First is worst - second is best

I am a European and UK patent attorney and also a separately qualified trade mark attorney.?I have a hairy chest, but this is irrelevant to my day-to-day professional abilities, as is almost always the case of course with physical characteristics of a person and their proficiency to do their job, so I won’t dwell on that subject you’ll be pleased to know.

I advise on patents, trade marks, designs (including design patents, registered designs and unregistered design rights), trade secrets, copyright and other matters relating to intellectual property (“IP”).?At my firm (Abel + Imray) we work with each other in a collaborative manner.?When we draft patent applications, give opinions or do other weighty pieces of IP work we will often consult with each other, bounce ideas off each other, and sometimes get a different perspective on the problem we’re seeking to solve for our client.?It is not uncommon for the piece of work to be improved as a result of this collaboration.?I get the impression that not all IP service firms are like this.??

If you want a second opinion on an IP matter, please get in touch with me.?I’ve seen plenty of companies make poor decisions on the basis of a lack of understanding of the IP issues at hand.?Sometimes this is simply because the advice has not been given by suitably qualified IP professionals, possibly because access to cost-effective advice hasn’t been available or located in time.?Sometimes, I wish we’d had the opportunity to talk to a company sooner, because we would have found a way around the seemingly tricky issues presented and then given the client options they might not have known existed.?Sometimes the second opinion we provide is better than the first.?Second can be best!

To prove that second is indeed best, we will give the second company that privately messages me with a request for a second opinion, ￡500 of free advice or a 50% discount on our normal fees for such advice, whichever proves to be of greater value.?This will be in addition to the time that we’d normally invest up front in getting to know a new client and their needs better.?The matter could be a review of your existing IP portfolio or your IP strategy, an independent audit of your IP, or a second opinion on any piece of IP advice you’ve received where you’d like to know if someone else might come to a different conclusion.?I’m also happy to hear from companies without existing representation – if an Intellectual Property Office has rejected your application, or raised objections that seem incurable, there is often a solution to be found!