Let's protect your intellectual property.
The Little IP Company provides concise and straightforward legal advice in Trade Marks, Copyright and Design Law without the legal jargon.
Gemma can work with you on one-off projects or on an 'in-house' basis, becoming part of your team.
She will advise you on what IP your business owns and provide you with advice on the best and most cost effective way of protecting and exploiting it worldwide.
Gemma Ryan is an Intellectual Property Lawyer and a member of The Chartered Institute of Trade Mark Attorneys (CITMA). She acts for clients in contentious and non-contentious matters relating to trade marks, passing-off, copyright and designs.
After over 14 years of working for firms of Solicitors and Patent and Trade Mark Attorneys, Gemma decided to establish The Little IP Company in February 2022, to step away from the demanding corporate legal world, seeking a better work/life balance for her young family.
Gemma has worked with a variety of clients from entrepreneurs through to corporate and well-known brands, protecting and defending their IP. Recent cases include trade mark oppositions, invalidity and cancellation proceedings, complex trade mark, design and copyright infringement matters.
Gemma takes a no-nonsense approach, providing commercial advice and resolving disputes in an efficient, client focused way. She has particular experience in retail fashion, enforcing rights and defending actions brought by well known brands. Such actions have involved trade mark infringement, design infringement, passing off, copyright infringement and counterfeit goods.
As well as being passionate about IP, Gemma also loves building great relationships with her contacts and clients. The Little IP Company has enabled her to work closely with her clients and essentially become part of their team. Gemma can work with you and your team, taking an ‘in-house’ approach to your IP, spending time to understand your business now and your future plans. Enabling you to plan together the best way of protecting your IP for your budget.
Gemma is happy to work on a fixed fee, project basis or on an hourly rate, providing you with excellent legal advice without the large legal fees associated with instructing the more traditional law firm. Most importantly, you will always deal directly with Gemma.
Gemma Ryan is a sole trader, trading as The Little IP Company. Gemma has professional indemnity insurance and is regulated by IPreg.
Services
Trademarks
A trade mark is valuable to your business and brand. It conveys messages about your business, brand and reputation. Making it easy for customers to find, remember and trust you. It also stops third parties from impersonating you or feeding off your success.
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A trade mark is registered for specific products and/or services that it is used for and must be different enough to tell those of one owner apart from another. It can be anything that identifies your brand, such as a name, logo, word, letter, number, the shape of the goods or packaging; it can even be a sound or a smell. A trade mark is a legal right which gives you exclusive use of your mark on the products or services for which it is registered.
Not only can we assist you with obtaining protection in the UK, we can also assist you with obtaining protection in other countries. There are different ways we can do this, so please contact us so we can discuss the best filing strategy for you.
We offer the following services before registration:
Registrability advice
Clearance searches
Drafting specifications
Trade mark applications
Defending trade mark applications to obtain protection.
After registration we can help you with:
Trade mark portfolio management and review
Opposing third party trade mark applications
Defending and issuing invalidity proceedings
Defending and issuing revocation proceedings
Trade mark disputes advice
Assignments
Licence agreements
Not only can we assist you with obtaining protection in the UK, we can also assist you with obtaining protection in other countries. There are different ways we can do this, so please contact us so we can discuss the best filing strategy for you.
We offer the following services before registration:
Registrability advice
Clearance searches
Drafting specifications
Trade mark applications
Defending trade mark applications to obtain protection.
After registration we can help you with:
Trade mark portfolio management and review
Opposing third party trade mark applications
Defending and issuing invalidity proceedings
Defending and issuing revocation proceedings
Trade mark disputes advice
Assignments
Licence agreements
Design
Like trade marks, designs can become valuable assets of your business. A registered design will protect the look of a product and help you to stop others from making and selling products that copy your design or give a similar overall impression.
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Designs can be two-dimensional, such as a logo or a fabric pattern, or a three-dimensional physical object. To be registrable, the design must be new and have ‘individual character’ to known designs in the market. It cannot be similar to earlier designs.
Design registrations give you exclusive rights to the look of the design and a registration makes it easier to enforce. A registration could stop anyone who makes, imports, sells or uses a product with a similar design to your registration. Design registrations have their own unique registration number, which when placed on packaging may discourage people from copying it.
We offer the following services:
Registrability advice
Design applications
Unregistered design right advice
Design portfolio management and review
Defending registrations
Design dispute advice
Assignments
Licence agreements
Copyright
Copyright is another important business asset which can be enforced against a third party who copies the whole or a substantial part of your work. You can also take action against someone who knowingly imports, keeps or sells an infringing copy.
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Copyright is an intellectual property right which comes into existence automatically when a suitable work is created. It protects sound recordings, films, broadcasts and original artistic, musical, dramatic and literary works. These creative works could be, for example photographs, written works, drawings, sculptures and software code.
There is no copyright registration system in the UK. So it's important to keep records, should you ever need to prove your ownership. It is also good practice to mark the original work with the copyright symbol ©, the date and name of the copyright owner - just like we have at the bottom of our website.
We offer the following services:
General advice on ownership
Copyright dispute advice
Licence agreements
Assignments
Contact
Telephone: +44 (0)7544553428
Email: gemma@littleipco.com
Address: The King Centre, Main Road, Oakham LE15 7WD
Opening Times: Monday - Friday 9.30am - 5.00pm