Jessica Bent

Jessica advises on IP protection, strategy, commercialisation and enforcement.

• Supporting a digital publishing company on drafting and negotiating customer licensing agreements covering protection of client’s IP, its licensing, warranties and related IP indemnities.
• Advising a consumer products company on the ownership of its intellectual property in assets resulting from outsourced marketing initiatives, reviewing and advising on marketing agency contracts from the perspective of IP, IP strategy advice and drafting/negotiating IP assignment agreements.
• Advising a computer gaming publishing company on its agreements with authors covering copyright ownership and licensing in respect of artistic and graphic works, collaborative IP ownership issues, permitted use of AI and drafting the author agreements
• Advising a farm shop and agricultural business on copyright breach and passing off arising from social media usage by businesses in the same sector; advising on trade mark clearance and registrations.
• Advising on trade mark strategy, trade mark clearance and trade mark registrations for a life sciences consultancy company.
• Guiding a business based in the Caribbean on its IP issues resulting from its entry into the UK market, covering protection of its know-how, drafting confidentiality agreements, advising on trade mark clearance and registration of trade marks.
• Advising on trade mark strategy for disability rights charity covering the requirements of trade mark registration including the criteria for distinctiveness, the charity’s existing domain names, the relative strength of different forms of the brand as trade marks, and the appropriate trade mark strategy to secure the brands as registered trade marks.
• Drafting and advising on a research and development and prototype agreement for a start-up wellness company involving the licensing in of a contract research company’s underlying IP to develop further IP in combination with the client’s IP.
• Advising a UK based publisher on an agreement with a US based author in relation to potential breach of the agreement through the author’s conduct, and assessment of IP ownership in relation to each party’s contribution to the publication.
• Guiding TV production clients on brand strategy covering trade mark clearance searches, advising on trade mark registrability and route to trade mark protection, protecting trade marks through registration.
• Drafting and advising on an R&D and manufacturing services agreement for a life sciences company developing a novel therapeutic, key issues being the treatment of the client’s IP, its licensing and further developments of it.
• Advising on a passing off dispute relating to the client’s technology brand and a subsequently launched competitor brand with a similar name. Instructing US attorneys and managing the client’s passing off dispute in the US.
• Advising on a patent and know-how licensing agreement in relation to diagnostic technology for a biotechnology company, where the agreement involved complex delimitation of the relevant IP together with an option to acquire the patents.
• Advising an employee of a company in relation to criteria for inventor remuneration consequent on the employee developing an invention for the employer. Together with Keystone’s employment specialists, advising on and drafting correspondence to the client’s employer.
• Advising publisher on licensing agreements in respect of original content from archive providers including scope of licence, IP ownership and corresponding rights that can be granted to the client’s customers .
• Advice on brand strategy, trade mark clearance and trade mark registrability requirements for AI developer company.
• Advising marketing consultancy company on an intellectual property audit and strategy, which included assessing the company’s IP protection, its trade marks, its ownership of technology tools and models, and IP contributions from suppliers and employees and the related contracts.
• Advising academic publisher on trade mark strategy, filing UK trade marks and managing international trade mark filings.
• Advice to fintech company on its trade mark strategy. This included clearance searches, registrability requirements and trade mark filings in the UK and managing international trade mark filings.
• Advising individual inventor on an ownership dispute in relation to his patented inventions and the drafting / negotiation of a settlement agreement, which included an IP transfer of the relevant inventions and a copyright licence.
• Advising a German state entity on its existing UK trade mark registrations and drafting/negotiating a trade mark co-existence agreement.
• Advising publishing company on take down notices in relation to infringing copyright content appearing on various websites.
• Advising publishing company on trade mark infringement and cybersquatting in relation to the infringing use of the client’s brand in the context of a URL.
• Advising a martial arts company on trade mark infringement including all related pre action correspondence and issues of non-distinctiveness and bad faith.
• Advice to games book publisher regarding copyright infringement of its books by a website, including all related take down notifications.

• Advised a national rugby team on protection of its trade marks, including filing the same and negotiating threatened oppositions.
• Advised a national wealth management company on trade mark protection including related trade mark oppositions.
• Drafted and negotiated an upstream rights acquisition agreement in relation to copyright and related rights in animated natural history sequences for an award-winning production company.
• Assisted a multinational consumer brand company on passing off and copyright infringement pre-action proceedings in relation to online content which was detrimental to its brand.
• Advised an architecture practice on copyright infringement and related licensing issues.
• Advising a specialist jewellery design company on its contributor and manufacturing agreements, including all necessary IP transfers and moral rights waivers.

Jessica advises technology clients and customers on all types of IT and services agreements such as SaaS provision, software development, data integration,  AI procurement and risks, distribution, maintenance and support, SLAs, managed services and technology procurement.

• Advising AI company in respect of its software for digital characters including the software development contract and IP ownership agreements, patentability of the software.
• Advice and drafting of SaaS contracts for fintech company which provides a proprietary SaaS platform to its financial institution customers.
• Advising on and negotiating a MSP agreement for a client in the construction sector where the managed services are to provide all of the client’s required internal IT services, web hosting, software consultancy and other ad hoc services.
• Drafting and negotiating SaaS platform agreements for a digital publisher which provides a proprietary SaaS platform to its customers for their digital archives management.
• Advising engineering sector client on an HR management platform master services agreement, including reviewing, advising and negotiation on master services agreement for a SaaS platform, acceptable use policies, support documents and SLAs, and data processing agreements.
• Advising digital publisher on a digital scanning contract with an outsourced provider including service levels, subcontracting and consideration of TUPE by employment colleagues
• Drafting and advising on a software licence and support agreement for a manufacturing company, together with advice on software distribution frameworks and appropriate agreements, including in respect of distributors and resellers situated globally.
• Advising publishing company on its SaaS platform customer agreements with customers, including negotiation of multiple SaaS agreements with the client’s cultural institution and education customers
• Advising a european data platform company on its complex multi data integration agreements with data partners and its data licensing agreements/SaaS licensing agreements with financial institution customers
• Advising a start up digital technology consultancy on its customer licensing contracts and data issues including assessing types of data and flows, and drafting a privacy policy.

• Advised an online games company on ecommerce terms, acceptable use policy and privacy policy.
• Advised a cash-flow modelling company on an API (application programming interface) agreement with a platform provider as well as customer SaaS agreements.
• Dealt with a start-up medical diagnosis company on a software development agreement to provide a SaaS platform for medical diagnosis.
• Negotiated an ERP software licensing and services agreement for a national agricultural machinery company.
• Advised and negotiated a managed IT services rolling framework agreement for a specialist IT managed services company, with a multinational IT equipment and services provider.

Jessica advises on GDPR compliance, data processing, privacy policies, cookie policies and data transfer requirements.

• Advising on potential breach of data protection in relation to people’s unauthorised photographs appearing on social media sites, together with advising on take down processes with the social media sites;
• Advising construction and engineering sector business on data processing agreements in the context of a master services agreement including processor data protection obligations, data transfer requirements and data flows.
• Advising publisher on a digital service which reviews luxury holiday providers; the advice covered data collection, data transfer and privacy policies.
• Guiding a food manufacturer and retailer on an audit of its two websites including reviewing and advising on privacy policies, cookie policies, website terms and conditions, sign up links and display of key information on its websites. This covered analysis of personal data collection, purpose, flows and transfers, and advising on AI risks of data scraping.
• Advising and drafting a digital publisher’s privacy policy and cookie policy, including consideration of international data transfers and compliance with PECR.
• Advising an engineering infrastructure company on a data sharing framework and compliance requirements; including consideration of the personal data types, the extent of the required sharing and advising on the agreement and compliance aspects.
• Advising academic publisher on personal data flows from client to processors/sub-processors, advice on controller/ processor roles, drafting data processing agreements.
• Advising publisher on data processing/sharing agreements with cultural heritage organisation.

• Advised an actuarial company on GDPR compliance including all necessary customer contract amendments, policies and data processing agreements.
• Advised an eCommerce platform provider on drafting modifications to a website development agreement and IT services contract with a focus on GDPR compliance.

Jessica advises on the licensing of patents, technology and know-how, as well as agreements covering collaboration, spin-outs, R&D, validation and manufacturing.

• Advising a life sciences consultancy on trade mark infringement, passing off, trade mark strategy, clearance and trade mark registrations.
• Drafting and negotiating a contract R&D agreement for an early stage life sciences company involving the development of the research company’s IP with the client’s IP.
• Advising a life sciences diagnostic testing company on a patent and know-how licensing agreement, where the agreement involved complex delimitation of the relevant IP with option to acquire the patents according to specified criteria.
• Drafting and advising on a research and development and prototype agreement for a start-up wellness company involving the licensing in of a contract research company’s underlying IP to develop further IP in combination with the client’s IP.
• Advising a university spin-out on its sub-contracted R&D agreement including all related negotiations.
• Advising an established SME life sciences company on a know-how licensing and manufacturing agreement including consideration of related escrow agreements, and all negotiations.
• Drafting and advising on an R&D and manufacturing services agreement for a life sciences company developing a novel therapeutic, key issues being the treatment of the client’s IP, its licensing and further developments of it.
• Advised an award-winning life sciences client on the subsistence of copyright and related rights in software, software licensing, collaboration agreements and enforcement of its rights.
• Advised a life sciences genome company on patent and know-how licensing agreements, including licences out and collaboration agreements.

Jessica advises businesses on a broad range of commercial and technology-driven arrangements, including manufacturing, distribution, outsourcing and services agreements.

• Drafting contractor agreements for publishing company covering behaviour and conduct clauses as well as licensing terms.
• Advising on, drafting and negotiating a manufacturing services agreement for a life sciences company where the manufacturing services were being provided outside of the UK by a manufacturing and contract research company.
• Advising marketing consultancy on freelancer agreements, supplier agreements and the company’s terms of business.
• Negotiating and advising on a managed services framework agreement for a client to cover the client’s procurement and delivery to it of its internal IT services including advice from employment colleagues on TUPE risks and requirements.
• Drafting and advising on distribution frameworks and reseller agreements in respect of support services to be provided in respect of a manufacturing company’s software.
• Advising on and drafting an intra company group agreement granting a parent company the right to represent the client publishing company and invoice on its behalf, coupled with IP licensing permitting the parent company to sell and publish.

Jessica advises food and beverage businesses on protecting and commercialising their brands, products and innovations. She provides strategic advice on intellectual property, trade marks, confidentiality, data protection and digital compliance.

• Advising a vegan dessert manufacturer on IP ownership and development, assessment of different types of IP, IP strategy and appropriate agreements to protect the IP.
• Advising a drinks manufacturer on confidentiality agreements with a distributor, as well as advice on intellectual property rights in the recipe, the label and the name.
• Guiding a food manufacturer and retailer on an audit of its two customer-facing websites including its data protection compliance (privacy policies, cookie policies, sign up links) and revision of its website terms to protect its IP and include wording to prevent data scraping from AI tools.
• Advising a health food company on trade mark clearance searches, trade mark strategy, non-distinctive trade marks and trade mark filings in the UK and other jurisdictions.
• Advising packaged fruit supplier on its trade mark portfolio including the management of trade mark applications in European countries, drafting and advising on co-existence agreements, consent agreements and trade mark challenges.

Jessica advises businesses across the education and academic sector on commercial contracts, intellectual property and technology/data protection matters.

• Advising academic publisher on its template agreements with its customers covering licensing terms, payment and support, and data processing terms.
• Advising a school’s trust on a social media site which had been set up without its approval and which contained people’s photographs.  Advice covered breach of data protection and copyright in relation to the relevant data and photographs.
• Advising educational publisher on SaaS agreements through which it provides a platform for academic and cultural heritage organisations to store and access their digital archives.
• Advising publisher on the applicability of the academic exemption in relation to the publisher’s data protection compliance.
• Advising academic publisher on licensing agreements with archived content providers to assess licensed IP, access rights and IP ownership.

Recognised by The Legal 500 for South West, IT and Telecoms 2020–2027

Recognised by Chambers UK for Intellectual Property 2021–2027

Recognised by Chambers UK for Information Technology 2026-2027

Recognised by The Legal 500 for Intellectual Property 2025

Recognised by The Legal 500 for Technology, Media and Telecoms: Intellectual Property 2020–2024

Recognised by Best Lawyers UK for Intellectual Property 2022–2025

Recognised by WTR1000 – Bronze – Individuals: prosecution and strategy 2023–2025

Recognised by WIPR leaders 2024 for IP, including patent, trademark, and copyright issues