Its all in the name

Leading immigration law firm, Paragon Law has secured a resounding win in a trade mark dispute. 

The win has led to a West Bromwich and Peterborough law firm, previously trading as ‘Paragon Solicitors’, to change its name to ‘H&V Solicitors’.  The firm also agreed to pay £20,000 to cover all of Paragon Law’s legal costs in the matter.

In 2007, Paragon Law became aware of a law firm in the Birmingham area, which was trading under the name ‘Paragon Solicitors’.  The firm’s activities included immigration law, a field in which Paragon Law is recognised as a nationally award-winning heavyweight.  The firm’s use of the ‘Paragon’ name infringed Paragon Law’s registered trade mark.  Permitting another firm to continue using such a similar name could have caused confusion in the market, especially in view of Paragon Law’s expansion to Leeds and offices in China and India.

Paragon Law’s managing director Thalej Vasishta instructed Berryman intellectual property lawyers John Buckby and Scott Farnsworth.

John Buckby explains: “As a first step, we wrote to ‘Paragon Solicitors’, as H&V were called then, explaining Paragon’s position and with the hope that matters would be settled without further dispute.  However they ignored our correspondence, presumably in the hope that the matter would simply disappear and refused to pay the legal costs that Paragon Law had and was incurring.

As H&V were unwilling to settle the matter Paragon instructed us to issue proceedings and the case was scheduled to appear in the High Court in London on 8 October 2009.  Finally, at the eleventh hour, after months of refusing to back down or make any contribution to Paragon Law’s costs, H&V conceded to all our requests late on 7 October 2009 agreeing to pay £20,000 to cover all costs incurred by Paragon Law” says John.

Paragon’s Thalej Vasishta comments: “Berryman secured a good result and I am very happy indeed.  At the time when Paragon Law was set up we immediately protected our name through a trade mark as it was our vision to be the leading practice in our niche area of immigration law.  Our name was chosen because it would allow us to stand out in a saturated legal market for being the premier legal firm for immigration law advice both nationally and internationally. 

The team at Paragon Law have worked hard to carve our reputation and it was therefore important to us that our name was protected and that no other firm rode on our coat tails by adopting our name”.

About Paragon Law:
Paragon Law are an international law firm with offices in Shanghai (China), Ludhiana (India), Nottingham and Leeds.  The firm is a niche immigration law practice with over 22 lawyers in the UK, making it the largest immigration firm outside of London.

Paragon Law advises clients from a broad range of sectors such as pharmaceuticals, retail, oil and food manufacturing.  Their client’s include International Produce, Boots UK Limited, Vision Express (UK) Limited and Filtrona PLC. 

In addition Paragon Law also advises on immigration outbound matters to India and China and works closely with organisations such as the East Midlands Development Agency on inward and outward projects. 

Paragon Law also has one of the largest Legal Services Commission contracts for immigration law and has been at the forefront of developing and shaping law in the area of asylum and human rights with cases in the House of Lords, Court of Appeal and High Court.

The firm is recognised nationally as a leader in its field by the Legal 500 and Chambers & Partners.  Paragon Law is a multiple award winning firm having won national awards for Legal Team of the Year, The Best Small to Medium Sized Firm for Diversity.  Thalej Vasishta is the founder and Managing Director of Paragon Law who has won Nottinghamshire Solicitor of the Year on three occasions and has been shortlisted for Entrepreneur of the Year.

For further information please contact Thalej Vasishta on (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).