Law firms see their European trade mark registration business boomLaw firms doing European trade mark registrations saw work boom last year, according to Community Trade Mark (CTM) listing figures released last week.During 1999, the top ten firms in the CTM listings saw the number of marks filed rise by between 39% and a massive 467% in one case.

CTM awards points on a per class of trade mark basis rather than by application - so an application to register single trade mark in three classes counts as three points.While City giant Clifford Chance continued to lead the pack, its volume of work increased by a relatively modest 39% from 880 filings in 1998 to 1,220 in 1999.

However, second-placed Field Fisher Waterhouse closed the gap on Clifford Chance with a 61% increase in work.

The firm's CTM filings increased from 562 to 934 last year.Linklaters, which increased filings from 104 in 1998 to 296 in 1999, Baker & McKenzie (180 to 489) and Gouldens (94 to 230) saw some of the highest growth rates of 185%, 172% and 145% respectively.

Although Pinsent Curtis only increased filings from 33 in 1998 to 187 last year, it achieved the biggest overall growth rate of 467%.

Olswangs, which set up its trade mark filing unit last year, entered the list at number four with 362 filings in 1999.Other ranked firms were DLA (sixth), Stephenson Harwood (eighth) and Titmuss Sainer Dechert (tenth).Mark Abel, head of IP at Field Fisher Waterhouse, said law firms were doing well because of a buoyant economy and because they offered a better and cheaper one stop shop service than patent agents.

'The .com legacy has increased work for firms in domain name registration and trade marks but has also raised the profile of IP within more established companies,' he explained.Another recent survey showed that law firms were making in-roads into trade mark attorneys' work (see [2000] Gazette, 20 April, 9).Sue Allen