Joel Barry

Joel Barry is a Partner with Brandsmiths, a boutique law firm with offices in London and Manchester, specialising in intellectual property, sport and commercial matters.

Since his qualification in 1996, Joel has asserted himself as an all-round IP specialist and his practice encompasses litigation, trade mark prosecution and commercial work. He is best known for his trade mark practice, particularly in the media and entertainment sectors. Joel has headed two of the largest IP practices in the UK and his practice combines both trade mark prosecution and litigation within a single team.

Joel is recognised internationally as a global leader in trade marks and has conducted litigation and undertaken advocacy in the UK courts and throughout Europe including before the Appointed Person and the General Court of the European Union in relation to trade mark matters.

He joined Brandsmiths in June 2021 to build up the firm’s practice in this area. Outside the trade mark sphere, Joel’s practice includes fashion disputes, art disputes and deals, partnership disputes, film and TV disputes, music disputes, contractual disputes, advertising clearance and new brand clearances and launches.

Joel has been described by WTR1000 as “one of the market’s big dogs, but he doesn’t let ego get in the way of anything – he is committed to doing a fabulous job for clients” and “extremely sound, a fantastic portfolio manager and has a great strategic mind. He should be first choice for any trademark protection matter.”

Our experts grow and protect some of the world’s biggest brands. We take pride in our ability to adapt regardless of size, growth rate or targets. It’s this flexibility that enables us to develop and monetise clients’ IP rights.

We do this by performing trade mark, design and patent searches to identify registered intellectual property, alongside unregistered rights such as copyright, confidential information and database rights. Our experts also advise on client registrations and those of competitors to ensure our clients’ IP strategy matches the plan for growth.

Brandsmiths has a stellar reputation for protecting our clients’ intellectual property rights through litigation in the High Court, Intellectual Property Enterprise Court, UK Intellectual Property Office and European Intellectual Property Office. We specialise in complex and urgent cases, with considerable experience of interim injunction applications and appearances before the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court.