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Intellectual Property

SAIL Advocates IP Department offers both IP specialists, who typically handle transactional, advisory and disputes work, and commercial lawyers who are familiar with dealing with IP issues in the course of drafting and negotiating a wider range of transaction documents. Whether the job is standalone, or part of a larger transaction we can provide partners and lawyers with a suitable range of experience and skills.

Our lawyers focus on a variety of sectors globally and many of our lawyers who handle IP work are long-standing members of our sector focus groups such as life sciences, TMT and consumer goods and retail. Combining product and sector focus, in the context of our global law firm, facilitates knowledge sharing of a consistently high standard and helps us better to understand client needs.

We can offer our clients practically applied IP knowledge and expertise, as well as a deep understanding of the challenges involved with conducting a market leading, international business in a constantly evolving technological environment.

Our lawyers handling IP work collaborate closely with our antitrust specialists in finding solutions to the issues that can arise from the tensions between the two areas of specialism.

Intellectual property advice
Our IP teams offer a breadth of experience in IP transactional and advisory work, covering the full range of IP subjects, in both domestic and international contexts.

Examples of our work include:
• patent, trademark, and copyright litigation
• technology licenses and joint ventures and other forms of technical cooperation and development 
• brand licensing, sponsorship and franchising agreements 
• copyright-based agreements across the creative industries with a particularly strong experience and focus on digital and online aspects 
• analysis of IP portfolios and IP-related agreements in M&A and financing projects, inputting into transaction documents and preparing associated agreements and recordals 
• IP risk assessment on proposed new ventures and advice on risk minimization 
• advice on best practice use and protection of IP 
• patent licensing and cross-licensing
• unfair competition
• advertising
Like our IP disputes lawyers, most of our transactional and advisory IP lawyers focus on specific sectors and bring both pure and applied legal knowledge to client projects.

Intellectual property disputes and enforcement
Our IP lawyers have extensive experience in strategizing, pursuing, and defending IP disputes in a wide range of forums, including:
• national and regional courts for disputes about misappropriation, infringement, validity, ownership, and rights of use of all forms of IP rights
• national and regional patent and trademark offices for disputes about registered IP rights
• customs and national law enforcement and regulatory authorities for counterfeiting and infringement cases and border seizures
• bespoke dispute resolution procedures (e.g. for domain name disputes).
• arbitrations with IP subject matter
Our IP lawyers are used to dealing with technical and specialist subject matter, and many of them focus on specific sectors, giving them a more applied understanding and knowledge of how IP is exploited in practice. They frequently work with colleagues and external local lawyers in other jurisdictions to ensure claims are pursued consistently and in the most appropriate forums.

They will pursue and defend cases aggressively and effectively but are able to resolve a high percentage of disputes by negotiated settlements.

Antitrust
This is another global crisis that looms. However, with our robust and well-networked team, we are able to uphold the standards. The range of business practices giving rise to antitrust enforcement is likewise expanding, and fines for antitrust infringements are rising. We have the expertise and global network to help our clients address these antitrust risks.

Our team covers key hubs of Africa and sections of Europe as well as Asia enabling us to support our clients on their most complex and important antitrust matters across the world.  Our antitrust teams work together to solve multinational antitrust issues, taking into account the interplay between different practices and rules, and always mindful of the practical implications antitrust issues may have on our clients’ business.

We advise on market-leading mandates in contentious and non-contentious matters.  Our team obtains clearances for our clients in the world’s most challenging merger control proceedings, acts on the most significant dominance cases, and represents clients on complex multi-jurisdictional cartels. We also help our clients to avoid antitrust issues by developing and implementing sophisticated compliance programs. 

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