Clarion, which has one of the largest intellectual property (IP) practices of any full service law firm in the North, has further strengthened its nine-strong team of dedicated IP specialists by bringing on board Ashton Craven-Lockwood and Wai Ling Wan.
Ashton joins as an associate having spent five years in-house with a major pharmaceutical company, initially as a paralegal on secondment from an international law firm, before going on to complete his training contact with the multi-national. During his time there, Ashton gained experience within the global contracting, business development and legal brand protection teams. Ashton also has two years’ experience in general commercial litigation.
In his new role, Ashton will support all areas of contentious and non-contentious IP matters, providing advice on national and international trade marks, copyright, designs and patents. His work includes supporting the prosecution, enforcement and defence of IP rights as well as advising on a variety of contractual agreements.
Wai Ling joins the Clarion team as a paralegal after attending Durham Law School. She will assist with the management of trade mark portfolios nationally and internationally, as well as undertaking legal research and producing brand reviews.
Esther Kirwan, who heads up Clarion’s IP practice, said: “With nine dedicated IP lawyers and trade mark attorneys, we have real strength in depth, but it’s important that we continue to invest in developing young talent coming into this specialist area.
“Increasingly, we’ve seen businesses, large and small, becoming more aware of the value of their IP assets; we help them to commercialise their IP to use as an income stream as well as preventing people from mis-using or misappropriating it. There’s been a marked uplift in demand for our design filing practice as clients seek to protect the shape of their products, and, fairly unusually, we can help through our dedicated design section.
“Our international trade mark prosecution practice goes from strength to strength. As well as supporting businesses here, we’ve also been working closely with our network of attorneys around the world to help our clients with their expansion plans overseas and have provided IP advice in over 75 countries from the US and Australia to Kiribati and Tanzania. We also receive a high level of inward work from our overseas attorney network, assisting their clients to do business in the UK and the EU.”
Ashton comments: “This is a fantastic opportunity to join one of the leading IP practices in the region. As well as being able to learn from such experienced colleagues, Clarion’s approach of developing an in-depth understanding of the client’s business and their goals, chimed with my own. I am looking forward to working with a wide range of businesses, from SMEs to multi-nationals, to help protect the value of their IP.”
Wai Ling adds: “I’m excited to be part of such a renowned IP team which is known to go above and beyond to ensure the best IP protection for its clients.”
With a diverse client base from multinationals to SMEs across a range of industries, Clarion’s dedicated IP team advises on all matters relating to patents, designs, trade marks, copyright, confidential information and defamation, including litigation and dispute resolution, as well as advising on IP strategy, registered IP protection, IP agreements and exploitation.
