Trade Mark Paralegal/Administrator in London

It’s an exciting time to join us! We are looking for a Trade Mark Paralegal / Administrator to be involved in the day-to-day activities of our team dedicated to protecting trade marks in more ‘hard to reach’ jurisdictions and handling large recordal projects. We manage many rights worldwide, and you will be dealing with Registries or associates in a diverse range of countries in what many would regard as niche regions. The role would suit someone that enjoys the international nature of trade marks and intellectual property.

The ability to work autonomously and part of a team, whether that’s the specialist team or the fee earning teams with ultimate client responsibility, is also important. Stobbs have bespoke systems to help them manage IP rights and so an aptitude for databases / case management systems is a must, as well as general IT skills (e.g. Word and Excel). Experience of commercial databases would be useful. Trade mark formalities and recordals isn’t for everyone. It’s volume based, deadline heavy and requires good organisation.

Further Key Responsibilities:

• Administration tasks around trade mark applications, filing and prosecution and recordals: new cases; instructions; supporting documents; monitoring for client documents/information and progress and Certificates; records processing.
• Billing responsibilities.
• Cover the other team members when they are absent or when one may be particularly busy.
• Supporting our renewals team with renewals in certain jurisdictions.

Essential skills and experience:

We are ideally looking for someone with some experience in the trade marks field, particularly someone that enjoys “foreigns” as overseas trade marks can often be fondly referred to. Nevertheless, we have an open mind to others with an administrative background. Those used to working with databases and case management systems may find that they have transferable skills. We may also consider entry level candidates such as recent graduates or college leavers.

You should be comfortable working in a client facing role so accurate written and verbal English language skills are critical. You will enjoy, or be looking for, direct client contact. While the vast majority of our work is conducted in English, foreign language skills can be advantageous.

Firm culture is important at Stobbs - friendly, social, approachable and where we look after each other. We regularly provide our own social and professional events. We manage the rights of some fantastic clients - obviously that means our advice has to be legally sound, but it’s also about it being business savvy. We have high standards but learn from our mistakes. We’re not internally competitive (well, except when it comes to sports and quizzes!). We’re certainly not run with an iron fist; we want our people to bring their whole selves to work, wanting to perform well, learn from mistakes and to feel comfortable asking questions and learning, and helping us continue to improve and be the best we can be.

Our head office is north of Cambridge, with an office in central London. We are trying to strike a good balance of supporting people to work flexibly while delivering for our clients and making Stobbs an attractive place to work. Our current hybrid working policy is a minimum requirement of two days in the office, encouraging people in more if possible. We may expect you to be based in the office full-time during the first six months. Those seeking a part-time role may also be considered.

The company Stobbs is a niche intellectual property practice that recognises that to give the best advice on brands, you need to take a more strategic and holistic approach than pure trade mark expertise. To that end, we launched the concept of Intangible Asset Management. We have a breadth of capability that goes far beyond the scope of any other IP firm and encompasses trade marks, designs and copyright, litigation, disputes, commercial contracts, brand intelligence, brand extension (licensing), systems, online brand enforcement, anti-counterfeiting and brand restructuring. Formed in 2013 with 18 people, today we have over 200 professionals based in Cambridge, London, Dublin, Eindhoven, Munich and Charlotte.