Clients do not arrive thinking about trademarks and patents. They arrive thinking someone copied their name, or that they need to protect something before an investor meeting.
The vocabulary mismatch
IP firms organise their content the way the practice is organised: trademarks, patents, copyright, trade secrets, licensing, enforcement. Prospective clients arrive with a commercial problem in ordinary language. Someone is using our name. Can we launch under this brand. Does the contractor own the code they wrote. How do we protect this before we pitch. What happens if we used AI to generate part of it.
Every one of those is a searchable question with commercial urgency behind it, and almost none of them map cleanly onto a practice-group page.
Build for the question, hold the precision
Writing to the commercial question does not mean loosening the legal accuracy. A trademark page can explain clearance, filing, office actions, monitoring and enforcement at a level that helps a founder plan without creating expectations about registrability. A patent page can explain the process without implying anything about patentability. An AI and IP page can identify clearly what is unsettled, which is more useful right now than a confident position on contested ground.
The market context that makes this urgent
Corporate legal buyers have shifted what they value. Technical competence is assumed; what gets rewarded is commercial judgement and visible efficiency in how work is delivered. Thomson Reuters’ 2026 UK market research found buyers more cautious about external legal spend than at any point in the previous five years, with IP specifically among the practice areas facing potential contraction.
For IP firms that is a direct instruction. Content that demonstrates commercial understanding is not a marketing nicety in a contracting practice area. It is how the firm stays on the shortlist.
The founder audience
A large share of IP enquiries originate with founders and product leaders rather than in-house counsel. Write at least one track for them explicitly: what to do before launch, before a pitch, before hiring a contractor, before an enforcement letter. That audience converts, refers, and grows into the in-house buyer later.
| Thomson Reuters’ 2026 State of the UK Legal Market found legal buyers more cautious about external spend than at any point in the previous five years, with growth concentrated in regulatory, labour and employment and international work, while insurance, IP and disputes face potential contraction.Thomson Reuters Institute, 2026 State of the UK Legal Market. |
One page most IP firms are missing
A plain-language page on who owns work product created with AI tools, stating clearly what is settled and what is not. Demand is high and credible supply is low.
Book an IP content strategy session
We map your practice to the commercial questions clients actually search
Sources
Thomson Reuters Institute, 2026 State of the UK Legal Market.
