History

Looking at our firm today, it is hard to believe that a firm with such a breadth of complicated technical expertise in areas such as electronics, telecommunications and the fine chemicals industry can trace its roots back almost 200 years to the textile industry of West Yorkshire.

Halifax, where our firm began and where our head offices are still situated had been an important town in the textile industry long before the start of the industrial revolution.  However, during the industrial revolution, great engineering advances were made in the textile industry, leading to better cloths made in more efficient ways. It was these advances that were protected by our predecessors using the tools of our trade: patents, industrial designs, trade marks and copyright. 

Appleyard Lees was founded in the early 1800s.  We have a "patents book" recording patent filings certainly from 1853, which makes our firm one of the oldest in the UK, and the firm was active possibly as early as 1825.  In the early years the firm built up a wide range of local clients spread throughout the counties of Lancashire and Yorkshire, as well as some clients elsewhere in the United Kingdom and overseas.

Gerbacio Probacio Appleyard passed his professional exams in the autumn of 1905 and the firm took his name shortly afterwards.  In 1970, Clifford Lees took over the practice and from that time the now-named Appleyard Lees soon grew to be the largest firm of Patent Attorneys in Yorkshire, and one of the largest in the North of England. We are now amongst the leading firms in the UK.

In 1996 Clifford Lees was awarded the OBE for services to the IP profession, and he is still active with the firm as a consultant. The current members of the firm are active, at national and international level, in organisations such as the Chartered Institute of Patent Agents, the Institute of Trade Mark Attorneys, the Licensing Executives Society and the International Federation of Industrial Property Attorneys (FICPI).

Over the years, Appleyard Lees has acted for many different inventors, including Percy Shaw, the inventor of the renowned ‘Cat’s Eye’ road safety invention. Percy Shaw filed and was granted several patents in relation to this technology, demonstrating the importance of filing new applications as improvements are made to the original invention. To see the original ‘Cat’s Eye’ Patent Application, click here.

In more recent times, the firm has grown substantially, and acts for a variety of clients, from individual inventors, small to medium size enterprises and including several FTSE 100 companies and many international corporations.  Our clients are spread throughout the United Kingdom and further afield, many of whom we have represented for many years.