Joycia Young

Full Profile

Joycia primarily advises clients on the commercial aspects of IP, from brand development and protection, through to unlocking the value in IP assets through licensing or other forms of commercial exploitation or sale. Joycia's licensing and commercialisation experience spans the full spectrum of IP rights, including trade marks, copyright and know-how, and patents and technology.

She has extensive experience advising a range of clients in the core developing sectors in the Middle East, being retail, entertainment, education and healthcare. As the region's economies shift their focus and dependence from hydrocarbon industries and property development with a view to creating true knowledge based economies, Joycia has supported her clients in advising on technology transfer and the commercialisation of hard IP rights such as patents and know how.

Joycia is well respected as an astute commercial lawyer, and regularly advises clients on a wide range of commercial agreements in relation to marketing, content creation and commissioning, events, e commerce and distribution and supply.

Joycia has been continuously featured in the International Who's Who of Franchise Lawyers since 2009 as a result of receiving sufficient nominations from clients and peers. She is regularly asked to speak at regional conferences on intellectual property, franchising and hospitality and also supports universities in the UAE in providing students and the start-up community with insights into protecting valuable IP rights. Joycia was awarded the ILO Client Choice award for Copyright in the UAE in 2017. Since 2017, Joycia has been consistently named by Managing IP/IP Stars as one of the top 250 Women in IP, globally. The IP practice which Joycia leads, has been top ranked in every global legal directory for the past decade.

Joycia was admitted to practice in the Supreme Court of New South Wales, Australia in 1998 and the High Court of Australia in 1999. She also qualified as a Solicitor, England and Wales in 2009.

Experience

• Advising a leading government owned media organisation, on filing for trade mark registration of its key brand in 20 countries throughout the MENA Region and additional global brand protection strategies, review of media partner agreements and advice on licensing and enforcement of trade marks.  Served as acting general counsel for three months.
• Providing full service IP advice to a leading regional airline, including management of its global trade mark, patent, industrial design and domain name portfolios.  Our work also includes drafting and negotiating IP licences and assisting with IP enforcement and recovery actions.
• Providing semi government organisations in the UAE and KSA with strategic advice relating to the identification, protection and commercialisation of technology, including the establishment of IP management infrastructure and technology transfer functions.
• Drafting IP policies, advising on optimal corporate structures for ownership and licensing of IP, implementing such structures and drafting supporting agreements.
• Multi-jurisdictional advice for a range of major US-based international franchisors in the F&B, QSR, fashion and homewares sectors on the franchise of their systems and licensing of their intellectual property assets in the six countries of the Gulf Co-operation Council.
• Advising Arabian Contracting Services Company (Al Arabia), a Saudi listed company, on its SAR 1.05 billion acquisition of the entire issued share capital of Faden Media and Advertising Company (Faden Media).
• Acting for real estate developers and property owners in advising on the regional nuances of owning of copyright and designs in architectural works and buildings.
• Assisting a global franchisor in the management of its trade mark portfolio covering nine franchised brands in 15 MENA Region countries, licensing and franchising issues and related protection and enforcement advice.
• Advising on all intellectual property and branding aspects of M&A transactions including verification and transmission of title issues, advising on warranties and reviewing sale documentation, preparing licences and assignment documents, managing post-settlement transfer and registration issues.
• Providing full service IP, franchising and commercial advice to a prominent UAE family owned business with over 50 franchised brands under active management.
• Advising on global co-existence/settlement of cross-border trade mark disputes for international brand owners.