Karen Lee

She started her career as a Trainee Solicitor at Edwin Coe and progressed her way through to become a Partner at the firm.

Karen deals with all aspects of intellectual property law, both contentious (including acting for parties in the High Court, IPEC, UKIPO and EUIPO) and non-contentious matters (including advising on trade mark and design filing strategies, drafting assignments, licences and non-disclosure agreements) in the fields of trade marks, passing off, copyright and design rights.

Karen is an experienced Intellectual Property Solicitor providing clear, practical advice and commercial solutions to clients treating their problems as if they were her own. She acts for individuals, companies, charities and international organisations on:

• Advising and assisting in the clearing and commercial exploitation of intellectual property rights: Advising on various intellectual property rights, including copyright, trade marks and designs; carrying out trade mark clearance searches; drafting and negotiating licence agreements, assignment agreements, non-disclosure and confidentiality agreements.

• Filing and prosecuting trade marks and designs through to registration at UK, EU and international level: Advising on the registrability of trade marks and designs prior to filing; filing trade marks and designs worldwide; handling any objections that may arise from the Registries; dealing with any oppositions, invalidity and/or revocation proceedings that may arise.

• Managing worldwide trade mark and design portfolios: Managing, co-ordinating and dealing with trade mark and designs worldwide, including dealing with any disputes that may arise around the world, assignments, renewals, licence recordals, AFA custom recordals before the UKIPO and EUIPO, assisting with custom recordals and copyright recordals elsewhere around the world including in the USA and China; implementing watch notices to monitor against any third party trade marks and company names that may encroach upon clients’ rights.

• Enforcing intellectual property rights: Filing and prosecuting UK and EU opposition, invalidity and revocation proceedings concerning trade marks and designs; dealing with company name disputes via the Company Names Tribunal; tackling domain name disputes and counterfeits or copycats including through cease and desist letters, take down notices of third-party websites and on social media platforms.

• Litigation: Acting for clients in copyright infringement, trade mark infringement, passing off and design infringement proceedings before IPEC, High Court and Court of Appeal as well as dealing with any settlement that may arise. Karen excels at managing very large worldwide trade mark and design portfolios for large international businesses, including in the protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights against third parties all around the world. She is adept at handling numerous matters and disputes at any one time whilst ensuring clients’ needs are met and kept updated throughout.