New IP Lawyer joins BHP

Matthew Rippon, a specialist in intellectual property (IP), has joined Blackett Hart & Pratt LLP as a Partner.

 

Based in Darlington, he is believed to be the Tees Valley’s only full-time IP specialist lawyer and will also work across BHP’s other offices in Durham and Newcastle.

 

His IP expertise is already highly sought after among the region’s digital and media-based businesses and companies involved in biotechnology, areas in which he has many years IP experience.

 

Matthew, 37, is known for working with start-up and young businesses and runs workshops and legal clinics at Northumbria University and the University of Teesside.

 

He said: “In the Tees Valley there is a huge amount of investment going into the likes of Digital City, NetPark and incubator units to support businesses that are IP intensive.

 

“It is at these early stages of establishing a business that owners need good advice on trademarking, protection of creativity and help on clearance as they start to build their brand to ensure they’re not infringing on someone else’s rights. For a lot of companies, their brand is their core asset so they have to get it right.”

 

Matthew added: “There is a lot of fear out there about these issues. I’m really passionate about helping new businesses by ensuring they have the information they need to make important decisions without adding to their fear.

 

“For me, it’s a privilege and a rare opportunity to be able to help people form their business strategy and to work with them from brand conception to clearance and registration through to exploitation, monitoring and protection and, where necessary, enforcement of their rights.”

 

Matthew, who also advises on licensing and assignments, technology transfers and patenting, has joined BHP from Watson Burton.

 

Originally from Norfolk, he was working for a firm in Ipswich when he took on for free the case of 15-year-old Claire Field who found herself at the centre of an international battle with Warner Brothers after setting up her website harrypotterguide.co.uk

 

Warner Brothers, which owned the film rights to J K Rowling’s books, had demanded that she hand over her site’s domain name, claiming she had infringed their trademark, but later backed down.