Simon Clark

Practice Areas

Simon specialises in copyright and design rights, database rights, trade marks, passing off, domain names and breach of confidence.

As a litigator he has acted for clients in the High Court, Court of Appeal, Supreme Court, Court of Justice of the EU, as well as in the Copyright Tribunal and the IP Enterprise Court, including appearing as a Solicitor Advocate.

Simon specialises in online intellectual property issues, such as representing the NLA and six of the national newspapers in the proceedings brought against Meltwater and the PRCA on copyright in newspaper headlines, summaries and internet browsing, which went to the European Court of Justice, the Supreme Court and the Copyright Tribunal. He had advised numerous clients on the challenges brought about by AI, covering the full spectrum from content owners, intermediaries/app developers and AI businesses. He also regularly acts for computer games clients, both enforcing their rights and defending them in court proceedings.

Simon represents clients in High Court trade mark actions and trade mark proceedings before the UKIPO, and also manages several well-known international brand portfolios. Simon sits as an Appointed Person, a judicial role hearing trade mark appeals from the UKIPO.

He has always been particularly active in the design industry, including acting for some of the country’s leading furniture, textile, fashion and product design companies. For example, he acted for the successful defendant in the important design rights case, Neptune (Europe) Ltd v DeVol Kitchens Ltd [2017] EWHC 2172 (Pat).

He is also a member of the Executive Committee of BLACA (the British Literary and Artistic Copyright Association), a member of INTA’s Rights of Publicity Committee and Round Tables committee, a tutor on the Oxford IP Diploma course, and the co-author of ‘Intellectual Property’, a textbook published by Palgrave MacMillan, currently in its sixth edition.

Career

LLB Hons, Cardiff University 1989

Qualified 1992

Partner 2000

Solicitor Advocate

Appointed Person for trade marks

Publications

Designs & Copyright Review of the Year