August 2026
1. Introduction
We are very pleased that you have chosen to engage and instruct Boult Wade Tennant LLP and we look forward to working with you.
In these Terms of Business (“Terms”) all references to “Boult Wade Tennant LLP”, “we”, “us”, “our” shall be to Boult Wade Tennant LLP a limited liability partnership registered in England and Wales with number OC421876. Individuals referred to in these Terms as “Partners” are members of Boult Wade Tennant LLP and any senior employee of similar standing.
“you” shall mean the person, company or organisation that is our client and instructs us.
This document sets out our Terms which shall together with any additional terms set out in our Letter of Engagement or an email setting out any additional terms, scope (the work we will do) and/or fees (“Proposal”) shall constitute the contract between us.
Where we carry out work for you following receipt by you of these Terms you will be deemed to have accepted them unless you notify us in writing within 7 days of receipt.
We will undertake work for you on individual matters and on each individual matter we will send you either a Letter of Engagement or a Proposal.
This Client Guide is intended for clients of all our UK offices.
If there is any conflict between these Terms and our Letter of Engagement, then our Letter of Engagement will apply.
These Terms are available on our website at https://www.boult.com/client-guide/. We reserve the right to amend these Terms from time to time. Any changes will be published on our website and will take effect from the date of publication, unless otherwise stated.
2. Who we are
We are a limited liability partnership specialising in Intellectual Property Law. Our Partners include Patent and Trade Mark Attorneys. Boult Wade Tennant LLP is authorised and regulated by the Intellectual Property Regulation Board (“IPReg”), and our European Patent Attorneys are regulated by the European Patent Institute (“EPI”).
We will carry out work for you in compliance with the Rules and Regulations of IPReg.
3. The work we do for you
We will only advise you on matters within the scope of our instructions as set out in our Letter of Engagement and/or Proposal. Unless our Letter of Engagement or Proposal clearly says otherwise, we will not advise you on the financial or tax aspects of any matter, or on your wider tax or financial interests, or on any accounting or commercial issues.
Our advice is intended solely for you. Any advice, documents and information we give to you must only be used by you in connection with the matter on which we have been instructed and must not be disclosed to any third parties without our prior written consent. We shall have no liability to any third parties (who you may be acting as an agent for) who seek to rely for any purpose on any advice, documents or information provided by us under these Terms.
You, represent and warrant to Boult Wade Tennant LLP:
We will have no liability to you for any losses arising as a result of any instructions or information supplied by you being provided late, being incomplete, incorrect, inaccurate, illegible, in the wrong form or otherwise being inadequate or for any losses arising as a result of any failure to meet any deadlines.
4. Our fees and payment terms
Unless we agree otherwise, we will bill you on a monthly basis. Our invoices will be addressed to you as the instructing entity and we will not raise invoices addressed to any other entity including parent or group companies, except in our sole discretion.
Our fees usually comprise standard charges for administrative and/or procedural aspects of our work, together with time based charges for other professional services that we supply. The time spent will include all work done on the matter. Fixed service charges may also apply in relation to specific tasks (for example, the filing of an application to register intellectual property rights).
Our fees and hourly rates are subject to annual review (which take into account the rate of inflation in the UK as measured by the Consumer Prices Index (CPI)) and may change during the course of our work. We regularly review the hourly rates of our paralegals, trainees and recently qualified Patent and Trade Mark Attorneys to reflect their increasing experience.
Unless otherwise agreed our invoices are payable within 30 days of the date of invoice in pounds sterling.
If our client is comprised of more than one legal entity or person acting together, then each individual, legal entity or person shall be jointly and severally liable to us, including for the payment of the full amount of our bills to us.
All payments shall be made to us by direct, electronic payment to our bank account (BACS). Payment shall be drawn in pounds sterling from a bank account in your name, unless otherwise agreed by us in writing.
VAT is chargeable to our UK clients for our fees and where applicable on disbursements. Where we issue invoices to persons outside of the UK, VAT will still be charged unless an exemption applies.
Unless credit terms are agreed with us, we may ask for payment in advance for our fees. Where you are acting as an agent on behalf of a third party, we reserve the right to carry out credit checks on the third party and request payment in advance. If you do not meet our request, we may cease work for you. Any advance payments made to us may be offset against our invoices, although our fees will not be limited to the amount of any such advance payment.
We may charge you interest on any amounts overdue in accordance with the Late Payments of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 2018 and we reserve the right to suspend and/or terminate our work for you until any overdue amounts are paid without any liability to you. We reserve the right to use any sums held in our client account for the purpose of paying any overdue sums.
In the event that we find it necessary to commence legal proceedings against you for recovery of debts owing to us, and our claim is successful, we further reserve the right to collect from you any legal fees incurred by us in those proceedings.
Where you are acting as an agent on behalf of a third party you agree to ultimately be responsible for our fees (and any other sums owed to us). We reserve the right to contact the third party directly in the event of any non-payment by you of our invoices.
5. Authorisation to act and paying external costs on your behalf
We may need to instruct third parties to act on your behalf. If we do, we may seek your prior approval, but we are in any event authorised by these Terms to instruct such third parties directly on your behalf without seeking approval should we consider it necessary to comply with your instructions.
Where we have engaged a third party to act on your behalf, you will be responsible for the payment of any associated fees and we will where possible endeavor to agree these in advance with you. We will use reasonable endeavors to propose third parties we have worked with previously or who we believe can carry out their duties in a competent way. If there is a particular third party you wish to use then please let us know. We do not accept responsibility or liability for any acts, omissions or defaults of any third parties. Your sole and exclusive remedy with respect to any claims arising out of or in relation to any third party services will be against that third party.
You will be responsible for any disbursements we incur on your behalf in relation to your instructions.
Disbursements such as official fees payable to Patent Offices, overseas attorney costs and fees of other professionals may be incurred in addition to our fees as set out above. We apply a handling charge of up to 7% on all such disbursements, which covers services related to handling, processing and paying external charges on your behalf. We also apply a currency handling fee on top of the any handling charge when handling any such disbursement in a currency other than Sterling. Please notify us promptly if you have any queries about any invoices received.
We keep the currency handling fee percentage under continual review, based on the degree of volatility in global currency exchange rates. Currently the currency handling fee percentage is 5%, meaning that our total charges for handling a non-Sterling disbursement may be up to 12%. However we reserve the right to change that currency handling fee percentage when currency fluctuations become significant. Any changes in our currency handling fee and our total charge for handling disbursements will be published on our website.
6. Holding your money
Any money which we hold on your behalf, excluding advance payments received for costs where the terms have been agreed, will be deposited into our client account providing protection in the event of insolvency. Advance payments received for costs where the terms have been agreed will be held in our business account. All moneys are held in accordance with our obligations under the Rules and Regulations of IPReg.
You will not be entitled to any interest earned on moneys held for you.
7. Our communication with you
Boult Wade Tennant LLP will advise you on the progress of matters at all significant stages, normally by email. We are not responsible for loss or damage caused by email use, provided we have taken reasonable security measures, including against viruses.
All matters are entered into our records system and we are able to provide you with reports showing the current status of your matters upon request.
We are open between 09:00 and 17:00 Monday to Friday, except for public holidays. Sometimes we may respond to communications and work outside of our normal office hours, but this is at our discretion, and we cannot guarantee to act on your instructions if they are received outside of those normal business hours.
8. Confidentiality
All information with which you provide us will be regarded as confidential, but you should advise us if any of the information is particularly sensitive. We will not divulge any confidential information obtained from you other than in accordance with your instructions.
You agree that we may disclose all such information to any third party advisors we instruct on your behalf in relation to the work and you also agree that we may disclose all such information to any Patent Office, for the purpose of furthering your interests. You will be responsible for any fees, disbursements or expenses incurred by us in dealing with such disclosure.
Our obligations under this paragraph will not include information which is already in the public domain except where this has resulted from a breach of these Terms by us.
9. Our liability
We will carry out our duties under these Terms and any relevant Letter of Engagement and/or Proposal with reasonable care and skill and will not be liable for failing to provide services which fall outside the agreed scope.
Where we have completed our services to you, we will not be responsible to notify you of any event or change in the law relevant to your matter unless we have agreed to do so in writing.
Our total liability to you in respect of any claim, whether in tort (including negligence), contract, breach of statutory duty or otherwise and whether it arises under or in connection with this agreement, shall not exceed £5 million in the aggregate for claims arising in the jurisdiction of the United States of America and shall not exceed £5 million per claim in jurisdictions other than the United States of America, or as otherwise agreed in the Letter of Engagement or Proposal.
You agree that we are not liable to you whether in tort (including negligence), contract, breach of statutory duty or otherwise for any indirect or consequential loss or liability howsoever arising.
Subject to the provisions of this section, if we are liable to pay damages to you but we could be jointly, or jointly and severally, or severally liable, the total liability of Boult Wade Tennant LLP to you shall be limited to a just and equitable proportion of the total loss and damage which considers any contributory negligence and legal responsibility of any other party or you. If you or any other person (including other advisors to you) have contributed to the loss you have suffered, the damages payable by us will be reduced proportionately.
Nothing in these Terms limits any liability which cannot be legally limited, including without limitation liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation.
10. Conflicts
When accepting work from you we will carry out conflict checks to identify any conflicts of interest which may prevent us from acting. Sometimes conflicts may arise later in the matter and in those circumstances, we reserve the right to refuse to carry out any further work for you or any other clients affected by such conflict.
We will not act simultaneously for two clients whose interests conflict unless both clients give their written consent to such an arrangement, and that arrangement is permitted by the Rules and Regulations of IPReg.
11. Documents and storage
We use an electronic file system which means that each individual client matter will have a separate electronic file with its own reference number to ensure that all information, papers, documents and correspondence are allocated correctly. We will scan documents on receipt and then the documents are destroyed, although we may retain some original documents for a legitimate purpose. Please tell us if you require the return of any papers provided to us.
Our files will not be kept for longer than necessary. In matters relating to the grant of patents and the registration of trade marks and designs, we will retain the files until the grant or registration has been completed and, in other matters such as advisory or contentious matters, we will retain the files until the matter has been completed.
It is our policy to retain all files for a minimum period of seven years after the date of our final invoice to you on the matter concerned – that is, seven years from the grant of a patent or registration of a design or trade mark, or seven years from the conclusion of any advisory or contentious matter.
In the interests of storage space, we reserve the right to destroy any file at any time thereafter. If you wish us to retain files for a longer period, you should advise us of this. We reserve the right to make a charge for the continued storage of those files.
However, should you wish to transfer any matters from us to a third party, we are happy to make copies of all relevant parts of our files for you, on the understanding that you have agreed to pay for any unbilled work completed before the transfer and that you are up to date with payment of our other invoices. We reserve the right to levy a reasonable charge for copying significant quantities of materials when transferring matters to a third party.
12. Technology
We may make our services and information available via the internet for example through use of a portal and/or gateway and/or any other software solutions available to enhance our services. Use of such solutions may be subject to a separate agreement governing the terms of use. Where any terms are inconsistent with these Terms, these Terms will prevail to the extent of such inconsistency.
13. Use of Artificial Intelligence Tools
In carrying out our work, we may make use of artificial intelligence–enabled tools and systems (“AI Tools”) to assist with certain drafting, research, document review, analysis and administrative tasks. We also may use AI Tools in the preparation of translations. Any such use will be under our supervision and will not replace professional judgement. Our liability in connection with our use of AI Tools is subject to the same limitations and exclusions as set out in Section 9 of these Terms. Where confidential information is processed using AI Tools, this will be done in accordance with applicable law and our internal policies, and we will not input confidential information as set out in Section 8 of these Terms into public AI Tools.
By instructing us, you acknowledge and consent to our use of AI Tools on this basis as part of the delivery of the work.
14. Termination
We expect to continue to act in any matter on which we have accepted instructions from you until the matter is completed. You may terminate your instructions to us at any time, generally or in relation to a specific matter, by giving us written notice. We can also stop acting for you if we have reasonable grounds to do so, for example by not giving us timely instructions or paying our invoices on time. We can also stop acting for you if a conflict of interest arises or we consider that for any other good reason it would not be in your best interests for the firm to continue to represent you. In any event, we will provide you with reasonable notice where appropriate.
If you terminate our instructions or we stop acting for you, you will be liable for our fees and disbursements up to the date of termination and for any subsequent fees or disbursements reasonably incurred in respect of instructions received by you before termination.
15. Problems or complaints
Should you have any issues regarding our service, you are entitled to complain. You should, in the first instance, contact the person and/or Partner responsible for your matter. If you wish to formally raise a complaint, please contact our Complaints Partner who will investigate the matter and will notify you of any action taken. Our complaints procedure along with the contact details of our Complaints Partner can be found here https://www.boult.com/complaints/.
If the complaint cannot be resolved between us, you may have the right to take a complaint concerning our work or fees to the Legal Ombudsman at the Office for Legal Complaints. Typically, a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman must be brought within six months of your last contact with us regarding your complaint, and within one year of the problem you are complaining about happening (or within one year of you becoming aware of the problem). The Legal Ombudsman may be contacted at:
Legal Ombudsman,
PO Box 6167,
Slough,
SL1 0EH
0300 555 0333
www.legalombudsman.org.uk
Boult Wade Tennant LLP has UK and European Patent attorneys and UK Trade Mark attorneys in the UK, German Patent attorneys and lawyers in Germany and, via Boult Wade Tennant Spain, S.L.P, lawyers in Spain. Our UK Registered Patent and Trade Mark Attorneys are regulated under a Code of Conduct by the Intellectual Property Regulation Board (“IPReg”). Complaints of professional misconduct may also be referred to IPReg at www.ipreg.org.uk. Our German and Spanish attorneys/lawyers are regulated locally in their countries.
16. Data protection
We will process any personal data in accordance with the data protection legislation and for information about how we deal with your personal information, please see our privacy policy as published on our website: https://www.boult.com/ft/privacy-policy/.
In some cases we may hold more sensitive information about an individual which may be necessary to pursue your matter. In such instances we are permitted to use such information to provide legal advice to you. You can withdraw consent to your information being used in a particular way, but this may limit what services we can offer you (if any).
17. Anti-corruption
To comply with our legal obligations and internal procedures, at the outset of any engagement, we will perform anti-money laundering checks required by law. You agree to co-operate with us in order to verify your identity, your business structure, organisation history and sources of income and other matters relevant to discharging our legal and professional duties in this respect. We will not engage in any activity practice or conduct which would constitute an offence under any law pertaining to tax evasion (including, but not limited to, VAT fraud), bribery or corruption. For example, we will only invoice the entity that we carry out work for.
18. General
Our failure to enforce any of the provisions of these Terms at any time shall not be construed as nor deemed to be a waiver of our rights under these Terms.
You and we both agree that neither of us shall be entitled to any remedies in respect of any statement, representation, assurance or warranty that is not set out in these Terms. To the extent permitted by law, all warranties, conditions, terms and representations not set out in these Terms, whether implied by statute or otherwise, are excluded.
If any term or provision or part of any term of these Terms is held to be invalid for any reason, such invalidity will not affect the rest of the Terms.
The provisions of the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 are excluded and no person who is not a party to these Terms and/or Letter of Engagement shall be entitled to enforce any of its terms except as expressly stated otherwise in these Terms.
These Terms and any relevant Letter of Engagement contain the entire agreement between you and us and supersede any prior arrangement or understanding, whether written or oral.
These Terms are governed by English law and the courts of England and Wales shall have exclusive jurisdiction in respect of any claim or dispute arising out of or in connection with these Terms.
