Lee Curtis
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Lee Curtis Trade Mark & Design Attorney |
Manchester Office 6th Floor 4 Hardman Street,
The Leeson Enterprise Centre Altamont Street Westport Co. Mayo F28 ET85 Tel: +353 98 67 007 |
Practice
Lee is a Partner and Chartered Trade Mark Attorney in HGF's specialist Trade Mark team, having joined the firm in November 2009.
Lee has nearly 25 years’ experience of the trade mark and design law in the UK and overseas, and advises on design and trade mark protection. This includes searching, filing and prosecution through to enforcement of trade mark and design rights.
Lee has advised and managed the trade mark portfolios of some of the leading brands in the United Kingdom and across the globe and has experience of working for clients across a broad range of sectors, such as leading retailers, food distributors and manufacturers, banks, insurers and fashion houses. Lee has undertaken and managed world-wide trade mark clearance and filing programmes on numerous occasions, with particular expertise in working with retailers.
Lee also has extensive experience of the enforcement and preservation of design and trade mark rights. This includes the conduct of hearings before the United Kingdom Intellectual Property Office and appeals to the Appointed Person, enforcement of trade mark rights through trading standards provisions and online. This consists of the successful prosecution of domain actions under the Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy (UDRP) before WIPO and through the Dispute Resolution Service (DRS) of Nominet. Lee prosecuted some of the first non-use revocation actions before the European Union Intellectual Property Office and has been successful in appeals to the Board of Appeal. Lee also has extensive experience of filing and prosecuting trade mark applications, oppositions, revocation and invalidity actions before the European Union Intellectual Property Office, World Intellectual Property Organisation and across the globe.
He has also had articles published in leading Trade Mark Law Journals, such as Managing Intellectual Property, Trademark World, Oxford Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice, CITMA Review and the MARQUES Newsletter. He has also commented on intellectual property matters for national newspapers such as Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, The Sunday Times, The Times, The Independent, and Daily Mail, and also for trade journals such as Campaign, The Grocer, Retail Week, The Retail Bulletin, The Drum, Drapers and Admap. Lee has spoken widely on intellectual property and trade mark matters, most notably before the American Bar Association ('ABA') and American Intellectual Property Law Association ('AIPLA') and on radio on BBC Radio 4 and Talk Radio.
Lee graduated in 1993 with an Economics degree from The University of Warwick, in the UK. Lee became a fully qualified Chartered Trade Mark Attorney in 1996 having won the ‘John Parker Memorial Award' in 1995 for the highest mark in the foundation UK Trade Mark Practice paper.
In August 2010, Lee obtained a Trade Mark and Design Litigators Certificate giving him the right to conduct litigation in the Chancery Division of the High Court and Intellectual Property Enterprise Court in relation to trade mark, design and passing off matters.
In July 2017, Lee qualified by examination as an Irish Trade Mark Agent and thus is qualified to act before the Irish Patent Office on trade mark and design matters.
Lee is described in leading legal directories as “experienced, practical and solution-oriented" (Legal 500, 2017) and “always provides practical solutions to issues" (Managing Intellectual Property IP Stars, 2017).
