Appleyard has its eyes on attracting more staff as it competes for business

Halifax-based Appleyard Lees, the European patent and trade mark attorneys, is probably best known for its links with Percy Shaw, the inventor of CatsEyes.

Mr Shaw, who was also from Halifax, got the idea for the road safety invention when his headlights caught the eyes of a cat as he returned home from “a good night out” in 1933.

He invented the self-wiping Catseye roadstud which has helped millions of night-time drivers to find their way home.

With help from Appleyard Lees – which was then known as Appleyard – Mr Shaw filed several patents in relation to his invention and became a wealthy man.

Paul Brandon, the managing partner of Appleyard Lees, said the company plans to recruit another five or six attorneys or trainee attorneys over the next year.

Mr Brandon said the firm had faced difficult trading conditions, but was now looking to hire and invest in the overseas market as it competes for business with London-based rivals.

The company’s client base includes inventors who want to emulate Mr Shaw’s success and several FTSE 100 companies.

Mr Brandon added: “Biotech is an area we are targeting for growth in the next few years.”

The business, which currently has 51 staff, works with big Yorkshire names such as tea company Bettys & Taylors of Harrogate, Yorkshire Water, and Surgical Innovations, the Leeds-based medical devices company.

Mr Brandon said one of the firm’s biggest roles was devising strategies for international trade mark filing programmes.

He added: “We also fight off third party attacks on their (clients’) trade marks and find cost-effective ways to protect their branding.

“As a service industry, we are at the whim of what happens to clients to some extent.”

Appleyard Lees is one of the oldest companies of its kind in the world.

The company has a book recording patent filings from 1852.

In the early years, it built up a range of clients across Yorkshire and Lancashire.

In 1905, Gerbacio Appleyard became a chartered patent agent and the firm took his name shortly afterwards.

Clifford Lees took over the practice in 1971, and it adopted its current name.