Leigh Ellis

Intellectual Property and Software Solicitor

+44 20 7036 9282

le@hallellis.co.uk

Background

Leigh Ellis is a business solicitor with specialist expertise in IT law and intellectual property with 20 years' experience.

He is a solicitor that understands technology, software and how it works.

He studied computer science, with majors in software engineering and artificial intelligence before qualifying as a solicitor.  He then completed a Masters Degree in Intellectual Property law. He focused intellectual property rights which protect IT related legal rights and software in the electronic environment.

His clients obtain the value of the underlying knowledge of technology with focused, no-nonsense legal advice. As a specialist IT lawyer and tech expert, his clients obtain insight into their legal affairs and become better positioned to protect their business interests in the digital environment. 

He simplifies legal issues within their commercial context to put businesses in a position to make the right decisions for their business. 

Expertise

Leigh advises businesses on information technology & intellectual property related contracts and resolution of disputes.

For business contracts, he:

• fixes commercial contracts to ensure that they don’t contain traps that will come back to bite you
• helps you avoid over-committing to legal commitments in contracts that you cannot honour
• checks business contracts to ensures that the business objectives match what it says in contracts
• supports businesses to avoid mistakes that hurt your legal position
• advises to minimise risk and liability in commercial transactions

In IT law and licensing, he helps businesses:

1. identify and protect valuable intellectual property rights 
2. checks to ensure businesses own assets that they say they do for due diligence
3. creates licensing arrangements which protect business assets and maximise commercial value
4. checks payment models for more reliable and predictable licensing revenue streams
5. enforce intellectual property rights
6. protect business assets and trade reputation

Experience

Business Transactions

• Advising online service providers on service level agreements and General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
• Assisting businesses respond to licensing disputes and to address requirements arising from audit letters issued by the British Software Alliance 'The Software Alliance' (BSA) and those issued by Microsoft, Oracle and IBM, along with assistance negotiating settlements on reasonable terms
• consolidating legal documentation so that it is fit for commercial purposes to achieve commercial ends, such as:
  • software licences
  • software development agreements
  • terms of business and service
  • intellectual property indemnities
  • limitations of liability
  • software as a service and cloud based contracts
• as an open source software solicitor, Leigh advises on
  • terms of open source licences compliance, and where the traps are
  • availability of claims for breach of contract and infringement
  • drafting open source licences
• preserve and register intellectual property rights such as trade marks and designs and ward off competitors

Disputes

• prosecuting and defending claims for infringement of intellectual property rights
• identifying breaches of contract in business contracts and steps to address breaches
• defending claims of patent infringement
• rectifying unlawful disclosure of confidential information
• obtaining court orders to guard against dissipation of assets to secure judgments

In the Media

• Sky News and BBC News: international developments in technology law and intellectual property
• Interviewed by The Times, Forbes, BBC Online, BBC Radio One, Computing Magazine, New York Times, Guardian Online, Talk Sport