processing personal data in the EU. View full briefing
  • Government consults on compulsory data protection audits for NHS  
The Government has launched a consultation on whether NHS organisations should be made subject to compulsory data protection audits (the Consultation). The Consultation will be of keen interest not only to those in the NHS but to those who work with the NHS. View full briefing
  • UK ICO issues guidance on Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) following shock survey  
The UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has issued guidance on the increasingly hot topic of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD). View full briefing
  • ONEL: what constitutes genuine use of a Community Trade Mark?   
On 19 December 2012, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) handed down its long-anticipated judgment in the ONEL/OMEL case. This reference from the Court of Appeal of the Hague sought guidance on the question of whether use of a Community Trade Mark (CTM) in a single member state constitutes genuine use in the Community.  View full briefing
Externally published articles
  • What the draft data protection regulation will mean for financial services: The BBA and AFME's joint response  
Butterworth's Journal of International Banking and Financial Law May 2012 Vol. 27 - No. 5. FSLA Update. Article contributed by Belinda Doshi. View full briefing
  • No SOS for SAS: what the latest ECJ case means for software  
Computerworld UK 10 May 2012. Article contributed by Belinda Doshi and Louisa Dixon View full briefing
  • New EU EU Data Protection Laws  
This article by Belinda Doshi looks at the New EU Data Protection Laws - published by Bloomberg. View full briefing
  • Geographical indications: why traceability systems matter and how they add to brand value  
This article by Louise Gellman (Nabarro LLP) and Alessandro Francesco Sciarra (SIB) reviews the European regulatory framework for traceability and is published in the Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice, Volume 7, Issue 4, pages 264-270 View full briefing
  • The new EU data law and what it will mean for business   
Computerworld UK 4 April 2012. Article contributed by Belinda Doshi. View full briefing
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