Intellectual Property Consulting Services That Connect Your Paperwork to Your Numbers

You register it with the UK Intellectual Property Office, the government body that grants trade marks. You can do this yourself on GOV.UK, and the official fee is low, so the DIY route is real. The catch is the detail. You pick classes that define what your mark covers, and the wrong choice leaves gaps a competitor can walk through. A poorly drafted mark can also draw an opposition from an existing brand. We run the search, choose the classes and file the application, so your name is protected for what you actually sell. Official IPO fees are billed at cost on top of your plan.

Amazon Brand Registry needs a registered trademark before you can enrol and control your listings. It is the main tool for removing hijackers and copycats from your products. We file your UK trademark with the Intellectual Property Office, choose the classes that match what you sell, and keep the filing joined up with your accounts. Once the mark is granted you can enrol in Brand Registry. Registration takes time, so it pays to start before you need it.

Often not, and this surprises a lot of founders. When you pay a freelancer or agency to write code, design a logo or build a site, the law usually leaves them owning the copyright unless a written assignment moves it to your company. Paying the invoice is not the same as owning the work. This is common, and it is fixable. We put IP-assignment agreements in place, and add assignment clauses to your contractor and employment contracts, so ownership sits with the company where it belongs.

Not automatically. Anything you created before the company existed belongs to you personally, not the business, until you sign it over. Investors check this closely, because IP stuck with a founder is a risk they will not carry. The fix is simple when done early. A founder IP-assignment transfers your pre-incorporation work into the company. We draft it as part of getting your ownership clean before a raise or sale.

Patent Box reduces corporation tax on the profits that come from qualifying UK or European patents, from 25% to 10%. To qualify you need a granted patent (not a pending application), the patent must be used commercially, and you must have been actively involved in developing it. We assess eligibility, work out the qualifying profit, and make the election on your company tax return (the CT600).

Sometimes, and it depends on how the IP arose. IP you buy from someone else can usually go on the balance sheet at what you paid for it. IP you build yourself is harder to recognise under UK accounting rules, and a lot of valuable homegrown IP never appears at all. Where it can be recognised, we value it properly and record it, which strengthens your accounts for lenders and buyers. We only put figures on the balance sheet that we can defend.

There are three accepted methods. Cost is what it took to create. Market is what comparable IP sells for. Income is the future cash flow it is expected to earn, discounted to today. The income method usually gives the highest defensible figure, and it is the standard for due diligence and the balance sheet. We use the method that fits the purpose, whether that is your accounts, a fundraise or a sale.

Yes. For many businesses, things like formulas, customer data and proprietary processes, a trade secret is stronger than a patent. It does not expire, and it does not require you to publish how it works. Protection depends on showing you took real steps to keep it secret: NDAs with everyone who sees it, access controls, a written confidentiality policy, and a record of who has been exposed.

Holding IP in a separate company, often called an IP holding company, and licensing it to your trading business can deliver Patent Box relief, keep the IP away from operational risk, and simplify cross-border licensing. Transfer pricing rules mean the licence fee has to be at arm's length, meaning priced as it would be between unconnected businesses, and properly documented to satisfy HMRC. That is where most DIY structures fall over.

Buyers and investors look for clean IP ownership chains, where every contractor and employee has assigned their work to the company. They also want registered trademarks for brand and product names, and properly documented licences for any third-party IP in the product. Gaps in any of these knock the valuation down or stall the deal. We run pre-deal IP audits to fix issues before they surface in due diligence.

For most of the IP work our clients need, no. As a CIMA-regulated firm we handle IP audits, trade mark applications to the IPO, IP assignment and ownership paperwork, valuation, Patent Box and R&D tax relief. We are accountants, not a law firm, so unlike standalone intellectual property law services we tie the paperwork to your accounts and tax. Some matters do need a registered patent attorney, drafting a complex patent, for example, or a solicitor for a contested infringement dispute. When that happens we tell you upfront and coordinate the specialist, so nothing falls between the two.

Our intellectual property consulting services sit inside fixed monthly plans at £129, £250 and £499, so you know the cost before anything starts, with no hourly meter and no per-letter charges. One-off pieces of work, such as a single trade mark filing or a pre-fundraise IP audit, can be quoted separately. Official fees, such as the Intellectual Property Office charge for a trade mark, are billed at cost on top. Every plan is rolling monthly with a 30-day money-back guarantee, so you can scale up as your IP grows and down if plans change.