John has a well-developed business practice encompassing contract, tort, employment, copyright, trade marks, passing off, sport and aspects of media including defamation. He also advises across the full range of General Common Law. He is particularly drawn to cases which include a range of issues.
John has advised on various aspects of European law particularly in relation to Trade Marks. He has applied for, and defended, a broad range of injunctions including ‘search’ and ‘freezing’ orders.
His work includes significant experience in advising where Criminal and Civil actions are running concurrently.
John frequently acts in circumstances where advice is needed in order to assist in avoiding media attention and has successfully applied for injunctions preventing the advertising and publication of a film and subsequent attempts to sell it on Amazon or show it at various private clubs.
He has advised on taking steps which have resulted in the removal of inaccurate information from the internet by Google and Amazon and has advised public relations firms and website providers on various aspects of their work.
John sits as “Independent Person” under the Localism Act for a local authority and has also chaired a local authority remuneration committee. He has a good understanding of the interior workings of councils and the higher echelons of the civil service and has advised on complex matters involving the disciplinary processes of Parliament and their interaction with courts. He has advised in relation to actions against local politicians and MPs.
John has advised on aspects of European law and lectured Montenegrin Judges and prosecuting authorities on money laundering as part of their application to join the EU.
John is able to advise in a quasi-non-executive or critical friend capacity and has contributed to complex projects and events as an extra source of oversight.
Intellectual Property
John has broad experience in soft IP.
Whilst in early practice John taught a course on music copyright to audio engineering students at Alchemea (now part of Institute of Contemporary Music Performance-ICMP). He developed his knowledge of copyright and trade marks through work which included involvement in a range of bootlegging cases in which he represented some of the largest bootleggers in the world. In the course of preparation for the trials which varied from a few days to a few months he had to advise on the validity of recording contracts of many household names and dealt with copyright registered in the US and trade marks registered in the UK, US and Europe. He developed an understanding of the internal and intra organisational workings of various copyright collection societies and the BPI and was invited by the Patent Office (as was) to advise the Indian Government on IP issues.
Alongside copyright, trade mark and registered and unregistered designs John’s work has included; passing off cases with international aspects; advising games developers; agreements for the marketing of software for teaching and, commercial exploitation of sporting rights. He has marshalled disputes or advised on IP rights in, music, lyrics, poetry, jewellery, fashion and recipes. He has advised on bullet-proof jackets for canines and infringing handbag designs. John has dealt with the intricacies of challenge to domain name ownership under the Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy (UDRP).
He was a founding member of the Phoenix Chambers Intellectual Property Crime team one of the first such specialist units at the bar. His work also included advice on disputes where the copyright in a trademark or the copyright in a conversation were in issue. He has delivered lectures on copyright, trade marks and associated rights, for the Institute of Art and Design at Birmingham City University.
John has advised in a range of cases involving General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Subject Access Request (SAR) compliance in relation to major utilities and internet providers. He has represented various large institutional clients in data protection.
He maintains contact with niche London IP practices and legal and technical experts across the subject area.
Areas of Expertise
- Contract
- Tort
- Employment Law
- Unfair Dismissal
- Constructive Dismissal
- Injunctions
- Post contractual obligations and restrictive covenants
- Inducement to breach contracts
- Vento damages
- Partnerships
- Insurance
- Regulatory
- Administrative
- Judicial Review
- Local authority
- Standards
- Sport
- Contracts
- Disciplinary
- Doping
- Defamation
- Intellectual Property
- Copyright
- Trade Marks
- Design rights (registered and unregistered)
- Passing Off
- Privacy
- Internet use
- Ecommerce
- Publication
- ADR and Mediation
- Sale of Goods
- Some consumer credit
- Aspects of Banking and Finance
- Boundary disputes
- Civil fraud
- Push payment fraud
- Abuse of process as a cause of action
- Aspects of company litigation
- Media
- Data Protection
- GDPR
- Privacy
- Right to report
- Aspects of Financial Services
- Aspects of Insolvency
- Planning (enforcement only)
- Product liability
- Professional Negligence
- Shareholder /Director disputes (generally non PLC)
- Aspects of trusts
- Government
- Local
- Parliamentary
- misconduct in public office
- Aspects of charity law
Reported Cases
- Counsel for the three corporate defendants in Tenon FM Limited v Cawley 2018 EWHC 1972 (QB) which explored issues in post contractual obligations and inducements to breach contracts.
- Yvonne James v Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (2011)
- R v Johnstone (Robert Alexander) 2003 UKHL 28 (2003) 1 WLR 173
Notable Cases
- R v Robert Alexander Johnstone [2003] UKHL 28 – Represented the successful defendant in This House of Lords case considered the interaction of the UK Trade Marks Act 1994 (TMA) and the European Directive 89/104/EEC and the effect of s92 TMA. There were also issues which touched on Art.6 (2) European Convention on Human Rights.
- Tenon FM Limited v Cawley 2018 EWHC 1972 (QB) – Represented three corporate defendants which explored issues in confidential information, post contractual obligations and inducements to breach contracts.
- Amerik Singh v Virenda Pal Singh Sikka, HM Attorney General and Others – Fraudulent elections in a charity
Public Access
John Boumphrey may accept Public Access work, where he can be instructed directly by a member of the public rather than a solicitor.
Contact John’s clerks
Senior Clerk – Andy Reeves on 0113 213 5252
Talia Webster on 0113 202 8609
Mike Alexander on 0113 2135268
Ben Ellison-Tope on 0113 2135207