Your trusted partner
We tailor our work to your needs and work as an extension of your team
Every business is different. Needs, budgets and objectives vary. We will work with you to understand your requirements and put together the right team to support you.
We build strong and long-standing relationships with our clients. Over one third of our clients have worked with us for over 20 years. Some of them started as small start-ups many years ago and we’ve stayed with them, working alongside them as they progress in their business journey. Others came to us already more established, looking for strategic, commercially minded attorneys who could work as an extension of their in-house teams. Whatever your location, size, sector or commercial needs, we can help you achieve your brand goals.
We will support you in all aspects of your trade mark portfolio management, working with you to integrate your brand assets into your business plan, and ensure its fully aligned to your future strategy. We also offer audits of your existing IP portfolio to help you identify what you currently have, what is missing and what may be disposed of, providing strategic management advice and guidance along the way.
Our clients tell us that we work with them as true partners. They trust us to give an honest opinion and not to sugar-coat our advice. They like that we offer fresh insights, contribute to their idea creation processes and provide business-minded solutions.
1 Case Study: Alliance Pharmaceuticals
Alliance Pharmaceuticals is a leading international consumer healthcare business. From its origins in the UK over 20 years ago, Alliance has grown to market its products in over 100 countries worldwide, employing around 285 people based in locations across Europe, North America and the Asia Pacific region.
For more than 20 years we have worked with Alliance to protect and enforce its trade marks, such as MACUSHIELD, KELOCOTE, VAMOUSSE, LYPSYL, ANBESOL and HYDROMOL, in countries all over the world.
Working closely with Alliance’s in-house legal team, our role is diverse and constantly evolving. We hold strategy meetings twice a month, have provided training on intellectual property to brand managers and marketing teams, and partner Rebecca Anderson-Smith spent some time in-house during a secondment. Our longstanding relationship means we are trusted to ease the load of the legal team by working directly with other individuals within the business as needed.
Prior to entry into new markets, we devise international trade mark searching and filing strategies, balancing the desire to obtain the broadest possible protection, against associated risks and any budgetary constraints.
We coordinate the results of searches from attorneys in countries all over the world, cutting through any legal jargon, in order to present clear and honest opinions on the legal position, alongside creative and commercially focused solutions.
We make use of a number of systems for obtaining trade marks, including national trade mark applications and the Madrid Protocol system, always with an eye to the goals of the business for each particular brand and jurisdiction. We never take a ‘one size fits all’ approach.
We also assist Alliance with enforcement of its trade marks all over the world, working with a large network of trusted contacts in other jurisdictions. This is not only through the filing of trade mark oppositions and cancellations, sending letters to potential infringers, and bringing actions before the national courts, but also through international Customs enforcement work.
In every situation, we carefully consider with Alliance what a successful outcome looks like. This will depend on the brand, market and nature of any potential conflict. We regularly negotiate commercial solutions, recognising that the legal enforcement option available is not always the best choice. We always act with a view to achieving their ultimate business goal, protecting their position in the market and the reputation of their brands, which in the pharmaceutical and consumer healthcare field is absolutely vital.
The partners and associates at Mewburn Ellis are very knowledgeable and a pleasure to work with. Mewburn make managing our IP portfolio hassle-free.
2 Case study: An extension of our client's in-house team
Our client began as a small online retailer and within a few years grew to become a large ecommerce company with a global presence. As their business evolved, their priorities and the nature of the opportunities and risks they faced also changed. We ensured that we remained proactive rather than reactive, putting in place strategies and tailoring our advice as they grew.
In the early years, the key aim was to protect the client’s main branding, allowing it to devote its attention to growing the business. As it expanded its product range and entered new markets, we developed searching and filing strategies to ensure that it could use and protect its trade marks in those new areas, striking a balance between cost, effciency, and commercial importance. Our advice took into account how a trade mark would be used, other key players in the industry, and whether it was a seasonal product. We also gave a training session to the client’s marketing and branding teams to enable them to take trade marks into account early in the development process.
Being in ecommerce meant that the online landscape was critical. We put in place a domain name watch, reviewing and filtering results to alert our client to domain names registered by third parties that may pose a risk. The number of results grew along with our client, as it became well known and others tried to copy, imitate, or refer to our client with similar domain names and branding.
We prepared guidelines to help our client easily and quickly categorise the risk posed by each domain name along with possible actions, the cost and effort of which correlated with the risk posed. This streamlined decision-making meant that time and attention could be spent on those issues which truly posed a commercial threat, making the most of resources.
We have taken enforcement action in the UK and in many countries around the world, using our network of trusted contacts to enforce our client’s trade mark rights and obtaining long-term solutions with a very high success rate.
As an extension of the client’s in-house legal team, the overall aim is always to achieve its commercial objectives, to protect its brand and reputation in a practical and cost-effective way.
As our clients businesses evolve, their priorities and the nature of the opportunities and risks they face also change. We ensure we remain proactive rather than reactive, putting in place strategies and tailoring our advice accordingly.
© 2026 Mewburn Ellis
