Nottingham launches TM attorney qualification

The course, approved by the Institute of Trade Mark Attorneys, will be a skills-based qualification sitting alongside the formal law course to reflect the increasingly complex work of trade mark attorneys.

The aim is that the resulting qualification will more be closely aligned with that developed for solicitors and barristers.  The qualification will include skills such as negotiation and advocacy, client care, drafting, client interviewing and professional ethics and conduct.

Jane Jarman, Course Leader at Nottingham Law School, says: “This is an exciting development for trade mark attorneys as it highlights the increasing importance of their area of expertise to businesses.  Protecting and exploiting IP is now a core business function, reflected in the growing status of legal specialists in this area.

“This greater business exposure means trade mark attorneys are expected to do more now than simply interpret the letter of the law.  They must interact with business colleagues and with clients to a much greater extent and to that end students need to be equipped with the skills to do this successfully.  The new qualification course delivers a comprehensive package of outcomes-based hard and soft skills, mirroring the training now undertaken by fellow legal professionals such as solicitors and illustrates that fact that ITMA seeks to ensure that its students will be well equipped for business in a post Legal Services Act world.”