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IP Lawyer Shireen Smith Launches ‘Intellectual Property Revolution’

14-Oct-2015 | Source : SourceWire | Visits : 6954
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LONDON - Shireen Smith, leading IP lawyer and founder of IP specialist law firm Azrights, launched her book ‘Intellectual Property Revolution’, supported by guest speakers Daniel Priestley and Will Critchlow.
 
Daniel Priestley is the co-founder and CEO of Entrevo, a company that runs a growth accelerator program for entrepreneurs – including Shireen Smith – to build their businesses. The author of three bestselling books – ‘Key Person of Influence’, ‘Entrepreneur Revolution’ and ‘Oversubscribed’ – Daniel is an experienced, coach, speaker and entrepreneur, having started his first business aged 21. He has bought, sold and turned around businesses throughout his career. 
 
Daniel said, “I genuinely believe that we are going through times that are revolutionary. We are reorganizing the way in which the world works. Intellectual property is the new home ownership. Millennials have said that they’d prefer a start-up to a home. A lot of people who, had they been born in another time, would have been buying houses are now throwing their time and energy into creating start-ups and intellectual property.
 
“So it stands to reason that they want to know how to identify, value and protect their IP.”
 
Will Critchlow is the co-founder and CEO of Distilled, a successful online marketing agency. Since the inception of Distilled in 2005, Will, with business partner Duncan Morris, has built Distilled to be one of the world’s leading SEO agencies, with over 60 employees and offices in London, New York and Seattle. An undisputed SEO expert, he has consulted with some of the world’s largest organizations and most famous websites, and spoken at major industry events. 
 
Will said, “It’s essential that new businesses in the digital economy get IP advice early. If they end up having to rebrand because they infringe on another business’ IP, they can lose all of the hard work that they’ve built up.
 
“There is huge opportunity out there, but if a new business hasn’t protected its brand name there is none.” 
 
‘Intellectual Property Revolution’, published by Rethink Press and priced at £12.99, is about how to successfully manage IP assets, protect brands and add value to businesses in the digital economy. It is written in plain English and is intended for use by business owners and ‘brand guardians’. Shireen Smith believes that branded business owners – alongside branding agencies, designers and advertisers who support brand identities – are missing out by not integrating with an IP specialist to ensure that the brands and identities they create are sound from an intellectual property perspective and potentially valuable.
 
Shireen said, “One aspect of IP law is to determine ownership rights of intangible assets such as names, logos websites software music photos. The law can be a minefield in the area because the person who is assumed to be the owner of an asset is not necessarily the owner. This is why it is important to consult an IP lawyer early in a business’ development.
 
“If names are chosen without involving a trade mark expert, the business is at risk of losing out. The loss isn’t necessarily always apparent. A poor choice of name relative to the business’ goals can lead to a constant loss of value or difficulty in securing registration either in the UK or in other countries.” 
 
The later in a business’ development a rebranding takes place, the more damaging it can be. For the majority of start-up businesses, resources are limited so many business owners experience fearfulness or trepidation towards consulting lawyers with open-ended fees. Azrights offers fixed-price packages to encourage start-ups to protect their assets.
 
Shireen qualified as a solicitor in 1985 and began to focus on IP, IT, trade marks and copyright as an in-house lawyer at Reuters in the late 80s. She has extensive practical experience of intellectual property and technology law and solid academic credentials, including a Masters in Intellectual Property law from QMW, London University. Shireen is consistently praised for the depth of her expertise and pragmatic, accessible advice.
 
Having developed a good grasp of the IP issues relevant to blue chip companies, she then applied that knowledge to working with start-ups and SMEs once she founded Azrights in 2005. Her company’s website is here: http://azrights.com/. 
 
Shireen has written many articles and is also author of the bestselling book, Legally Branded, which was published in 2012. It is a text book feel about it. It has several 5 star reviews on Amazon, and offers accessible information on IP and internet law to business owners. Shireen frequently speaks at events for entrepreneurs, branding professionals and lawyers on intellectual property, internet law, trade marks, domain names, and other brand matters. 
 
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