Leigh Ellis
Expertise
Leigh advises businesses on IT & IP transactions and resolution of disputes. With over 10 years’ experience he has advised companies with a broad array of commercial interests and objectives. He regularly advises on protecting and enforcement of trade reputation, infringement, structuring businesses to minimise risk and liability in commercial transactions. He appears in court and conducts High Court commercial litigation for clients.
With a keen eye for detail, technical expertise and genuine interest in the law, his skills facilitate identification of sources of evidence easily overlooked or discounted, to ravel complexities in technology and IT disputes. He has provided legal advice to international businesses, including clients located in the United Kingdom, companies on the East and West Coast of the United States, France, Switzerland, China, Gibraltar, Australia, Panama, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Thailand, Norway, Malaysia, Singapore, Russia, Mexico, Ecuador, amongst others.
He is also a qualified and experienced software developer with a wealth of experience advising on information technology contracts, software development and licensing. It has become second nature for him to apply his IT skills in his role as a IT lawyer and providing legal advice to clients with interests in the ICT sector.
Businesses Advised
- Companies operating in a wide array of industrial sectors with interests technology, intellectual property, commercial contracts and disputes
- Software Publishers and Developers
- Industrials and Manufacturers
- National distributors
- Entrepreneurial ventures
Professional Experience
- enforcing foreign judgments in England
- obtaining judgments in England with a view to enforcement overseas
- Fraud by affiliate marketing company over one of its customers, leading to significant recompense once electronic evidence produced
- Recovery of sums paid to global boiler-room fraud leading to identification of persons responsible
- Identification of pools of incriminating evidence in fraudulent transactions
- Recovery of debts due and global avenues for recovery of sums
- Contracts presented to client which would have divested the client of all its capital assets, as part of a Strategic Cooperation agreement
- Software Audits by the Business Software Alliance
- Advising provider of websites to Rolls-Royce, BMW and Mini in negotiations with national media agency to improve negotiating position
- Software Audits by the Business Software Alliance
- Design rights in spinal implants
- Software Audits by the Business Software Alliance
- Intellectual property rights and enforcement of rights in software for military applications
- Software Audits by the Business Software Alliance
- Production of software to identify software copyright infringement
- Obtaining evidence with judicial assistance abroad for use in English legal proceedings
Professional Advice
- consequences and effect of legal documentation
- preparation of contractual documentation
- regulatory compliance to new business, entrepreneurs and businesses engaging with information technology suppliers
- Infringement of trade marks, design rights and registered patents
- Striking balances in commercial contracts to mitigate risk
Qualifications
- Master of Laws: Intellectual Property
- Bachelor of Computer Science
- Registered Trade Mark Attorney, Australia
- Higher Rights of Audience before the High Court of Justice
Specialist Practice Areas
Dispute Resolution
- Disputes between businesses
- Protection and management of trade reputation and goodwill
- Risk management, including mitigation of company and contractual risk
- Intellectual Property Disputes
- Information technology disputes
Transactions and Contracts
- Licensing of Technology
- Joint Ventures
- Methods of exploitation and licensing regimes for intellectual property
- advising on open source software in proprietary software
Memberships
- Law Society of England and Wales
- Society for Computers and Law
- British Computer Society
In the Media
- Has appeared on Sky News, BBC News commenting on international developments in IT law and intellectual property effecting the technology industry, interviewed by industry publications on breaking news
- Interviewed by The Times, Forbes, BBC Online, Computing Magazine, New York Times, Guardian Online, TalkSport, amongst others
London Business Solicitors & Lawyers
Our Solicitors in London assist businesses in the UK and internationally to create options, achieve realistic and attainable goals, and providing guidance to assist decision-making in a commercial context.
For more information, legal advice or to find out more about the legal services we provide, call +44 20 7353 1770 or contact us online.