- Quality Service Putting our clients first and understanding their challenges, objectives and goals and delivering a tailored service that represents value in every sense.
- Heritage Taking pride in our history, embracing our legacy and taking responsibility for the future success of our firm.
- Forward Thinking Striving to be flexible, skilled, able to adapt to the needs of our clients and always thinking several steps ahead.
- Expertise To pursue the delivery of outstanding results in all we do and to be market leaders in our specialist sectors.
- Dynamic To be positive in attitude, energetic, responsive and always on the front foot.
Nigel Urwin
Consultant
Nigel Urwin is a Consultant and head of our intellectual property team. Lately he has tended to concentrate on advising largely international clients on the protection of their intellectual property particularly trademarks, copyright and geographical indications.
He has many years experience dealing with corporate mergers and acquisitions, software licensing, film and television contracts, publishing agreements, and the protection of brands and geographical names. Recently he has advised international lawyers and clients on the protection of their intellectual property in the context of Brexit. In the course of his career he has advised multinationals and SMEs, charities, and quangos on commercial law issues in a wide range of diverse circumstances, always bring to bear a focus on delivering cost-effective solutions for clients.
Experience
Some highlights of a diverse career in commercial and media law include:
- The purchase of a significant software division of an international business for a growing UK software house
- Winning at the European Court of Justice to uphold the protection of the Basmati geographical indication
- Securing the registration of major wine trade names as trademarks in order to secure UK protection of the names
- Leading the negotiation of the contract for the sale of the Winnie the Pooh merchandising rights to Disney
- With Disney, fighting a case in the California Court of Appeal under author's rights under US Copyright law to try to recover the US merchandising rights from the US licensee
- Setting up the programme acquisition contracts for Channel 4 Television Company and handling many such
- Negotiating the contracts for the Barbara Cartland Library of Love and registering her name as a US Trademark for merchandise
Career
Qualified as a solicitor after training with Simmons and Simmons in the City of London, where he experienced trademark, patent and monopoly law matters, he moved to Dentons for four years for company commercial and media work and then joined with two Dentons partners in setting up a new firm Brown Cooper as a young partner, where he concentrated on film and television; and oil and gas. He jointly led the successive mergers with Monier-Williams and with Lee Bolton & Lee which resulted in the present firm. Latterly he has focused as part of pro bono work, on publishing activity as a trustee of the Pooh Properties Trust and a director of the company which owns all the other copyrights of AA Milne and his son Christopher Milne, and commercially on the protection of geographical indications including Champagne, Cognac and others.