Reputation management (including intellectual property, trade marks, passing off and commercial contracts)

If you have a substantial reputation, leading image or a high profile we can help you:

• protect it from misuse by others seeking to 'cash in' on your success
  
• exploit it to best effect to take advantage of commercial and other opportunities
  
• protect it from attack by competitors, the press and others
  

We understand the importance of assisting you to safeguard, maintain and increase your profile. We have been successfully advising and protecting our clients' images and reputations for years. Our own reputation has grown due to our successful representation of our many high profile clients.

We use our unrivalled media law expertise to protect our clients' reputations, both personal and trading, from wrongful use by others. We believe that advance planning is key to the successful exploitation and management of high profile images and reputations, whether corporate, product or personal. We advise our clients so that they or their business are in the best position to benefit from their success, for example through endorsement, sponsorship, licence, merchandising and other types of agreement.

Why You Need Us

We have a strong grasp of the commercial realities of today's marketplace. Contracts we negotiate are flexible and allow for changes in circumstance as talent often cannot be made to fit standard contractual terms. Success can happen overnight and opportunities must be taken when they occur. We help our clients avoid the pitfalls and reap the benefits.

Our aim is to put our clients in the best possible position to control, exploit and protect their reputations. Often we are able to act to prevent attacks on our clients before they happen or bring them to an immediate end. Our clients include FTSE 100 companies and high profile individuals from most areas of life such as business, sport, the arts and entertainment.

Did You Know That...

• you may already have rights in your name that you can use to stop your product being used or infringed by someone else without your consent?
• intellectual property rights such as trade mark rights and copyrights can exist and be exploited without the expense of formal registration procedures?
• you can in some circumstances register your own name or likeness as a trade mark?
• registration of a company name may not give you the right to trade under that name?

Work We Undertake

We advise on the full spectrum of intellectual property and media laws that affect you in the course of your career or business, both contractual and litigious, including:

Negotiating contracts

• drafting, negotiating and enforcing your rights under any sporting, dramatic, publishing, film, television, or other contractual agreement
• advising on sponsorship, endorsement, and other merchandising and licensing agreements
• negotiating advance payment and royalty clauses and ensuring appropriate renewal, termination and penalty clauses are included
• advising on rights and obligations under existing consultancy, player or employment contracts

Intellectual property rights including copyright, trade marks and passing-off

• registering and protecting your trade or service marks or name; advising on the international trade mark procedures for searching, registering and renewing your rights worldwide
• transferring or licensing your rights to corporate vehicles or joint venture arrangements
• acting in infringement or 'passing-off' disputes against third parties seeking to cash in on your reputation or trade name
• suing when there is unauthorised use of your image or photograph on publications or web sites

Multimedia broadcasting, marketing and publicity

• negotiating conditions with multimedia corporations seeking to film or broadcast you, your name or image worldwide
• protecting or defending your reputation when defamatory remarks or headlines are intended to be, or have been published
• reviewing and advising upon copy prior to its release for publicity purposes
• advising on web site and internet content and access disputes

Litigation and dispute resolution

• advising on the remedies available to you when you are the subject of unfair or inaccurate media coverage
• negotiating speedy and confidential settlements to disputes with management or sponsors or other industry related disputes
• filing court proceedings, seeking injunctive relief and threatening legal action when necessary