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Portrait ofSarah Wright

Sarah Wright

Partner
Head of Intellectual Property

CMS Cameron McKenna Nabarro Olswang LLP
Cannon Place
78 Cannon Street
London
EC4N 6AF
United Kingdom
Languages English, French, Spanish

Sarah has built her leading IP practice advising companies on how to protect, monetise and enforce their brands and designs.

Sarah advises clients in the Technology, Media and Communications, Life Sciences & Healthcare, and Fashion and Retail sectors. She handles a broad range of IP work from devising trade mark filing strategies, conducting clearances searches and managing international portfolios, through to advising on all types of contentious matters before UKIPO, EUIPO and UK Courts.

In addition, Sarah has experience of non-contentious matters including drafting and negotiating all types of licensing and franchising arrangements and co-existence agreements. Having spent her formative years at a very large city firm, she is equally adept advising on the IP aspects of corporate acquisitions and disposals. Sarah also routinely advises agencies and brands on advertising issues including pre-clearance advice and assists clients with ASA complaints.

Alongside Sarah’s IP practice Sarah is also the co-founder of CMS equIP, the firm’s tech start-up programme which launched in 2016 and has become of the leading law firm programmes in the tech start-up arena in the UK, and which now has capability in multiple jurisdictions. Working with dynamic start-ups has honed Sarah’s ability to cut through detail and find pragmatic solutions for her clients, whatever their size.

Post-Brexit, Sarah will continue to hold representation and audience rights before the EUIPO and the Court of Justice of the European Union. Sarah is English and Irish qualified, and she will operate her EU trade mark and design practice from our Polish office.

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"Wright is a versatile practitioner best known for her portfolio management dexterity, which she exercises for industry leaders. Sarah is approachable and very easy to partner with. She is proficient at handling wide-ranging matters for companies of immense global scale."

World Trademark Review, 2019

"efficient and practical' in her approach."

Legal 500, 2019

"Sarah Wright leads the firm's trade mark practice and advises clients in fashion, life sciences, media and telecoms on prosecution, licensing and litigation. Clients say: "She is really outstanding - she provides tailored advice and commercial proposals."

Chambers 2017

"a shrewd filing strategist and international portfolio developer par excellence."

World Trademark Review 2017

Relevant experience

  • ITV on their global trade mark portfolio including on new filings, oppositions and brand protection issues.
  • Microsoft on their UK and European trade mark filings and oppositions.
  • Fashion clients on various IP matters including their licensing, distribution or franchise arrangements.
  • Lipsy Limited on anti-counterfeiting strategies and dealing with trade mark and design infringement claims.
  • A significant UK media business on the identification, clearance and registration of a new entertainment brand for use across multiple platforms worldwide.
  • A technology start-up on how to protect their IP rights to put them in the best position to secure funding.
  • A UK bank, a life insurance provider and a worldwide pharma company on brand protection issues including clearance of new brand names and advertising issues.
  • A UK manufacturer on a High Court claim for UK and EU registered and unregistered design right infringement.
  • Clients from a wide range of industries on a range of brand protection issues including domain name disputes; takedown notices and the use of keywords.
  • Various clients on the IP aspects of corporate acquisitions and disposals.
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Memberships & Roles

  • INTA: Emerging Issues Committee
  • CITMA, Associate Member
  • PTMG, Associate Member
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Lectures list

  • March 2017 - Global IP ConfEx - Panel Speaker on international trade mark law & practice.
  • April 2016 - "Smart Retailers", Draper's Digital Forum, London.
  • October 2015 - “Mind the Gap, Keeping it Legal”, Google Campus, London.
  • September 2015 - "Clutter on the Community Trade Mark Register", The McCarthy Institute Trade Mark Symposium at University of San Francisco.
  • June 2015 - Panel Speaker at Thomson Reuters Trade Mark Conference, London.
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Education

  • 2003 – Diploma in Intellectual Property Law, Bristol
  • 1997 - LLB Law and French Law, Liverpool
  • 1996 - Licence en Droit, Bordeaux
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Feed

14/03/2024
“Pre-branded” spare parts: CJEU has its say in Audi trade mark case
The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has given its ruling following a referral from the Regional Court of Warsaw, in a trade mark infringement claim brought by Audi (Audi AG v GQ, Case C-334/22)...
05/03/2024
Gin-spiration: The latest lessons from M&S vs Aldi - the appeal
BackgroundA year ago, we commented on IPEC’s ruling on the gin bottle design dispute between Marks & Spencer and Aldi in which Judge Hacon found that the similarities between the bottles were significant...
01/03/2024
Digital Assets
Does your business have or is it ready for digitalisation and digital assets? Digital assets are transforming the world of business. Not just technologies in the news, like AI and crypto currencies, but a whole world of technological advances, from digital twins and extended reality to smart contracts and token­isa­tion. For tech businesses and those already using such technology to develop and market new products, much of this is core activity and relatively well understood – although legal and regulatory uncertainties remain, and potential pitfalls still exist for the unwary. But other business leaders, often less familiar with the territory, have to manage an increasingly complex assortment of issues that never troubled their predecessors, ranging from protecting their brand in the metaverse to deciding whether they should tokenise their shares or accept payments in crypto currencies. This section of Bandwidth looks at issues around the development and regulation of a wide variety of digital assets, and discusses how businesses can embrace them to innovate and evolve.
15/12/2023
Insights on cost-effective IP enforcement in the UK taken from joint CMS/IPLA...
On 30 November 2023, CMS and IPLA hosted a panel discussion on how rights owners can enforce their IP rights in an effective manner in the UK and how the UK IP profession can continue to make the UK an...
27/11/2023
EU Designs Reform, One Year On: EU Parliament announce Final Form of the...
On 7 November 2023, the EU Parliament published the final form of the updated EU Designs legislation. The new legislation, which takes form through a new Regulation and new Directive, are the Par­lia­ment’s...
27/09/2023
My Computer did it! Exploring SHEIN’s latest lawsuit
In the latest of a series of copyright infringement claims, three independent graphic designers - Krista Perry, Larissa Martinez, and Jay Baron, have launched a claim in the California Federal Court ...
25/08/2023
Ready for ‘seismic changes’ to UK law in 2024? High Court considers impact...
Trade marks can be infringed by a competitor’s use of an identical (or confusingly similar) Google ‘keyword’. However, there must be evidence that this had an adverse effect on the functions of...
16/08/2023
Designs practice update: Advocate General backs 6-month priority period...
Can a Community Design application claim priority from an earlier patent application – and if so, what is the applicable priority period?The recent opinion of Advocate General Capeta in EUIPO v The...
10/07/2023
New Rules for Suspension of Trade Mark Examination introduced by the China...
CNIPA has recently announced new rules governing suspension requests during trade mark review procedures (i.e. filings and examinations). The new rules are aiming to reduce the costs and burden on legal...
28/06/2023
CMS Intellectual Property Webinar Series 2023
The CMS Intellectual Property team are pleased to invite you to our upcoming webinar series, taking place from February to July 2023. The series will span the full scope of CMS’s IP practice, including...
28/06/2023
Registered Designs (UK)
Find out what can be registered as a design and what the benefits are of doing so. We talk you through the process of design registration in the UK and some of the common challenges you may face.  
27/06/2023
Scope of UK unregistered design rights considered by IPEC – minor changes...
The UK Intellectual Property and Enterprise Court (“IPEC”) has issued its decision in KF Global Brands Ltd v Lead Wear Ltd and others, ruling that UK unregistered design rights did not subsist in...