Litigators' Rights

April 1st 2005 marked the enactment of the Trade Mark Attorneys Order 2004. This gives suitably qualified members of ITMA the right to conduct litigation in the Chancery Division of the High Court and the County Court (including the Patents County Court) in relation to trade mark, design and passing off cases.

These rights are only available to corporate members of ITMA who have been granted Trade Mark and Design Litigator Certificates by ITMA.

Rights can be granted to Fellows or Ordinary Members of ITMA who are also Registered Trade Mark Agents.  In order to be granted litigator's rights, Members must either:

• be a solicitor; or
• in the absence of prior experience, take a litigation course validated by ITMA and obtain six months' subsequent experience under appropriate supervision;
• or, for a transitional period only, have been a RTMA for at least three years and either:
• have extensive experience of litigation;
• or, have relevant recent experience and attend a Litigation Crash Course validated by the ITMA Litigators Accreditation Board (LAB)

All applications for Litigators' Rights should be forwarded to Margaret Tyler, secretary of the LAB.

Further information can be found in the left hand menu.