Nick Cunningham

As well as doing pure IP litigation in both patents and brands, I head up the firm's defamation practice. Proceedings are infrequent, but it's a specialism which is especially relevant when trying to resolve awkward situations for clients.

Tel: +44 (0)121 214 1068

Email: nick_cunningham@wragge.com

Best brains in:

Copyright - a publishing background helps here. Earlier work in IT litigation has equipped me with experience of copyright issues in software. I also bring a commercial solution to IP disputes - I'm a trained mediator and can often settle cases, unless of course a trial is the objective. I'm also skilled in defamation - I ran one of the longest defamation trials there has ever been!

Highlight of your career so far?

It keeps on getting better, so I would say the case that I am working on at the moment. We are seeking a new type of remedy at the High Court in respect of 28 patents on behalf of a major research and development organisation - most trials involve only one patent, so this scale is a first for me.

Most challenging job you've done?

Helping a major power generation company to get an individual's vendetta against it under control through proceedings was a challenge. Much of it was conducted over the internet, so PR issues were at the fore. On this occasion we had to go all the way to trial, but the intervention succeeded. In the course of the proceedings I became a target too!

What about outside the UK?

In IP litigation we are used to thinking about the client's entire portfolio of IP rights - most brands are international, and patent portfolios usually extend far outside the UK. I've advised clients in the US, Germany, Japan, Australia, Canada, Italy and France, to name a few, on issues including copyright, patent rights, design rights and trade marks.

What is your definition of going the extra mile?

At the end of a contentious piece of litigation, which had been subject to a lot of press attention, I arranged additional media training for myself and others on our team and conducted interviews on my client's behalf. That's not so difficult when you have a positive message, but a little harder to do when the outcome is unpopular and your client is under fire. Perhaps surprisingly, quite a lot of litigators will ask their client to go into the witness box but are reluctant to do so themselves. There can be good reasons for that, but I have been in the box to give evidence on my client's behalf on several occasions (and with good results!).

Best example of a creative solution?

Often lots of little things add up to a solution, but if there's one big step you can take it is usually to get the other side to a mediation; I've done quite a few, and it is amazing what happens when the disputants face each other, rather than being able to argue at one remove. The prospect of further litigation also tends to help resolve matters. In one instance we secured a very large sum in damages as it became increasingly obvious to the defendant what they would be up against at trial. In another, two people resolved personal differences which had resulted in many months of litigation at their own expense. In a separate instance, we stayed at it until 3am - not recommended, but we got the right settlement!

How do you get under the skin of a client's business?

There's no substitute for going to see a client, in your own time. It helps to identify what's important, how people behave, how objectives are determined, the challenges in its market. It all becomes a lot clearer and easy to understand if you are a regular visitor. A dispute may just be a nuisance, or it may be key to the client's business, or anything inbetween. I like to understand what impact the dispute may have on other parts of the business and what the alternatives look like.

What's your single greatest contribution to Wragge & Co's corporate responsibility?

Probably just making sure that my clients know about our corporate responsibility programme and making the effort to get to know about theirs. It's an area where co-operation can really enhance the difference we are all trying to make.