Working with you like an extension of your own team.
Whether you are scaling a portfolio as you attract investment or managing a mature IP portfolio, our proactive, pragmatic and creative attitude can help you achieve your goals.
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Our team has in-house experience, giving insights into what it is like to meet corporate targets and to engage teams of engineers or marketers. We therefore have the skills to provide strategic input, to sit alongside core portfolio creation activities.
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We are also an independent, owner-managed, firm so we are invested in long term relationships. We have a flexible attitude to set up workflows and procedures as you need them to be, and will always provide a supportive sounding board for you.
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A fundamental cornerstone of our approach is our pricing structure that does not rely on billable hours but instead focuses on the outcomes that we deliver. This means you will be able to set a reliable IP budget and avoid surprise invoices.
The result is that we can really get behind you with creative solutions that deliver value from your IP.
Setting the Right Course
We can advise on IP strategy that will be the right fit for your business, whether that involves setting up an IP function from scratch, or providing input and ideas for how to refine or optimise your existing processes.
Providing Pricing Clarity
We work with you to help set and control IP budgets, as a result of our departure from traditional billable hour pricing methods. We make surprise charges a thing of the past, and provide flexibility as and when needed throughout the financial year.
Connecting you with the Ecosystem
While we will work alongside your preferred counsel in other jurisdictions, we also maintain our own network of global counsel to provide quality service on an international basis. We are also rooted in our local entrepreneurial ecosystems and are happy to share our knowledge, experience and contacts with you.
Find out more in the FAQ below, or book an appointment to have a free of charge exploratory chat.
Frequently Asked Questions
We have moved away from billable hours as a pricing method, so that our fees can be set transparently and in advance. As a guideline, drafting and filing an initial patent application may cost service fees of between £8,000 to £12,000. A new UK trade mark application filing would incur a £450 service fee for one class, and a further service fee of £125 for each additional class. However, we can accommodate tailored pricing in circumstances where processes are streamlined and there is a regular amount of work, so we would encourage a conversation to discuss the full range of fees and how we may accommodate your requirements.
Instead of relying upon hourly rates, we work on a fixed fee basis for all activities. This can be done on the basis of a rate card for specific itemised work products, or on the basis of an agreed monthly budget that will help you keep your IP costs in check.
We are careful only make commitments to take on work that we have capacity for. However, we have an in-depth bench of experts that can help and there will always be multiple people assigned to your team with backup to deal with sudden spikes in workload or to cover for annual leave or other absences. We are also committed to training and staff development so you will always have an appropriate blend of junior and senior staff working on your portfolio to ensure the right balance between cost-effectiveness and expert guidance and supervision.
Our team has people who have worked in-house and know the realities of dealing with the day-to-day pressure of dealing with competing demands from different stakeholders. Our mindset is to be proactive and help save you time. We can help you critically assess renewal decisions help prune your portfolio, and also generate data that can demonstrate return on the investment for the IP spend, even for a defensive portfolio aggregation strategy.
We are European Patent Attorneys so act before the European Patent Office. This includes obtaining European Patents and EU Unitary Patents. We also have experience with EPO Opposition and Appeal proceedings. We also act before the UKIPO in patent, trade mark and registered design matters to obtain the relevant UK national rights. Our team also includes a number of UPC representatives.
Our status as European Patent Attorneys is entirely unaffected by Brexit and we have been pleased to continue our long established practice of obtaining European Patents for our clients. This also extends to obtaining Unitary Patents, and our team also has several UPC representatives. As regards trade marks and registered designs, we now work with local EU partners to obtain EU rights for our clients, and we offer discounts for combined UK and EU filings.
We have an internal QMS and are currently working towards achieving ISO 9001 certification. From a cybersecurity perspective we hold the Cyber Essentials certification and are currently working towards reaching ISO 27001.
We have experience with EPO Opposition and Appeal proceedings, and our team includes UPC representatives. We also deal with trade mark disputes in the UK before teh UKIPO. We do not act directly before national courts, but do have experience of working alongside litigators as part of a wider team, and so we can play a part of your overall litigation strategy and support services..
Why not reach out to book an initial free of charge first consultation where we can get to know each other better. Please also feel free to reach out to our founder Peter McBride or our Director, IP Strategy Suzanne Oliver directly on Linkedin.