Professional Indemnity Insurance for New Trade mark & patent attorneys — Your First Policy (2026)

Reviewed by Apex Insurance Brokers · Last reviewed 2026-08-05

1. Do you actually need PI as a new trade mark or patent attorney?

Yes — and for two separate reasons that both point the same way.

The first is regulatory. Registered patent attorneys and registered trade mark attorneys in the UK are regulated by IPReg, the Intellectual Property Regulation Board, which maintains the statutory registers and sets the professional rules the profession works to. IPReg's rules require regulated attorneys and the firms they practise through to hold adequate and appropriate professional indemnity insurance. In other words, having PI in place is one of the conditions of being allowed to practise. This sits alongside the wider professional framework you already know — the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys (CIPA) and the Chartered Institute of Trade Mark Attorneys (CITMA) being the professional bodies, with IPReg as the independent regulator. Before you start, it is worth reading IPReg's current insurance requirements directly, because the minimum terms and the level of cover expected are set by the regulator and can be updated.

The second reason is commercial reality, and it bites just as hard. IP work is high-value, deadline-driven and unforgiving. A missed filing deadline, a priority date lost, a specification drafted too narrowly, a class of goods omitted from a trade mark application, a renewal that slips through — any of these can cause a client real and quantifiable loss, and the client will look to you to put it right. Sophisticated clients, in-house counsel and overseas associates increasingly ask to see evidence of PI cover before they instruct, and many will make it a term of engagement. Even where nobody asks, a single uninsured claim can be enough to end a young practice. PI is what stands between an honest professional mistake and a personal financial catastrophe.

So the honest answer for a first-time buyer is simple: if you are advising clients on IP under the IPReg banner, you need PI in place — both because you must, and because you would be reckless not to.

2. When your cover must start — and why day one matters

Your policy should be live from your very first client engagement. That means before you take your first set of instructions, file your first application, or send your first piece of substantive advice — not after you have "got going" and can afford it.

New buyers sometimes assume the risk builds up slowly, so cover can wait a few weeks. It doesn't work like that. The moment you accept instructions you owe that client a professional duty of care, and any mistake made in that early work is a mistake you will want insured. The most damaging errors in IP practice — a deadline diaried wrongly, a priority window misjudged — often happen precisely in those first busy weeks when systems are new and you are doing everything yourself.

There is also a subtler reason day one matters, which we come back to in section five: because PI responds when a claim is made rather than when the mistake happened, an unbroken run of cover starting from your first day of trading is what protects you years later. A gap at the start is a gap you can never fill in retrospectively. Get the policy in place first, then take the instruction.

3. How much cover a new firm needs

The "limit of indemnity" is the most the insurer will pay out, and choosing it is the decision new buyers agonise over most. Here is how to think about it clearly.

Start with the regulatory floor. IPReg's rules set a minimum level of PI cover that regulated attorneys must carry; treat that as your absolute baseline, never as your target. Check the current figure in IPReg's requirements before you buy, because it is set by the regulator and can change.

Then look upward from that floor, because the right limit for your practice is driven by the work you actually do, not just the rulebook. The main things to weigh are:

• The value of the IP you handle. Advising a start-up on a single UK trade mark carries a very different exposure to managing a multinational patent portfolio where a lost priority date could sink a product line.
• Your client base. Larger corporate clients, and overseas associates instructing you as UK agent, tend to expect higher limits.
• Client-mandated limits. This is a big one for attorneys. Engagement terms and instructing-firm requirements frequently specify a minimum PI limit — often well above the regulatory floor. If you already know a key client will require, say, £2m or £5m, you need to buy to that number regardless of what your turnover alone might suggest.
• The nature of your services. Pure agency and filing work sits differently from strategic advisory, drafting, opinions on validity or infringement, or any litigation and advocacy where you hold higher rights.

In practice, new attorney firms commonly consider limits such as £1m, £2m or £5m as starting options — these are illustrative choices, not a recommendation or a price. The right figure is the higher of the regulatory minimum, anything a client contractually requires, and what a sensible person would want given the value of the work at risk. If in doubt, it is usually cheaper and calmer to buy a slightly higher limit at the outset than to discover mid-year that a new client needs more than you carry. We are happy to talk this through with you.

4. What shapes the cost of a first policy

We won't quote prices here — every practice is different and any figure would be misleading. What is genuinely useful for a first-time buyer is understanding what underwriters actually look at when there is no claims history to go on, because for a new firm that changes the conversation.

When you have been trading for years, an insurer studies your past: your claims record, your renewal history, your file. A brand-new practice has none of that, so underwriters price the risk from a much shorter list:

• Estimated turnover / fee income. Your best honest projection for the coming year. It doesn't need to be exact — it's an estimate, and everyone understands that a new firm is forecasting.
• Qualifications and experience. Your standing on the IPReg register, your qualification as a patent and/or trade mark attorney, and the years you spent building expertise before going out on your own. For a new firm this is your strongest asset — you are new to trading, not new to the profession.
• The activities you'll undertake. Filing and prosecution, portfolio management, drafting, freedom-to-operate and validity opinions, oppositions, and any litigation or advocacy. Higher-risk advisory and contentious work naturally weighs more than routine agency work.
• Your client and jurisdiction mix. Domestic versus overseas clients, and whether you act as UK agent for foreign associates.
• The limit and excess you choose. A higher limit means more cover; a higher excess (the first slice of a claim you carry yourself) can move the premium the other way.

The reassuring truth is that a sole practitioner or small new firm generally has less to provide, not more. There is no long claims history to disclose and no thick file of past renewals to reconcile — the underwriter is largely assessing you, your qualifications and your plan. Present those clearly and the process is quick.

5. "Claims-made" — explained simply, and why it matters from the start

This is the single most important concept for a first-time PI buyer to understand, so here it is in plain terms.

Most business insurance responds to when an event happens. PI is different: it responds to when a claim is made against you. A "claims-made" policy covers claims that are first notified to you during the period the policy is live — regardless of when you did the underlying work, provided your cover has run continuously since then.

Why does that matter so much for a new practice? Because IP mistakes often surface years later. A trade mark filed in your first month might not be challenged until a dispute arises three years on. A patent specification drafted today might only be tested when the patent is litigated much later. Under a claims-made policy, what protects you when that complaint finally lands is the policy you hold at that future moment — and it only responds if your cover has been unbroken all the way back to the original work, through what is called your "retroactive date".

Two practical consequences follow. First, starting your cover from day one sets your retroactive date at the beginning of your practice, so all your work is picked up. Second, you should never let your PI lapse between years — a gap can leave earlier work stranded with no policy to respond. When you eventually retire or close the firm, you will also want to think about "run-off" cover, which keeps you protected against late-arriving claims after you stop trading. You don't need to solve run-off today, but knowing it exists tells you why continuity is the golden rule of PI.

The takeaway for a first-timer: buy early, and then keep it going without a break. Start your first policy with Apex and we'll help you keep that chain unbroken year on year.

6. How to buy your first policy — what you'll need

The process is more straightforward than most new buyers expect. To get a quote, have the following to hand:

• Basic firm details — your trading name, structure (sole practitioner, partnership, limited company), and where you're based.
• Your IPReg registration and the qualifications of everyone who will be doing fee-earning work.
• An estimate of your first-year fee income. A considered projection is fine.
• A description of your services — the types of IP work you'll do, roughly what proportion is filing/prosecution versus advisory or contentious, and whether you act for overseas clients or associates.
• The limit of indemnity you want — bearing in mind the regulatory minimum and anything your clients contractually require.
• Any known circumstances — for a genuinely new firm this is usually simply "none", which is a good place to start.

Because you're new, there's no claims history to compile and no prior policies to dig out. Answer honestly and completely — full disclosure is what makes the cover reliable when you need it — and a first PI policy can typically be arranged very quickly. A broker like Apex does the shopping around for you, explains the wording in plain English, and makes sure the policy genuinely fits the work you'll be doing.

7. Common first-timer mistakes to avoid

• Waiting until you have clients before buying. By then you already have exposure. Cover comes first.
• Buying only to the regulatory minimum. The IPReg floor is a floor. If your work — or a client's engagement terms — points higher, buy higher.
• Ignoring client-mandated limits. Losing a key instruction because your limit is £1m and they require £2m is an avoidable own goal. Check engagement terms early.
• Under-stating turnover or activities to save money. A quote built on an inaccurate picture is a quote that can let you down at claim time. Be straight with your broker.
• Letting cover lapse between years. With claims-made insurance, a single gap can undo years of protection. Diarise your renewal like a filing deadline.
• Assuming any PI policy is the same. Wordings differ. You want cover that clearly contemplates IP agency work, drafting, opinions and — if relevant — litigation and advocacy, not a generic "professional services" wording that leaves grey areas.
• Not asking for help. A first policy is exactly the moment to lean on a specialist broker. It costs you nothing to ask and can save a great deal.

8. About Apex — and why we can quote this fast

Apex Insurance Brokers Limited is an FCA-authorised insurance broker based in Bristol (FRN 724952). We arrange professional indemnity cover for regulated professionals, and we're used to helping newly-established firms buy their very first policy — including new trade mark and patent attorney practices working under IPReg regulation.

Because a new firm's risk picture is short and clean, we can usually turn a first PI quote around quickly, often the same working day, once we have your basic details, your qualifications and an estimate of your fee income. We'll help you land on a sensible limit, make sure the wording actually reflects the IP work you do, and — just as importantly — help you keep your cover continuous year after year so your claims-made protection never develops a gap.

Starting out is the right time to get this foundation right. Tell us about your new practice and we'll take it from there — and if you'd like to talk it through first, we're happy to do that too.

Apex Insurance Brokers Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN 724952). This guide is general information, not advice on a specific policy.