31 March 2010

Penny Nicholls Retires

After a career in IP spanning more than 30 years, Penny Nicholls has recently retired from the firm’s trade mark practice.

Penny trained with Marks & Clerk and qualified as a trade mark attorney with Stevens Hewlett and Perkins, before joining McKenna and Co as head of their Trade Mark department in 1983. She joined D Young & Co in 1986 and became their first female partner in 1988. Her practice has included representation of multinational corporate clients, many SMEs and individual applicants, with a long-standing emphasis on helping charities. Penny has been involved with many “cutting edge” cases including BABY-DRY and the BUDWEISER dispute.

Penny’s achievements in the field were recently marked by the wider profession when she was the recipient of the Informa World Leaders 2009 Lifetime Achievement Award, at a ceremony held in London in December 2009.

Penny’s plans for retirement include teaching children with learning difficulties and keeping an eye on the profession as a Board member of IPReg. She has asked us to say a big thank you to her team at D Young & Co for all their support and to send her best wishes to the many friends she has made in the worldwide IP community.