About us
Azrights is an internet law firm specialising in Intellectual Property, Technology and related Business Laws. We register your IP rights - trade marks, designs and patents - draft your contracts, and advise on copyright, corporate or other projects. We also help you resolve your commercial disputes or litigate them. We are a one stop shop for all IP/IT matters. Whatever the work, Azrights will do it in a business focused and cost effective way. Our name - Azrights - is a single word pronounced “as rights”. Like other internet businesses we charge competitive fees by keeping our overheads low. We maintain a small core office in Islington which is paperless, and staff work from anywhere. Generally, virtual meetings are all that most clients need. When a physical meeting is wanted or is necessary in more complex cases, they are held in our offices. We question the existing way of doing things to find innovative solutions, and strive for clarity by drafting in plain English. Our mission is:
- to be specialists in the services we supply,
- to provide value for money pricing, keeping to our quotes,
- to listen to what you need and to be proactive on your behalf,
- to pioneer the new products that the market needs,
- to always give ‘super’ service,
- to keep to the timescales we agree with you,
- to use plain English in all our written work
Shireen Smith qualified as a solicitor over 20 years ago, and founded Azrights in 2005. She has had an international upbringing and a varied career, raised a family, qualified and worked as a journalist, and lectured in Business law. Initially starting to train as a linguist, she switched to law, and graduated from East Anglia University in 1980. She has worked both in industry (at Reuters and Coopers & Lybrand) and in private practice (Overbury, Steward and Eaton in Norwich, and Eversheds in London) handling a variety of subjects - tax, employment law, media and technology law, and general commercial law before focusing on Technology contracts and Intellectual Property Law during her 5 years as an in house lawyer at Reuters. She then strengthened her practical knowledge of IP by studying the underlying academic law at London University's QMW Commercial Law Unit, completing an LLM in IP Law in 1996. She is interested in entrepreneurship, and enjoys reading business books. Now increasingly specialising in copyright, trade marks and domains, she believes specialisation is the key to providing value to clients and moving away from hourly rate charging which though convenient (and sometimes unavoidable) for the law firm, is very unsatisfactory for clients. Her ethos is to give clients price certainty, and value for money. She is a firm believer in the power of networking, i.e. connecting with others to help one another to achieve ones business aims.
Michael Harrison is a Consultant to Azrights, and has a doctorate in chemistry from Oxford University and is a European (and Chartered) Patent and Trade Mark Attorney with over 35 years experience in Intellectual Property. He has worked in several leading IP practices including Boult Wade Tennant, Urquhart-Dykes & Lord, DLA Solicitors and Harrison Goddard Foote. His fields of interest embrace patents (including mechanical and chemical), trade marks and registered designs. He manages the IP of a significant international company and advises that company and others on IP strategy. He is a Past President of the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys
Tibor Gold is a Consultant at Azrights having had extensive experience in all aspects of intellectual property law. In the earlier part of his career he focused on drafting and prosecuting patent applications in the mechanical and electronic fields, and then 10 years ago moved toward managing corporate clients' large trade mark portfolios. Tibor is a graduate of Oxford and London Universities and has a Master's degree in Physics. He qualified as a solicitor, but is now not a practising solicitor. Tibor was honoured for his contribution to IP with an Informa Lifetime Achievement Award in 2006 and was decorated by Her Majesty the Queen with an MBE in 2007. He is currently a Visiting Professorial Fellow at Queen Mary, University of London. He is also a co-editor of 'The Trade Mark Handbook' and the 'Community Trade Mark Handbook'. Tibor is a past President of The Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys (CIPA) and is a Fellow of CIPA and the current Editor of CIPA's monthly Journal.
Erica Dutton is a Consultant to Azrights, having a degree in physics from Imperial College and a MSc in medical physics from Aberdeen University. She is also a European (and Chartered) Patent Attorney, having qualified in 1986. She has worked primarily in industry but has significant experience in private practice, having spent three years with one of the largest Australian firms (Davies, Collison, Cave). She was the first British patent attorney to pass all the Australian exams at first attempt. Returning to the UK, she joined BT with responsibility in opto-electronics and software-based inventions, being one of two attorneys tasked with developing a software-based patent portfolio. In 1998 she became Head of Patents and thus one of a team of three running the firm’s Patent Division, deciding to become independent in 2001. Since then, she has provided patent services to a wide range of clients, from independent inventors to large corporates, in a wide range of technologies including: fixed, Internet and mobile network-based systems and communications, equipment, software and devices; information processing, imaging and artificial intelligence; optoelectronics and medical physics equipment; engineering and mechanical equipment.
Michael Prosser is a Consultant to Azrights. He has practised as a company and commercial lawyer for over 25 years, mostly with large international law firms in the City of London. His experience includes takeovers of listed companies, mergers and acquisitions of unlisted companies, demergers, corporate finance, international joint ventures and general commercial agreements such as distributorship agreements, agency agreements and terms and conditions of business. In addition, he has an understanding of competition law, employment law, intellectual property law and financial services.
Peter Sykes is a Trainee Solicitor at Azrights. He has had extensive exposure to company law on a pan European basis, having worked in house at Lycatel a fast growing and evolving international telecommunications organisation- before starting his training contract at Azrights. At Lycatel Peter worked on many matters including global company set ups and IP projects. His primary interest is in small to medium business set ups and acquisitions, and helping businesses use IP rights effectively. His interest in commercial law is reflected in his education. After completing his law degree in 2003, and the Legal Practice Course in 2004 (when he obtained a distinction in Business Law), he then obtained a masters degree (with merit) in Corporate and Commercial Law at Queen Mary and Westfield's Centre for Commercial Law Studies in 2005. His approach is to get a high-quality understanding of a client's business and provide practical, commercially minded business advice. He is particularly interested in technological protection measures and their use to protect IP rights, having written papers on this particular area and aspires to study for a PhD in on this topic in the future. In his free time, he likes socialising, swimming and reading.
Zoltan Micsinai is a Paralegal and Office Manager at Azrights while studying to qualify as a Solicitor. He is originally from Hungary where he gained valuable management experience in the retail sector. He came to the UK in 2000 and studied Management at the University of Salford. He worked as a manager in the catering industry with international corporations before embarking on his law studies.