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J A Kemp advises on trademark selection and strategy and files, defends and opposes trademark applications in the United Kingdom, Europe and the rest of the world. The firm obtains global protection for trademarks through international applications before the World Intellectual Property Organisation and by instructing filing and prosecution programmes worldwide.
The hallmarks of J A Kemp’s trademark work are the individual expertise of our attorneys, our capacity to handle large filing programmes and our total commitment to helping clients to achieve their commercial objectives.
Every member of our trademark team is a specialist who handles only trademark and design work. Many of our senior professionals have backgrounds in major international law firms and are able to draw on a wealth of commercial experience. They are all qualified as both UK-chartered trademark attorneys and European trademark professional representatives.
The team has over 50,000 trademarks under management.
J A Kemp is one of just a handful of UK firms with the expertise and resources to obtain protection for patentable intellectual property in any field of science or technology, anywhere in the world. Most of our partners have at least 15 years’ experience practising as patent attorneys. They have developed patent strategies for clients large and small, managed multiple patent portfolios and handled thousands of patent applications. They have also helped to overcome every conceivable challenge that clients can face in exploiting their patents and defending them against attack.
J A Kemp handles patent oppositions and appeals in Europe, especially before the European Patent Office, and protects patents across the globe. The firm assists with cases before the UK patent courts and provides expert support for high-profile patent litigation in the United Kingdom and elsewhere. The firm also handles all aspects of design protection in the United Kingdom, Europe and the rest of the world.
J A Kemp also conducts the full range of IP litigation for clients – including trademark, patent, design, copyright, passing off, breach of confidence and trade secret cases – in the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court, the High Court, the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court.
J A Kemp works for a variety of clients, from start-ups, spin-outs and small and medium-sized enterprises to some of the largest corporate clients and most prestigious academic institutions in the world. J A Kemp also has a network of attorney firms throughout the world, which instruct the firm on behalf of their clients.
Areas of trademark expertise
The group has extensive experience in standard trademark matters, including searching, clearance, filing, prosecution, opposition, invalidation, revocation, advising on infringement, appeals to the relevant tribunal or court and domain name disputes. The group also has particular expertise in the following areas:
- registration of unusual or otherwise difficult marks, including shape marks and marks that require evidence of acquired distinctiveness;
- clearance of trademarks and inventive, commercial thinking about dealing with earlier rights;
- dispute resolution – the group has mediated the settlement of many disputes, sometimes in circumstances where previously involved firms have reached an impasse. The group brings to bear a thorough grasp of the legal issues, shrewd assessment of the strengths (and weaknesses) of the parties’ cases and an appreciation of any sensitivities that may need to be taken into account to reach a sensible conclusion; and
- opposition and related enforcement issues – J A Kemp’s attorneys do not waste time and fees by adopting a ‘kitchen sink’ approach to trademark oppositions. They think carefully about the possible grounds of opposition and identify the strongest. They have an eye on the marketplace. They focus on actual use and not just the state of the Trademarks Register.
J A Kemp’s attorneys are passionate about their clients’ brands. They like to engage with their clients, embrace their business aims and discuss their future projects. They plan ahead, thinking about what searches to conduct and when and where to conduct them, what marks to protect with trademark applications and when and where to file those applications for maximum commercial benefit.
