Michael Gardner

Michael is a dispute resolution lawyer and head of the firm’s IP & Commercial team.

His practice encompasses general and specialist business dispute resolution, both domestic and international. He deals in particular with contractual disputes of all kinds, intellectual property litigation and prosecution, reputation management and judicial review.

Contractual disputes he acts on range from complex technology cases through to disputes between business owners, distributorships and industrial machinery supply contracts.

His intellectual property (IP) disputes practice includes trade mark prosecution and litigation, passing off, copyright, designs and confidential information. He brings such cases in the High Court, Intellectual Property Enterprise Court or the UK Intellectual Property Office, as appropriate. Some disputes are purely UK focused, while many have an international dimension and involve coordinating actions in different jurisdictions, including before the European Intellectual Property Office.

Michael’s experience in bringing and defending IP disputes helps him advise clients on how better to protect their intellectual property and how to avoid disputes in the first place.

Reputation management is often an integral part of the advice clients need in disputes, particularly in the online space. He has experience advising on defamation and privacy and in bringing and defending libel cases in the High Court.

Where clients come into conflict with government departments, quangos or regulatory bodies, he advises on and conducts litigation on their behalf, including bringing judicial review proceedings in the High Court.

Michael also advises on using alternatives to litigation, such as the disputes procedures offered by entities such as the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO) (for the press and media), the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) (for enforcement of advertising standards), Nominet and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) (for domain name disputes) and arbitration.

• Advising and overseeing a multi-country trade mark dispute with multiple actions proceeding simultaneously in a variety of countries and regions, including the UK, the US, the Middle East, the EU and Asia.
• Acting in a major High Court libel case for an Asia-based clothing and textile manufacturer.
• Obtaining interim injunctive relief and pursuing High Court litigation for a US-owned business services company against former employees and rival businesses for breach of confidence and restrictive covenants.
• Acting for a well-known politician in defence of High Court libel proceedings arising from social media posts.
• Acting for the claimants in a major crowd-funded judicial review claim against the imposition of the Covid-19 lockdown regulations by the government, which reached the Court of Appeal.

• Michael is the author of The Bright Idea Handbook published by Which? – a guide for start-ups and entrepreneurs on how to use and exploit intellectual property.