Steven P. Farmer
Senior Associate

Mr. Farmer is a senior associate in the London office of Pillsbury and is a member of the firm’s Global Sourcing Practice and Intellectual Property, Marketing Law and Information Technology teams. Mr. Farmer focuses his practice on both contentious and non-contentious intellectual property, commercial contract negotiation and drafting, advertising, data protection and commercial issues.

Mr. Farmer has advised a broad range of clients and has spent time working in-house on secondment with a major international film studio (where he was responsible for negotiating and drafting numerous commercial contracts). He also has experience of negotiating a wide range of music industry related contracts, having represented both artists and record companies.

On the intellectual property side, Mr. Farmer has completed both the prestigious Diploma in Intellectual Property Law and Practice and the ITMA Certificate in Trade Mark Law and Practice. In practice, he has advised on copyright and trade mark licensing and infringement issues, patent licensing and infringement claims and passing off. Other contentious experience includes representing high net worth individuals on privacy claims and a wide range of clients on defamation matters (claimant and defendant). Mr. Farmer also has substantial trade mark filing and prosecution experience of UK, CTM and international applications.

On the marketing law front, Mr. Farmer advises on service and product claims, ASA complaints and investigations, comparative advertising issues and clearance of advertisements, ensuring compliance with direct marketing codes and prize competition regulations. Recent experience includes advising on a landmark ASA ruling on online and comparative advertising.

His data protection experience includes advising on requirements and compliance under relevant legislation and he has held public seminars on such issues. He also has significant experience of carrying out compliance audits and of advising global companies on the international transfer of data, particularly extra-EEA transfers to the US utilising model contract clauses and binding corporate rules.

Presenter, “International Technology Licensing Agreements” Kaplan Hawksmere Seminar 2010, 6 & 7 October 2010

Presenter, "Data Protection Issues – What Marketers Need to Know. Opt in, Opt out – What Are The Rules?", Marketing & Advertising Law 2010, 20, July 2010