Making our Mark: Abi Woolhouse joins as Head of Trade Marks to grow the team

Abi joins from Stratagem, a boutique commercial IP firm in Cambridge, where she built the trade mark department from a single part-time role into a full team of attorneys acting for clients of every size.  She was appointed a Director in 2021 and became Head of Legal Practice in 2023, with oversight of compliance and legal operations.

Her move keeps that work close to home.  With offices in Cambridge, Peterborough and London, we act for brand owners across the East of England, London and well beyond, and Abi’s arrival further strengthens our IP experience and expertise.

Earlier in her career she worked in-house at ICI (now AkzoNobel), looking after the paint brands in France and South America, the company’s global fragrance and flavour portfolios, and the ICI house mark.  That grounding gives her a commercial, business-side view of how brands are built and protected on an international scale.

Abi is a Chartered Trade Mark Attorney and advises on trade marks, copyright and designs, IP strategy, online and offline enforcement and peripheral areas such as domain names, company names and trade secrets..  She has a particular interest in the overlap between intellectual property and AI – who owns the output of an AI system, and whether AI-generated work qualifies as intellectual property at all.

Abi is bringing clients with her, and they will see no change in the service they are used to: the same adviser, the same approach, an incredibly experienced intellectual property team alongside – one that also covers patents and trade secrets, copyright and design rights, so clients can protect all aspects of IP in one place.

Outside the law, she is a trustee of a charity helping young adults into work and mentors emerging leaders through the CITMA Mentoring Scheme.

Jim Boff, Partner and head of our intellectual property team, said:

“Trade marks and brands are a key part to what our IP team does, and Abi lets us do much more of it. The fit with our philosophy of providing commercially appropriate IP services is evident. This is the first of several moves we are making to grow the team this year, with more to announce in the months ahead.”

James McAllister, Partner and Chartered Trade Mark Attorney at Greenwoods, said:

“Abi has a proven track record when it comes to building and nurturing a trade mark team, and her leadership skills will help expansion ambitions to become a reality. It is an exciting time for the IP department.”

Abi added:

“The thing that mattered most to me was that the clients moving with me would feel no disruption – the same adviser, the same approach, now with a full legal team alongside. I was also drawn to the chance to get into the questions AI is raising around ownership of AI – both around the issues of training data, and concerning the output of general and agentic AI.”

For more information about our trade marks and brands work, please get in touch with Abi.