Catherine Ayers

Expertise

Catherine is a trade mark attorney and is a member of the Chartered Institute of Trade Mark attorneys (CITMA).

Catherine obtained a degree in Natural Sciences from Cambridge University in 1990 and has worked in the intellectual property field since that time.

Since her degree and qualifying as a Chartered UK Trade Mark Attorney in 1995, she has obtained a Postgraduate Diploma in European Competition Law from Kings College London (1997), and a Postgraduate Certificate and LLM in Intellectual Property Litigation in 2007.

Catherine has gained a huge variety of experience via working with several well-respected firms of patent and trade mark attorneys throughout her career. She has provided lectures on trade mark law and practice, and tuition to numerous trainees, as well as serving for a time as a member of the Chartered Institute of Trade Mark Attorneys’ Council.

How do you help clients?

Over the last 15 years, I have mainly handled work for UK-based businesses and so have vast experience of working before the UKIPO and EUIPO as well as outside of the UK and EU, given the need for most UK businesses to protect their brands in the USA and China, as well as in other appropriate jurisdictions.

I advise in relation to re-branding and trade mark availability searching, trade mark filing programmes, correct trade mark usage, trade mark and company name watching, oppositions, revocations, cancellations, and other disputes. I handle multi-jurisdictional trade mark registration programmes and dispute matters and complex assignment recordal projects.

I have experience of trade mark infringement and passing off disputes, and online selling platforms’ take-down processes, both on the offensive and defensive sides, and am dedicated to making the trade mark part of clients’ businesses work as smoothly as possible.

I am always delighted to aid the sometimes-complex decision-making process for clients and to assist in them in obtaining their commercial outcomes.

Experience

1. Acted in a dispute for a pet food manufacturer, defending a claim of alleged trade mark infringement, securing a satisfactory and low-cost settlement.
2. Acted in a trade mark infringement dispute for a plastic goods wholesaler against a national supermarket chain. Secured instant removal of offending items from sale and obtained a payment towards costs/damages.
3. Advised a plastic goods wholesaler in relation to a global re-brand of their company.
4. Acted for a local lettings business in relation to a UKIPO/passing off dispute against a well-known loans company. Secured a win in a trade mark opposition before the UKIPO and cessation of use of the offending brand.
5. Acted for a TV company in negotiating with a clothing company relating to a licensing/assignment matter, resulting in considerable cost savings to the TV company.