Celebrating 30 Years of Briffa

January 2025 is a particularly significant month for Briffa because it marks the firm’s 30th anniversary. In January 1995, Margaret Briffa decided to set up her own firm because she noticed that, whilst big businesses were able to thrive by maintaining a protective ‘IP fence’ around them, smaller businesses often struggled to get off the ground. It was hard for small business to access specialist IP advice at that time because high street firms didn’t have the expertise and because patent and trade mark attorneys (though a bit better) weren’t always equipped to help with an adversarial process. Small businesses couldn’t really access the big firms either because, even if the big firms agreed to do the work on a ‘pro bono’ basis, they weren’t really set up to deal with small businesses. Enter Margaret, a woman on a mission, who was determined to concentrate on helping small businesses to unlock the power of their IP!

In those early days, Briffa was like ‘A&E for IP law’ – people would show up with the cease and desist letters they had receive, or the licences they had signed (after they realised they weren’t getting paid as they thought they would). In time, the word spread and more and more people and businesses flocked to Briffa for expert IP advice, tailored to their size and situation. The team of lawyers at Briffa grew too. Margaret’s background was in litigation and contentious matters, but as clients also needed help with trade mark filings and contracts and other non-contentious matters, the team of lawyers expanded to include people with expertise in those areas.

The legal/IP landscape has changed in many ways in the last 30 years, but it’s worth remembering (because it’s easy to forget) that when Briffa was founded it was genuinely ground-breaking, in at least two ways. First, there were no other IP firms concentrating specifically on helping small businesses. Second, Briffa tackled another major obstacle facing small business – how firms charged for legal services. It seems ‘run of the mill’ now to receive a fixed fee for legal services, and to have certainty at the outset around how much something is going to cost, but it was not common 30 years ago – everyone just charged on the clock. Clients received estimates, but estimates were often way off the mark.

So here we are in January 2025, facing seismic technological and regulatory and other changes in the coming years (e.g. relating to GenAI). Who knows what the legal/IP landscape will look like in January 2055. Who knows what the economic conditions in the UK and Europe will be like for small business in 2055. Whatever changes and challenges may lie ahead, our aim is to preserve what is different and special about Briffa. And for all the wonderful Briffa clients (and future clients) out there, the original message from Briffa remains the same: don’t neglect your valuable IP, as it may well be your most valuable asset; take specialist advice early, don’t wait; think like a big business, even if you are a small business; and use your Briffa contact as if they were your business partner, not just a legal advisor (our job is to empower you, by arming you with legal/IP knowledge, so that you understand what we’re doing, why we’re doing it, and most importantly how it’s adding value to your business).

Here’s to the next 30!