Head of legal and business affairs, Acorn Productions

When I graduated, I couldn’t face another exam, I just wanted to start working. But once I learned more about business, I decided a legal career would offer me the commercial edge I was looking for.

Leo-Dezoysa

I did a psychology degree at Liverpool, and my law conversion and LPC at BPP in London. I trained at City firm Reynolds Porter Chamberlain. I moved in-house on qualification. When I qualified, it was in the midst of the recession. I was told by recruiters to abandon hope of finding a commercial IP role but I persisted and succeeded, taking up the post of legal counsel at Miss World.

One of the most memorable aspects of my time at Miss World was the international travel. I would always fly to wherever the annual competition took place so experienced doing business in territories such as China and South Africa. I moved to Acorn Productions in February. Acorn is the majority owner of Agatha Christie Limited which controls the international literary and media rights to Christie’s works. I also deal with the content owned through our US parent, RLJ Entertainment, such as Foyle’s War.

At Acorn, we manage a number of world famous marks such as Poirot and Miss Marple. When you exploit IP that’s well loved, part of the joy is delivering content to appreciative global audiences, but inevitably you’re always going to encounter third parties trying to unfairly trade off the back of your fame. The complexity of copyright and trademark law generally makes them tricky to capture in appropriate legislation. Such laws also struggle to keep pace with the digital age. There is an argument that we should stop trying to update the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 and simply start afresh.

A specific issue facing IP lawyers in my sector is that the term of copyright is not consistent around the world. In territories such as Canada where copyright lasts for life plus 50 years, works will enter the public domain far sooner than in the UK. As a result, we are starting to see websites emerge in these territories which distribute e-books or films of titles that will still be in copyright elsewhere.

Moving in-house as a newly qualified or junior lawyer is a challenge, but for the right sort of person it can be a rewarding career decision. You develop a strong sense of commerciality and have an opportunity to influence how all parts of a business deal with legal issues.

Interview: Monidipa Fouzder

Leo Dezoysa is head of legal and business affairs, Acorn Productions