Your guide through the IP jungle

Abi Woolhouse

Head of Trademarks & Partner, Intellectual Property

awoolhouse@greenwoods.co.uk

Intellectual property can feel confusing, even daunting – and the stakes are high, because a brand is often the most valuable asset a business owns. Abi cuts through that. She sets out your options clearly at every stage, so you always understand the choice in front of you and why it matters.

With more than 30 years in trade marks, copyright and brand strategy, Abi works with businesses of every size – from start-ups and individual creatives to large multinationals – helping them build, protect and strengthen their brands. She advises across trade marks, copyright and designs, IP brand strategy, online and offline enforcement and peripheral areas such as domain names, company names and trade secrets.

Abi joins Greenwoods from Stratagem, a boutique commercial IP firm in Cambridge, where she spent over two decades. She built its trade mark department from a single part-time role into a thriving team of attorneys acting for a diverse portfolio of clients, was appointed a Director in 2021, and became Head of Legal Practice in 2023, overseeing compliance and legal operations.

Earlier in her career she worked in-house at ICI (now AkzoNobel), looking after its paint brands in France and South America, the company’s global fragrance and flavour portfolios, and the ICI house mark. It gave her an early, international grounding in how brands are built and protected across borders, and a commercial, business-side perspective she still brings to every matter.

Abi is increasingly drawn to where IP meets artificial intelligence: who owns the output of an AI system, and whether AI-generated work can qualify as intellectual property at all. She contributes regularly to workshops and cross-sector discussions on the risks AI poses for brand owners and rights holders.

Away from IP, Abi cares about helping people find purpose and grow. She is a trustee of a charity that helps young adults into employment, and mentors professionals stepping into leadership through the CITMA Mentoring Scheme. When she’s not working, you’ll usually find her out with her dogs – and, one day, she hopes, on a smallholding of her own.

Abi is a Chartered Trade Mark Attorney and a member of the Chartered Institute of Trade Mark Attorneys (CITMA).

Abi Woolhouse

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