Legal news: Kuits’ manufacturing brief; Deal success for Turner Parkinson; Monarch boost

KUITS Solicitors, the Manchester law firm advised client The Manufacturing Institute on the international copyright and trade mark licence negotiations with the Shingo Institute.

The Trafford Park-based Institute is an independent charity founded to educate and improve manufacturing companies and their employees.

Michael Forrester and James Wall of Kuits’ intellectual property department led the team acting for The Manufacturing Institute, which sees the charity continue its association with the Shingo Prize for Operational Excellence awarded by Utah State University.

Michael Forrester said: “In 2008, The Manufacturing Institute became the UK’s first educational partner for the Shingo Prize. The continuation of this licence arrangement, consolidates its position as the leading adviser for companies looking to adopt or develop the Shingo values within their organisation.

“Intellectual property licences are a key strategy for businesses in a variety of sectors and getting specialist IP advice at an early stage is crucial to successful negotiations – as it was for The Manufacturing Institute here.”

Over the past 20 years, The Manufacturing Institute has educated over 50,000 manufacturers and achieved over £1bn of quality, cost and delivery impacts.

The charity is due to welcome a group of award-winning manufacturers from across 16 Shingo sites in the UK, Ireland and USA at its 20th anniversary Enterprise Excellence Conference, which is being held at The Mere Resort in Cheshire from September 30th to October 3rd.

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TURNER Parkinson, the Manchester commercial law firm has advised Surrey-based client, data security firm Cryptosoft, in a share deal with AIM listed investment company Tern plc.

Corporate partner Stephen Hadlow, assisted by David Easdown, advised Cryptosoft owner Jon Penney on the sale of 95% of the company to Tern, which is providing £300,000 to the business to boost growth.
 
Under the terms of the deal, Jon Penney has taken a 15% stake in Tern and will remain instrumental in continuing to grow and develop the Cryptosoft business.  

Mr Penney said: “This was a complex deal structure completed within a very short timeframe, the Turner Parkinson team led by Stephen Hadlow proved flexible and effective at all times. We look forward to working with them as Cryptosoft expands its operations over the coming years.”

Stephen Hadlow added:”We have a track record of advising growing technology businesses.  This deal allowed our sector expertise to shine in what is a developing area of technology.  Businesses and consumers today are more focused on their own commercial and personal security.”

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A NEW Manchester law firm has made a flying start to business life after winning property development company Artisan as a client.

Launched in July with the help of the Manchester Business Growth Hub, Monarch Solicitors is the brainchild of Shazda Ahmed and is based at Express Networks, the old HQ for the Daily Express building in Ancoats.

Since launching the firm has won several clients and has taken on four recent graduates from both the University of Manchester and Manchester Metropolitan University.

Shaza Ahmed previously worked for Halliwells and has worked for a number of public sector organisations including The Insolvency Service, HM Revenue & Customs and Manchester City Council.

She launched Monarch Solicitors to allow her to juggle the demands of work with being a mother to three young children.

She said: “Moving from a large corporate organisation to set up on your own is a pretty daunting prospect but working with the Hub’s Growth Start Up team has helped to make the path to setting up much clearer and given me the confidence that I need to grow the business over the coming years.

“The interest my firm has received from prospective clients has been amazing, and it is onwards and upwards from here.”

Moya Ball, group director of Artisan Group, which has just opened its flagship Manchester hotel. said: “We are proud to support new businesses in the Ancoats regeneration area and look forward to working with Monarch Solicitors and Shazda.”