Catherine Ayers MA LLM CTMA

Legal Director – Trade Mark Attorney

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Catherine Ayers MA LLM CTMA

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 King’s College London (1997), and a Postgraduate Certificate and LLM in Intellectual Property Litigation in 2007.

Catherine has gained a huge diversity 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. She is currently excited to be looking into the usefulness of AI tools for the UK trade mark profession as a member of the Chartered Institute of Trade Mark Attorneys’ AI and Technology committee.

How do you help clients?

I have worked in the IP field since 1990 and specialised in trade mark and design matters since 1992. Trade marks and designs are important commercial rights protecting the brands of companies large and small and I’ve had the great privilege of working with an immense variety of companies during my career.

Since 2007, I have mainly handled work for UK-based businesses and so as well as handling work before the UKIPO and EUIPO, I’ve also dealt with many matters 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 am now lucky enough to spend a lot of my time collaborating with clients in the healthcare sector, an area in which I have a great interest given my technical background. I also spend a sizeable proportion of my time sorting out disputes between rival trade marks both in the UK and overseas and take a great deal of satisfaction in standing up for clients and their rights.

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 manage multi-jurisdictional trade mark registration programmes 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.

Experience

  1. Acted in a long-running dispute for a UK -based client in the healthcare sector, covering multiple jurisdictions, which included representing the client at a hearing in a UKIPO opposition and submitting a subsequent appeal to the Appointed Person.
  2. Recorded a webinar for the MBL Seminars organisation relating to tips and tricks for success in UK trade mark oppositions.
  3. Set up Customs AFA procedures for a UK-based client in the healthcare sector covering the UK and European Union.
  4. Took the lead on setting up a streamlined process for registering designs to protect client’s product packaging from copyists.
  5. At a previous firm, assisted a UK-based manufacturer and wholesaler of high quality, durable plastic goods, with sales across the globe, in connection with a complete rebranding project. This involved trade mark searching, registration and advice regarding domain name registration strategy.