Pinsent Masons

Pinsent Masons' Intellectual Property practice is amongst the top firms for IP work in the UK. Under the leadership of Clare Tunstall as head of IP and life sciences, our practice continues to grow in size and turnover year on year. Our sector expertise remains rooted in the life sciences, TMT and retail sectors for soft IP. We believe deep sector expertise is essential if we are to assist clients in using law and litigation to their strategic advantage.

We act in the highest profile IP litigations (both patent and soft IP) in the UK every year. Across all IP rights, we have provided strategic advice in relation to hundreds of potential IP disputes and issues across a range of sectors including construction, IT, financial services, media and entertainment and retail and consumer.

We advise on numerous cross border transactions and litigations. Clients trust us with their most valuable intangible assets. We guide patent procurement strategies, set up joint ventures based on patent assets, advise on rights strategies and give pragmatic and commercial advice on licensing and fund raisings backed by patent assets. We advise clients on projects that are truly ground-breaking – from acting on some of the UK's most transformational transactions that redefine the commercial landscape to precedent setting patent litigations.

We routinely act for award-winning in-house teams such as Teva and Accord. These hard IP clients are serial litigants, who know what good looks like and expect their external advisors to add value. These clients are not institutional Pinsent Masons' clients, rather, we win our own mandates based on the work we do and our team's reputation. Our litigation capability ranges from litigating patents before the EPO and UK courts, to co-ordinating multiple pan European litigations. With regard to soft IP rights actions are taken in all courts from IPEC to the High Court as well as UK IPO registry actions.

Pinsent Masons was named FT Innovative Lawyer Europe Awards 2016 Winner of Innovation in Business Development & Knowledge Sharing. The IP team invests heavily in providing creative solutions that meet the legal service demands of our clients and ensures it leads the debate on issues that are shaping clients’ ability to remain competitive and to succeed.

Recent IP awards include:

• M&A team of the year (medium sized deal) at the British Legal Awards 
• Life sciences Advisor of the Year at Worldwide Financial Advisor Awards Magazine 2017 Golden Advisor Awards
• Patents Law Firm of the Year at Global Law Experts Awards 2017.
• 2017 IP Excellence Awards - Best International Copyright Law Firm 2017
• IP Advisory Firm of the Year at ACQ5 Global Awards 2017
• Transactional (Private), at the 2017 HealthInvestor awards

Sector Expertise:

• Aerospace & Defence
• Automotive
• Construction & Materials
• Engineering
• Fashion & Luxury Goods
• FMCG & Retail
• Financial Services
• Food & Beverage
• ICT & Software
• Life Sciences & Chemistry
• Manufacturing
• Medical Devices
• Natural Resources
• Pharmaceuticals
• Telecommunication
• Universities & Research

Last updated 28th March 2018