Kilburn & Strode LLP

Kilburn & Strode understands the point where business, innovation and the law meet. Its reputation for straight-talking, commercially sound advice has helped to make it one of Europe’s leading intellectual property firms. Dedicated to helping its clients protect and profit from ideas, the team is renowned for making the complex simple and for seeing the business issues as clearly as the legal ones. This blend of skills has seen the firm consistently ranked as top-tier in independent surveys.

The firm: Kilburn & Strode is wholly focused on intellectual property. This single-minded approach enables the team to advise on the many legal, commercial and technical issues that come together in this highly complex area of the law.

The firm is home to many attorneys who are recognised as leading the way in their various disciplines. The well-respected trade mark and patent teams include specialists in tech (electronics and IT),  biotechnology, chemistry (material and pharmaceutical) and engineering. Collectively, they manage to combine being at the top of their game with a reputation for friendliness and jargon-free advice.

This is a firm that understands the value in tailoring its approach to suit the aims of each client. The team works collaboratively, taking the time to understand the issues on the table and the possibilities in the marketplace. It’s an approach that has been honed over many years with a range of clients – big and small, established and new, universities and individuals.

Working this way has ensured that Kilburn & Strode is a permanent fixture at the top of professional surveys and has helped to make the firm a leading choice Europe-wide for IP advice.

Types of work undertaken: Kilburn & Strode offers a complete intellectual property service – whatever it takes to help clients protect and generate value from their IP interests. The firm works with a wide variety of industrial and professional clients from around the world and is particularly well known for advising on the acquisition, enforcement and licensing of worldwide IP rights.

Patents: the patent team has a long track record of delivering legal advice that makes good business sense. Its full range of services is as broad as the world of patents itself and includes the filing and prosecution of patent applications, portfolio planning and management, watching and searching for third-party rights, infringement and validity opinions licensing, renewals, due diligence reports, fundraising prospectus opinions and patent term extensions (Supplementary Protection Certificates – SPCs).

The team also has a strong background in policing intellectual property rights and in litigation and dispute resolution. Appearing before the opposition divisions and appeal boards of the European Patent Office is a key specialism, as is working with solicitors and counsel in UK court actions, and with colleagues across Europe and internationally in multi-jurisdictional cases.

Trade marks: the firm’s trade mark team works with clients throughout the world and offers a service that spans all aspects of portfolio management. This includes trade mark searching and advice, opinions regarding infringement and passing-off, filing and prosecution of trade mark applications, oppositions and cancellation actions. The team also advises on licensing, anti-conterfeiting, copyright, due diligence, registrable transactions, enforcement processes and conflict resolution.

Handling the legal and practical issues surrounding community trade marks and international ‘Madrid’ registrations is another area where Kilburn & Strode has considerable experience. The firm’s attorneys have also spent a great deal of time handling contentious matters in the European Union and further afield.

Designs and copyright: Kilburn & Strode has established itself as a leading firm in this increasingly important area of IP law. Its attorneys are helping clients to safeguard their copyright and designs throughout the UK and Europe, delivering advice on the status of their IP and a strategy to protect it. They have a huge amount of experience in filing and prosecuting applications for design registration in the UK and before the EUIPO.

Supplementing these core disciplines, Kilburn & Strode offers services that extend into all areas of intellectual property – it’s fair to say that its attorneys’ command of their various subject areas makes them the first choice to advise on anything from the everyday to the exceptional.