Wiggin

Firm overview:

A highly regarded firm, Wiggin excels in providing global brand strategy and management services across the UK, EU, and Benelux. Its outstanding work includes managing global portfolios for prominent clients in a variety of sectors and the firm’s practice in this area has grown more than fivefold in recent years. Clients that entrust Wiggin to manage their trademark matters now include Premier League football club Tottenham Hotspur, betting and gaming company Entain and market-leading software and tech company Sage.

Wiggin demonstrates an entrepreneurial spirit through innovative lawtech products and ventures. This includes the development of a client collaboration platform utilising HighQ architecture and a custom-built tool which extracts data from WebTMS. The firm also co-founded Incopro, a tech company designed to provide a data-driven foundation for legal actions. Incopro was acquired by Corsearch in June 2021, and Wiggin continues to work closely with them and now represents Corsearch in trademark matters.

The firm has a strong market reputation for excellence in IP litigation, appearing in UK IP courts and tribunals, as well as in the EU General Court and Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) through its Brussels team. The team handles disputes and enforcement for an enviable client list that includes Microsoft and the University of Oxford, and currently manages or supervises over 500 active trademark registry disputes.

Team overview:

Wiggin as a firm values equality, diversity, and inclusion, supporting various affinity groups and community partnerships to promote opportunities for diverse talent. The firm welcomes individuals with varied interests and passions outside of work, fostering a diverse and dynamic team culture.

A firm of specialists, each team member is an expert in their respective fields. Sara Ashby, the highly regarded head of IP, leads on litigation, enforcement, and global portfolio management. Peers describe her work as outstanding, praising her for her “technical excellence” and for being a “safe pair of hands” for her clients.

Litigation expert Rachel Alexander represents major clients like Oxford University and Ubisoft and is recommended as “really excellent” by peers. Alexander leads the Women of Wiggin Group.

Michael Browne focuses on portfolio management and disputes, including bet365 and Knitpro. John Colbourn manages brand strategy for high-profile clients, including Oxford University Press and Microsoft. Peter Dawson, a trademark attorney with strong contentious and non-contentious expertise, handles matters for clients such as Banijay, Wargaming, and Entain. Joanne Gibbs is a specialist in trademark disputes, with a focus on enforcement. Calum Smyth is a strategic IP advisor with expertise in tech and financial services, managing the portfolio of Sage Group.

Over the years the team has demonstrated consistent growth, with recent promotions and hires further strengthening its expertise. As one peer remarks, “they’ve built something that’s really impressive”.

Key matters:

Non-Contentious:

• Global portfolio management for Banijay Group (formerly Endemol Shine)

Banijay Group is the world’s largest production company group, responsible for looking after the brands for many household shows and titles such as Masterchef, Big Brother, Survivor and Peaky Blinders. Wiggin has managed the global trademark portfolio—comprising around 2,000 marks—of the former Endemol Shine Group since 2018. Banijay acquired the Endemol Shine Group in 2020.

The team provides a 360-degree service, handling trademarks from inception—brand searches, strategic portfolio advice and prosecution—to contentious registry matters, and enforcement work, as necessary.  Key partners managing the work are Sara Ashby, John Colbourn, Peter Dawson and Carina Gommers.

• Strategic portfolio advice, prosecution and enforcement work for Entain

Wiggin was appointed global IP counsel for FTSE 100-listed company Entain in 2023. The client’s brands include Bwin, Ladbrokes and Coral and it has a portfolio of around 2,500 trademarks.

The team covers all aspects of trademark work, including brand searches, strategic portfolio advice, prosecution and enforcement work when necessary.

Contentious:

• Litigation work for University of Oxford

The team represented the world-renowned University of Oxford in trademark infringement and passing off proceedings issued in the High Court against Oxford Programs and Oxford Royale Academy. The firm also acted for Oxford Limited, a subsidiary of the University which manages the University’s retail brand licensing programmes.

University of Oxford alleged that the defendants infringed several of its registered trademarks for ‘Oxford’, ‘University of Oxford’ and ‘Oxford University’. The dispute was settled on confidential terms in June 2024, with Rachel Alexander and Joanne Gibbs the key partners handling the matter.

• Trademark and copyright enforcement, online brand protection for Tottenham Hotspur

Wiggin was appointed as global IP counsel for new client Tottenham Hotspur Football Club following a competitive tender. The team’s remit includes strategic trademark advisory work, portfolio management and strategic alignment, IP commercialisation and domain name advice, representing Spurs in registry disputes in the UK, EU, and Benelux, managing global registry disputes, and online and offline brand enforcement matters.

Clients:

Banijay, Corsearch, Entain, Knitpro International, Microsoft, Palace Skateboards, Sage, Tottenham Hotspur, Ubisoft, University of Oxford and Oxford University Press, Wargaming, Xerox