Lawrie IP, an independent Scottish intellectual property firm, has achieved gold ranking for its trade mark practice and has grown its total turnover to £2.6 million from £2.2m in the last year.
The Glasgow-headquartered company is one of only two gold rated firms in Scotland this year in the prestigious World’s Leading Trademark Professionals (WTR 1000) rankings. WTR annually conducts rigorous independent research to compile a list of leading trade mark practitioners throughout the world.
In addition to the overall firm ranking, Lawrie IP director and Chartered Trade Mark Attorney Sharon Mackison received a gold individual ranking and Chartered Trade Mark Attorney Shirley Collins was awarded silver.
Describing Lawrie IP, WTR 1000 said the firm “is always looking to improve its already impressive trademark offering”. It referred to Ms Mackison as “a wealth of knowledge of trademark protection across a wide range of territories” and said Ms Collins showed “both professionalism and an appreciation for meticulous detail”.
Dr Donald Lawrie launched Lawrie IP in 2010 and it has expanded steadily with a big increase in turnover of almost 200% in the last five years from £880,000 in 2014/15 to £2.6m in the year to the end of April 2020.
In 2019, the firm located to larger premises, moving into newly refurbished offices at 310 St Vincent Street – formerly Whyte & MacKay’s global headquarters.
In the last year, Lawrie IP has taken on seven new team members, including trainees in both the patent and trade mark teams. It has also recruited an experienced patent paralegal, an accountant and support staff.
The firm will further strengthen its trade mark practice with the addition of a highly experienced Chartered Trade Mark Attorney, Rachel Denholm on 1 June 2020. Ms Denholm is joining from a large, multinational IP firm where she worked in its London and Glasgow offices. She will bring more than 18 years of IP experience with her and will work as part of the existing trade mark team to ensure continued growth and development.
Lawrie IP has more appointments in the pipeline and is actively recruiting fee earners as its client work grows.
Over the last 12 months, it has signed up more than 70 new clients, including start-ups, small and medium sized businesses and large corporate firms with established international portfolios.
A large part of Lawrie IP’s growth is now focused on international markets through bringing in more patent and trade mark work from attorneys in other countries.
While Lawrie IP understands that some businesses may be reluctant to invest in IP registration and enforcement in this unprecedented economic climate, such protection should continue to be a vital focus for businesses.
The pandemic has seen a rise in the number of fake goods on the market, with counterfeiters taking advantage of limited stocks available to the public under the Government’s lockdown measures.
It warned that factors such as a shortage of materials caused by cross-border restrictions, consumer panic buying and a huge spike in online shopping have created the perfect environment for counterfeiters to make a fast profit. Counterfeits of various products including PPE, as well as other healthcare and sanitary products, have increased significantly during the pandemic.
Dr Donald Lawrie, founder of Lawrie IP, said: “I’m proud of the work of the whole team which has led to us attaining gold status in the prestigious World’s Leading Trademark Professionals rankings. It’s a great achievement to be one of only two firms in Scotland to achieve the top ranking this year. I’m also pleased that Sharon and Shirley’s hard work and dedication has led to their individual gold and silver rankings respectively.
“Our values-led culture, which focuses on looking after our colleagues and clients, is the main driver behind the growth in our client base and our employee numbers. This in turn has increased our turnover to £2.6 million in the last year.
“I’m confident we will continue to grow successfully and we’re putting a lot of time and effort into international expansion in the coming months. Whilst our initial plans to travel, attend international events and meet with existing contacts in person throughout 2020 have had to change due to current circumstances, we remain focused on our growth journey and on developing new and existing relationships which will help us achieve our longer term goals.”
