Commercial Law Firm Manchester

At mlplaw we recognise the critical role that commercial contracts and technology play in today’s business landscape.

Our expert solicitors are here to provide you with comprehensive legal support tailored to your commercial and technology needs.

We can help with:

We specialise in helping clients build their businesses and achieve successful exits – maximising value and making any transaction as smooth as possible.  Critical to the success of any transition – family businesses to next and future generations, and business owner exits – is having clear and up to date plans and arrangements in place for your business. Our business and succession planning experts provide support across all aspects of your personal and business affairs, including:

• Corporate governance
• Succession planning and management
• Business continuity planning
• Shareholder and partnership agreements
• Exit strategies and business sales
• Family business transition planning, family charters and legacy building
• Tax-efficient succession and estate planning

Why is succession planning important for businesses?

Succession planning is crucial for businesses to ensure a smooth transition of leadership and ownership, minimise disruptions during changes, and preserve the long-term viability and legacy of the business.

In this ever-growing and ever-opening marketplace, it is increasingly important to safeguard your brand and business assets.

At mlplaw we offer a comprehensive suite of legal strategies including:

• Trademark registration and enforcement
• Copyright protection and commercialisation
• Brand management and protection
• Intellectual property audits and strategy
• Anti-counterfeiting measures
• Trade secret protection and non-compete agreements
• Defending any allegations of infringements

How can businesses protect their brand and intellectual property assets?

Businesses can protect their brand and intellectual property assets through strategies such as trademark registration, copyright protection, patent filings, trade secret protection, confidentiality agreements, and enforcement of intellectual property rights against infringers.

If you need to collaborate with other businesses or individuals to carry out your business, we offer services to help optimise these strategic partnerships, helping you to collaborate whilst protecting your interest.

These include:

• Drafting and negotiating outsourcing agreements
• Joint venture agreements and strategic alliances
• Consultancy and advisory agreements
• Service level agreements (SLAs) and performance metrics
• Risk assessment and management

What factors should businesses consider when entering into joint venture or consultancy agreements?

Businesses should consider factors such as the objectives and scope of the collaboration, the allocation of responsibilities and resources, the distribution of profits and losses, intellectual property ownership and licensing, confidentiality obligations, and exit strategies.

At some stage you will need or receive a confidentiality agreement (or NDA) to sign. We can help with producing or reviewing an agreement that fits your needs. Our experienced commercial solicitors can help with:

• Producing an agreement that suits your needs, including the suitability of provisions such as non-compete or non-solicitation (non-poaching) of customers, or employees;
• Protecting highly valuable information;
• Sharing information for limited purposes;
• Protecting discussion around forming business relationships including R&D, collaboration and Joint Venture agreements; and
• Breach of agreements and dispute resolution.

Why are confidentiality agreements (NDAs) important for businesses?

Confidentiality agreements are used by businesses to protect sensitive information, trade secrets, and proprietary data from unauthorised disclosure or use by third parties. This helps them to safeguard their competitive advantage, business strategies and reputation.

Our specialist data protection solicitors protect our clients across a wide range of data protection issues in the UK and around the world. Our practical, commercial advice covers many areas, including:

It is a legal requirement to have your website terms of use, cookie and privacy policies available and agreed by visitors to your website. There is an ever increasing need to ensure your terms and policies stay up to date. This is especially important when it comes to privacy and your policies surrounding use of visitor and customer data.

Ensuring your online presence complies with legal standards, our Commercial team provides expert guidance on:

• Drafting and updating website terms of use
• Amending terms to have more client-focussed ‘friendly’ wording
• Creating comprehensive cookie and privacy policies
• Compliance with GDPR and other data privacy laws
• Handling user data requests and rights

What are the key elements of an effective website terms of use agreement?

An effective website terms of use agreement should include provisions regarding your client/customer’s rights and responsibilities, your intellectual property rights, clear limits to parties’ liability, your privacy policy (or a link to it), and mechanisms to resolve any disputes that might arise. It should be written in plain English and serve to protect all parties, giving peace of mind when entering into the agreement.

Facilitating smooth and secure business transactions, we our commercial law specialists cover:

• Drafting, reviewing, and negotiating commercial contracts
• International trade agreements and cross-border transactions
• Sales and purchase agreements
• Agency and distribution agreements
• Joint venture and partnership agreements
• Compliance with trade regulations and sanctions

What should businesses consider when entering into commercial contracts and trade agreements?

To protect their interests and ensure compliance, businesses should carefully consider key terms such as pricing, payment terms, delivery obligations, warranties, intellectual property rights, mechanisms to resolve disputes, addressing exclusivity or territorial restrictions, and clarity around termination of the contract.

If you operate a business that involves using third parties to carry out certain elements of your business, it’s crucial to ensure that your supply chain operates seamlessly and effectively.

Our Commercial team provides expertise in:

If you operate a franchise business or wish to franchise out all or part of your business, our Commercial team provides services to support the growth and success of your franchise network such as:

Competition Law can affect every business and a wide range of business relationships. Our expert competition law solicitors advise on the full range of issues relating to private organisations. We provide practical commercial advice on all aspects of UK, EU and international competition law through our trusted worldwide network of law firms, including: