A former trainee of the firm, Ellen Forrest-Charde qualified into our Intellectual Property practice in Autumn 2010. Her work focuses broadly on media and entertainment, intellectual property and advertising matters as well as the review of general commercial contracts for the diverse spectrum of international and domestic clients retained by the department.

During her traineeship, Ellen undertook a 4 month in-house secondment with Live Nation, a leading promoter of live entertainment worldwide, where she assisted, amongst other things, with the drafting and negotiation of event promotion and sponsorship deals. Ellen has also undertaken a secondment to our Paris office.

Ellen’s media experience is primarily but not exclusively focused within the film industry and she advises clients in all aspects of development, production, finance and distribution of films. She has recently been instructed to form part of a team to undertake the production work for a new UK film with a multi-million pound budget. Ellen also advises on a day to day basis on agreements with media buying agencies and design agencies undertaking creative services for well-known brands.

Ellen aims to assist clients in the full exploitation of their brands, providing assistance in protecting trade marks, designs and copyright as well as ensuring protection for clients’ online presence by way of domain name retrieval. Ellen has expertise in building up effective anti-counterfeiting programmes for clients and pursuing copycat brands in the marketplace and online. Ellen is also a regular contributor to World Trademark Review.

In her spare time, Ellen undertakes pro bono work at a free legal clinic and fundraises for the brain cancer charity, Brainstrust.

Publications

Facebook: guidance for trade mark owners, Lexology, 15 June 2009

The meaning of ‘likelihood of confusion’, Lexology, 13 August 2009

Biotronik receives harsh treatment at CFI, Lexology and World Trademark Review, 13 August 2009

REDROCK opposition left on the rocks, World Trademark Review, 18 November 2009

Panorama mark held to be invalid for aquariums, World Trademark Review, 25 November 2009

Number is up for numeral trade marks at the CFI, World Trademark Review, 27 November 2009

Loi anglaise controversée sur l’ouverture du marché des services juridiques, La Revue, October 2009

No intent to harm required for claims for moral harassment under French law, Euroview, December 2009.

Surface of wine bottles held not to be registrable, World Trademark Review, 21 May 2010

Pharmaceutical marks with same prefix held to be confusingly similar, World Trademark Review, 21 June 2010

Juxtaposition of words falls foul of descriptiveness prohibition, World Trademark Review, 23 June 2010

Green Bet: biting the poisoned (green) apple, World Online Gambling Law Report, Volume 9, Issue 9, September 2010

Advocate General delivers opinion on pharmaceutical advertising in Estonia, Law Lore & Practice (Pharmaceutical Trade Marks Group)

Representative Experience

• Drafting writer and option agreements and advising on underlying book rights for a short film project
• Drafting releases for child and adult artists for a charity film project
• Assisting with the production and finance of the cult film “Jackboots on Whitehall” released theatrically in the UK in 2010
• Negotiating sales agency and international distribution agreements for the UK independent feature film “The Heavy”
• Drafting terms and conditions for a nationwide anti-smoking promotion