Cordelia trained and qualified into the Intellectual Property department at media & entertainment firm Harbottle & Lewis LLP where she stayed from September 2005 until March 2012. In October 2015 she then joined Maple & Black Law as their first and only IP lawyer and single-handedly built up their IP practice which then formed part of the merger between Maple & Black Law and Acuity Law where her practice merged with the Technology, Media & Telecoms department.
Cordelia has extensive expertise and advises on both contentious and non-contentious IP matters and specialises in the protection, exploitation, and enforcement of all intellectual property rights, with a particular focus on copyright, trademarks, design rights and confidential information.
She regularly brings and defends actions at the UK and EU intellectual property registries and ICANN under the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy in addition to giving clients technical and strategic pre-action advice in relation to civil actions for infringement of intellectual property rights and passing off.
Her non-contentious work involves brand protection advice including filing and enforcing UK, EU and worldwide trademark and design right registrations and working closely with several overseas IP lawyers. An increasing number of clients have recently assigned representation of their entire registered IP portfolios into Cordelia’s management.
Cordelia also advises on and drafts IP agreements involving the exploitation of intellectual property rights in addition to IP matters which form part of wider corporate deals.
She has a hands-on approach and advises individual and business clients from a range of sectors including the media, entertainment and creative industries with a focus on fashion, art and publishing, health and fitness, communications and technology both in the UK and with a cross-border focus.
Cordelia is particularly conscientious of her clients’ commercial needs which she puts down to her early experiences on secondment at Virgin Atlantic Airways, the London 2012 Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games and the publisher, Argus Media, in each case advising on a wide variety of commercial IP and brand protection matters.
At a previous firm, Cordelia acted for LucasFilm on the high-profile Star Wars copyright infringement case, working on the case from inception through to success at the Supreme Court (Lucasfilm Ltd & Ors v Ainsworth & Anor [2011] UKSC 39) which gave her valuable contentious experience as well as technical acumen in the field of copyright law.
Cordelia’s extensive experience, tenacity and personability not to mention her ability to achieve the very best for her clients, has been recognised by her ability to retain and win regular, repeat work from her clients both big and small. Some of the testimonials Cordelia has recently received from her clients are:
*Cordelia Payne is a Consultant at Acuity Law working on a self-employed basis*