NLS launches new qualification course for Trade Mark Specialists

An innovative new professional qualification course has been designed by Nottingham Law School and approved by the Institute of Trade Mark Attorneys (ITMA).

The new course introduces a series of skills-based qualifications which sits alongside the formal law course to produce a qualification outcome much more closely aligned with that developed for barristers and solicitors in recent years.  This reinforces the increased complexity of the workload of Trade Mark Attorneys.

The skills to be taught as part of the new qualification include: negotiation; advocacy; client care; drafting (process and settlements); letter and advice skills; client interviewing and professional ethics and conduct. A Transitional Course for eligible students will commence in October 2010 with the new Professional Certificate in Trade Mark Practice following, subject to validation, in 2011.

Alongside the new main qualification, Nottingham Law School has also developed an additional ITMA Litigator Certificate and ITMA Advocacy Certificate allowing Trade Mark Attorneys to practise litigation and appear as advocates before the Patents County Court.

Jane Jarman, Course Leader at Nottingham Law School, commented:  “This is an exciting development for trade mark attorneys as it highlights the increasing importance of their area of expertise to businesses.  The value of brand and identity is increasingly being capitalised by businesses and turned into investor value.  Protecting and exploiting IP is now a core business function, reflected in the growing status of legal specialists in this area.

“This greater business exposure means trade mark attorneys are expected to do more now than simply interpret the letter of the law.  They must interact with business colleagues and with clients to a much greater extent and to that end students need to be equipped with the skills to do this successfully.  The new qualification course delivers a comprehensive package of outcomes-based hard and soft skills, mirroring the training now undertaken by fellow legal professionals such as solicitors and illustrates that fact that ITMA seeks to ensure that its students will be well equipped for business in a post Legal Service Act world.”

Maggie Ramage, President of ITMA said: “Increasing awareness among businesses of the bottom-line importance of their intellectual property has propelled trade mark attorneys into central roles in protecting and enhancing that IP value. Their status is further enhanced in the post-Legal Services Act world as one of the primary legal functions that will be separately authorised and regulated by the Legal Services Board. This new course has been designed in recognition of this greater role and the changed legal environment in which Trade Mark Attorneys will work, It can only result in a better qualified and more highly skilled profession which should benefit business and clients alike.”

NOTES TO EDITORS:

Intellectual Property

The growth in the annual rate of applications for Intellectual Property rights illustrates increasing importance of IP to business. In 1975 there were 53,400 patent applications and in 2000 this had risen to 233,223.  With trade marks in 1975 there were 16,659 applications and in 2000 this had risen to 85,578.  In addition to trade mark attorneys in private practice, there has also been a growth in the number of specialists working “in house” in an advisory capacity. The growth within the legal sector generally of “in house counsel” has been replicated in the IP sector and is likely to accelerate once the impact of the Legal Services Act 2007 is felt.

Nottingham Law School (NLS)

NLS is unique in having an unrivalled reputation in the provision of legal education and a spectrum from first-year undergraduate to Managing Partner unmatched at present by any of its competitors.  It has been running practitioner programmes, both non award-bearing and accredited at masters’ level, since the early 1990s.  Consequently, it has unrivalled resources in terms of staff and contacts across a wide spread of practice-based and academic fields (including civil justice, intellectual property, management of legal practice, regulation and risk management, health law, international trade, employment, insolvency and sports law), as well as an established reputation in dealing with the very differing needs and interests of part-time, postgraduate, mature students in the workplace.
Intellectual Property is a particular specialisation, In addition to a number of academic LLM degree courses (and LLB modules) NLS also offers the degrees of LLM in Commercial Intellectual Property and the LLM in Intellectual Property Litigation. NLS has also provided a “Crash Course” in Litigation for suitably qualified members of ITMA to enable them to acquire Litigation and Advocacy Certificates under the Courts and Legal Services Act 1990.

ITMA

1. The Institute of Trade Mark Attorneys (ITMA) was established in 1934 as the professional body representing those persons qualified to act for the owners of trade mark and allied intellectual property rights (in particular, registered designs) both nationally and internationally. It now represents the vast majority of UK registered trade mark agents and all UK Trade Mark & Design Litigators.

2. Currently ITMA has approximately 500 practising members; it also extends associate membership to professionals in related fields of law and overseas membership to foreign trade mark attorneys. Its total membership (all classes) is about 1600 members, primarily located in the United Kingdom and Europe, but also in more than 50 other countries.

3. ITMA is regularly consulted by UK government and by international bodies when questions affecting trade mark and allied intellectual property rights arise. It has regular meetings with the Intellectual Property Office (IPO), the Community Trade Marks Office (OHIM), the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) and other sister organisations in Europe and beyond. For more information visit www.itma.org.uk.

Press Enquiries on ITMA to Ken Storey, PR Manager, Tel: 020 8941 6079 or Mobile 07710 434 507. For information on NLS contact Clare Turnbull at Kysen PR on 0207 462 8414 or Mobile 07884 110 173.