Collas Crill IP Management Ltd

A picture is worth a thousand words – but for celebrities, it could be worth thousands of pounds. Guernsey is the first jurisdiction in the world to offer registered image rights, a new form of intellectual property, and its image rights law is potentially the best way for those in the public eye to protect their assets. Guernsey's image rights legislation and register allows owners of such rights to register them and create a more clearly separable and marketable asset. In the same way that a trade mark demonstrates distinctiveness for a company or product, so an image right will demonstrate the distinctiveness of an individual. By structuring image rights royalties for celebrities and personalities, for example through a Guernsey image rights holding company, an individual (or their employer) could enjoy substantial savings on income and capital taxes. They would not be subject to local taxes either provided the beneficial owner of those rights is not resident in Guernsey.

IP now affects most businesses in some way, whatever their size. From start ups to well established blue chip enterprises, from sports personalities to pop stars, we are able to help maximise the value of your IP and its benefit to you. In conjunction with Collas Crill, we advise on the most appropriate structure within which to own and exploit intellectual property generally. From the first step of identifying the type of IP and how it should be owned, to its on-going management and commercialisation, we provide straightforward commercial advice. By concentrating on the detail from the outset, we enable your IP to work for you and provide businesses with the appropriate tools to maximise return on investment. We advise on the management and ongoing requirements related to the ownership of the IP itself together with licensing, structuring and securitisation, as required. Guernsey's and Jersey's IP legislation means that registering IP in or moving IP to the Channel Islands may contribute not only to its protection, but also to the flexibility of its exploitation and the reduction of the tax burden on any related income. We are ideally placed to manage your intellectual property within this exciting and potentially lucrative new environment.

Design rights offer the ability to protect the physical appearance of an item and provide registered protection for up to 25 years. The correct filing and management of design rights is key to businesses involved in product development and sales, and is an important business asset. As part of our IP registration and management services we provide registration services in the UK and the EU together with re-registration of existing rights in Guernsey and Jersey. In addition, we are able to file design rights in other countries through our extensive associate network. Through our portfolio management services, we actively manage existing design rights and advise on their ownership and general commercial exploitation. We provide protection for those clients wishing to hold unregistered design rights, through our depository services.

As the most important asset for most brand owners, it is vital that trade marks are registered and managed. Ensuring that those assets are managed correctly and efficiently and allowing for their exploitation and protection is key to business success. We have considerable experience in dealing with trade mark portfolios of all sizes on behalf of clients and ensuring that those assets are correctly managed. We are able to advise on the clearance, filing and management aspects of trade marks and brands throughout the world.

In the last 20 years or so, domain names have become essential business and marketing tools. Just like any other piece of IP, domain names have to be actively registered and managed as part of a portfolio of IP assets. In addition, they should ideally be supported by the appropriate range of trade marks in order to be correctly protected and enforceable. Because of the ease of registration at most domain registries, many domain owners have fallen prey to 'cybersquatters'. At Collas Crill IP we offer a complete service for our clients identifying the most appropriate domain strategy and working directly with the client to register, manage and, if required, enforce your rights. Our domain services include full domain registration services, domain portfolio management, acquisition of domains on behalf of clients, domain name strategy services in line with client's brand requirement, and watching and monitoring of domain registrations by third parties.

Patents protect the functionality of an item, last for 20 years and give the owner a monopoly right to produce and sell that item in the territory concerned. Just like other IP rights, a patent can be licensed, sold, and commercialised in order to extract the most value from the invention. Throughout the world, patents provide inventors with an easily verifiable right which has real commercial value. New laws regarding the registration and protection of patents in Guernsey came into force in 2010. The combination of this cutting edge legislation and the tax advantages of holding IP assets in Guernsey makes the island a potentially lucrative platform from which to register and exploit patents. Although Guernsey does not provide for first registration of a patent, any overseas proprietor of an overseas registered patent may be registered as the proprietor of a patent in the Guernsey register. Provided that certain criteria is fulfilled, and the invention is new, contains an inventive step and is capable of industrial application, the invention may be protected through placement on the register.

Original literary, dramatic, musical or artistic works, sound recordings, films or broadcasts, and the typographical arrangement of published editions are all protected by copyright in Guernsey. Under Guernsey Laws, the author(s) of a work is the first owner of any copyright in it. Although copyright is an automatic right present at the time of creation, proving this can often be a difficult process. Especially in the online environment, it is easy for third parties to procure client owned material from web sites and promotional materials without recourse to the rightful owner. Our solution at Collas Crill IP is to provide a copyright depository scheme for our clients. The owner's work is deposited with us, which we certificate, and in the event that the work is used by a third party without permission, we can verify the original existence of the work and take the appropriate action.