Bill is an Intellectual Property lawyer with over 35 years’ experience in large law practices advising clients of all sizes across a range of sectors including technology, Universities, automotive, wholesale, retail, High Street fashion and the creative industries and well as media personalities and private individuals.

After graduating from Oxford, Bill qualified as a barrister and having practiced at the bar for some years, requalified as a solicitor and spent most of his career as a partner, firstly at Pannone & Partners and subsequently Fieldfisher and then European Patent and Trade Mark Attorneys, Appleyard Lees IP.

Areas Bill advises on include:

• Branding issues
• Registered trade marks;
• Passing off (unregistered trade marks)
• Copyright and associated rights (including “moral” rights and false attribution)
• Registered and unregistered designs
• Patents
• Trade secrets and confidentiality
• Unfair trading

• Bill also advises in respect of media and reputation management. Bill is a qualified commercial mediator and a member of the prestigious CEDR Solve national panel of mediators. He is a Civil Mediation Council Registered Mediator.

  Bill has advised household name companies and public sector organisations, major football clubs, as well as much smaller companies and individuals and has been the lead advisor in a number of Leading and high-profile High Court cases including RFU and Nike v Cotton Traders Ltd, Ultraframe Ltd v Eurocell LtdAutomobili Lamborghini SpA v AutoTransformations Ltd, Environmental Defence Systems Ltd v (1) Synergy Healthy Plc (2) Gravitas International Ltd and Scoredraw Ltd v Finch.

  Bill has a significant reputation for offering pragmatic, cost effective and commercial advice focused on his client’s business goals and objectives. He is ranked as a Leader in his field by Chambers Directory, Legal 500, World Trade Mark Review and World intellectual Property Review. Bill has a number of publications to his name, including (with Joshua Marshall) “Compensatory Damages and Account of Profit: separate elections for separate causes of action – trademark infringement and passing off” (2016) 11(4) JIPLP 285 (OUP). He is also a regular contributor to both hard copy and online legal journals and is the author of well received practitioners’ work on High Court Practice and Procedure.

  The World Trade Mark Review 2023 says:
  
  "Thirty-year veteran Bill Lister is instructed by a diverse range of patrons in both the public and private sectors. Lister is extremely skilled, thoughtful and knowledgeable, and always keeps the commercial goals of his clients in mind."
  
  

  What others have said about Bill's work: His clients commend his "impeccable service" and his ability to "work tirelessly on our behalf" - TheWorks.co.uk