John Coldham is co-head of Gowling WLG’s global brands and designs practice, and heads the UK brands, designs and advertising team. He is one of the United Kingdom’s leading advisers in relation to designs and brands law, having acted on several key reported cases in both areas, including Hasbro v 123 Nahrmittel, Dyson v Vax (including Court of Appeal), G-Star v Rhodi, Neptune v DeVOL, Shnuggle v Munchkin, Azumi v Vanderbilt, Pear v Apple at the General Court (upheld by the Court of Justice of the European Union), and recently convincingly winning the most important passing off and designs case of 2020 – Freddy v Hugz. The Freddy case was a landmark case on the law of passing off, opening the door to post-sale confusion, in a judgment that will be of particular interest to the fashion industry.
Mr Coldham advises clients across sectors and in relation to everything, from building brands from scratch and strengthening portfolios to litigation, and has advised brands on clearance and protection projects on a global scale (one of his most recent involving over 90 jurisdictions). He received the Client Choice Award 2019 and again in 2021 for Designs and is described by The Legal 500 as being an “expert in the design field and a go-to person for design disputes”. Mr Coldham is also ranked in the Silver Tier of the WTR 1000 rankings. He chairs the Designs and Copyright Committee of the Chartered Institute of Trademark Attorneys (CITMA), has been a key note speaker at the CITMA Autumn Conference and chaired CITMA’s Designs Seminars; he is also a member of many other policy committees on designs, including those of the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys, the IP Federation and MARQUES.
Mr Coldham’s experience has led to industry recognition and he became a fellow of the Royal Societe of Arts as a result of his designs work.
Year Joined Firm: 2005
Education/Alumni: Bristol University, Diploma in Intellectual Property Law and Legal Practice; Oxford Institute of Legal Practice LPC; University of Oxford, Jurisprudence (2:1 BA (Hons))
Network Memberships: CIPA, CITMA, MARQUES
