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Howes Percival Intellectual Property Partner wins prestigious legal award

Howes Percival Intellectual Property Partner wins prestigious legal award

Matthew Talbot, a Partner at Howes Percival's Leicester office and head of the firm's intellectual property and information technology practice has been named as the Leading Lawyer of the Year (outside London) for the Technology, Media and Telecoms (TMT) sector, in the prestigious Legal 500 UK Awards 2020. 

The Legal 500 Awards 2020 recognise and reward the best in-house and private practice teams and individuals over the past 12 months. The awards are handed to the elite legal practitioners, based on the most comprehensive research into the UK legal market. The Legal 500 conducted over 70,000 interviews to ascertain the winners, who will be invited to a dinner in London in February 2020, to celebrate with their peers. 

Matthew specialises in all areas of UK and European intellectual property (IP) law, particularly contentious matters, advising clients regarding trademarks, copyright, design rights, passing off, patents, European food protection and defamation.  He heads-up Howes Percival's 10-strong team of IP specialists.  

The team covers a vast range of IP, IT and media work for clients - both in the UK and internationally.  Recent work includes advising a growing number of footwear brands including Start-Rite and Shoe one and working for clothing brand JustHype.  

Howes Percival is the sole legal representative in the UK of the Business Software Alliance (BSA). 

Headquartered in Washington, DC, with operations in more than 30 countries, the BSA is the voice of the software industry.  BSA members include Microsoft, Autodesk, Siemens and Adobe.  As part of its function, the BSA works with a law firm in each territory to help police software licencing.  BSA run campaigns to find organisations that are using illegal software or are under-licenced.  At any time, Howes Percival are working on 100 to 150 BSA cases. 

The team is also widely recognised for its expertise in advising clients in the food and drink sector.  The firm acts for a huge range of producers and organisations from cider makers in Devon to cheese manufacturers in the Midlands; from clotted cream producers in Cornwall to brandy makers in Herefordshire.  Much of the work is in relation to the EU protected food name scheme.  

Commenting on the award, Matthew Talbot said,

"It's a great honour to be chosen for this award, particularly as it's based on feedback from clients and in-depth research by The Legal 500.  I am very privileged to lead an exceptionally talented group of IP and IT lawyers, so this award is very much a win for the whole team.  We pride ourselves on giving clients practical, commercial and cost-sensitive advice across a range of business sectors on both non-contentious and contentious matters." 

For more information on Howes Percival's IP and IT services visit: https://www.howespercival.com/services/intellectual-property/ 


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