Thomson Reuters names eight Keystone Law partners in its Stand-out Lawyers Guide 2026
Andrea James, Andrew Darwin & Anna McKibbin
“Considered, thoughtful, superb attention to the minutest detail whilst continually focused on the end game – just the person to guide you through a tricky IP dispute. Jessica was excellent in her briefings, leaving me with a clear view of the risks whilst maintaining a clear sense of direction to the conclusion. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend.”
- DS, inventor
“As Finance Director working for a couple of different charities over the last 13 years, I have worked with Jessica Bent on a number of intellectual property issues including the licensing and registration of trademarks. Always extremely pleasant to work with, Jessica is quick to respond, very professional, pragmatic in her advice and has a keen understanding of the pressures faced by charities, including limited budgets.”
- Nicola Spencer, Director of Finance and Resources, Marine Conservation Society
“It is essential that our undergraduate Publishing students have a broad understanding of the legal requirements of our industry, including copyright and intellectual property. Jessica has been providing guest lectures on this for our students for a number of years and she always delivers just the right level of content in a way that is relevant, interesting and - dare I say it - even fun.”
- Jason Hewitt Bennett, Bath Spa University
“Jessica has been my go-to for Intellectual Property queries and assistance in drawing up SAAS contracts with large corporates. Her thoughtful approach to understanding the variance of issues that may arise when a small start-up deals with larger, established businesses has been remarkable and has assisted this small business through to profitability. Jessica is quick to engage, provides concise advice that addresses the risks and obligations, and gives me the confidence and counsel necessary to get to contract signature.”
- Founder, small fintech
Jessica is an intellectual property and technology specialist. She deals with the full spectrum of non-contentious and contentious IP, technology and IT law.
Jessica’s experience includes advising businesses on all types of IT contracts such as outsourcing, licensing, development, interface agreements, app terms, ecommerce agreements as well as data protection issues such as policies, data processing agreements, GDPR compliance and dealing with ICO requests.
Her practice on intellectual property matters covers the full suite of IP rights and in particular: brand management; trade mark searches and domestic/international applications; trade mark infringement, opposition and passing-off proceedings; copyright matters such as licensing, publishing, author agreements, rights acquisitions, TV and audio production agreements, clearance and infringement; design right protection and enforcement; patent and know-how licensing arrangements, R&D agreements, collaboration and PhD agreements.
Jessica regularly writes for specialist and industry publications as well as delivering presentations to businesses and universities on intellectual property and technology matters.
She is an Associate Member of the Institute of Trade Mark Agents.
Expertise
Jessica advises on identification of rights, strategic brand advice, clearance searches, registration and portfolio management, sponsorship and licensing deals, image rights, domain name issues, merchandising, and trade mark infringement domestically and internationally.
Experience
- Advised a national rugby team on protection of its trade marks, including filing the same and negotiating threatened oppositions.
- Advised a national wealth management company on trade mark protection including related trade mark oppositions.
- Assisted a Southwest-based conservation charity with its advertising contract with a media agency and related IP issues.
- Portfolio management of a national furniture company’s trade marks, including filing new applications, strategic advice, and dealing with trade mark infringement of its key trade marks.
Jessica advises on copyright infringement, clearance, publishing and licensing, IP strategy, marketing and design contracts, author and contributor agreements, rights acquisition, TV, audio, music, recording, database, and design right protection and infringement.
Experience
- Drafted and negotiated an upstream rights acquisition agreement in relation to copyright and related rights in animated natural history sequences for an award-winning production company.
- Assisted a multinational consumer brand company on passing off and copyright infringement pre-action proceedings in relation to online content which was detrimental to its brand.
- Advised an architecture practice on copyright infringement and related licensing issues.
- Advised an educational publisher on copyright licensing agreements with national and international archive organisations, including assessment of subsistence of copyright.
- Dealt with a specialist jewellery design company on its contributor and manufacturing agreements, including all necessary IP transfers and moral rights waivers.
Jessica advises on GDPR compliance, website and e-commerce contracts, data processing and related commercial agreements, privacy policies, subject access requests, and responding to ICO enquiries across digital and commercial operations.
Experience
- Advised an actuarial company on GDPR compliance including all necessary customer contract amendments, policies and data processing agreements.
- Dealt with a national property search company on GDPR compliance including intra group contracts, data processing agreements, customer contracts and requisite policies.
- Advised an eCommerce platform provider on drafting modifications to a website development agreement and IT services contract with a focus on GDPR compliance.
Jessica advises telecoms and technology clients on software as a service (SaaS), licensing, reseller and distribution, application programming interface agreements, development, maintenance and support, SLAs, mobile app and privacy contracts, managed services, and technology procurement.
Experience
- Drafted and negotiated a SaaS platform agreement for an online educational publisher to host the content of educational institution customers.
- Advised an online games company on ecommerce terms, acceptable use policy and privacy policy.
- Advised a cash-flow modelling company on an API (application programming interface) agreement with a platform provider as well as customer SaaS agreements.
- Dealt with a start-up medical diagnosis company on a software development agreement to provide a SaaS platform for medical diagnosis.
- Negotiated an ERP software licensing and services agreement for a national agricultural machinery company.
- Advised and negotiated a managed IT services rolling framework agreement for a specialist IT managed services company, with a multinational IT equipment and services provider.
Please note: The experience list above may include examples of work completed prior to joining Keystone Law.
Recognition
Recognised by Chambers UK for Intellectual Property 2021–2026
Recognised by Chambers UK for Information Technology 2026
Recognised by The Legal 500 for Intellectual Property 2025
Recognised by The Legal 500 for South West, IT and Telecoms 2020–2026
Recognised by The Legal 500 for Technology, Media and Telecoms: Intellectual Property 2020–2024
Recognised by Best Lawyers UK for Intellectual Property 2022–2025
Recognised by WTR1000 – Bronze – Individuals: prosecution and strategy 2023–2025
Recognised by WIPR leaders 2024 for IP, including patent, trademark, and copyright issues
“Jessica is knowledgeable, proactive, attentive, communicative and solution-driven. She takes the time to understand us as a business and to understand the final objective.”
Chambers UK 2026
“Jessica is reliable, very fast, competent and pragmatic, with the client’s interests at the forefront.””
Chambers UK 2026
“Jessica has been outstanding. She consistently delivers a high-quality service, demonstrating a deep understanding of both the legal and commercial aspects of our business.”
Chambers UK 2026
“Jessica is reliable, very fast, competent, pragmatic and has the client’s interests at the forefront.”
Chambers UK 2026
“Jessica is a real expert in all IP matters.”
Chambers UK 2026
“Jessica Bent has always been extremely prompt and thorough in her responses, and highly knowledgeable about IT contract law – we feel in extremely safe hands with her.”
The Legal 500 2026
“She has lots of expertise, is very knowledgeable and very good with start-ups and tech companies.”
Chambers UK 2025
“Jessica is a go-to.”
Chambers UK 2025
“She combines a very strong legal background with a pragmatic approach.”
Chambers UK 2025
“She's very client-focused, always going above and beyond, trying to find solutions to the problems.”
Chambers UK 2025
“Jessica Bent has provided us with very knowledgeable contract advice for our technology contracts, including the impacts of regulation such as the Data Protection Act. She is pragmatic and provides the level of support we need for each contract, whether that is advice or mark up or drafting. ”
The Legal 500 2025
“Jessica Bent is highly experienced and responsive.”
The Legal 500 2025
“Jessica Bent is an excellent partner.”
The Legal 500 2025
“Jessica Bent always provides high-quality and succinct advice.”
The Legal 500 2025
“Jessica Bent is a great partner who works hard for her clients. She is very experienced particularly in relation to trade marks and passing off.”
The Legal 500 2025
“Jessica Bent has given us great support in matters related to intellectual property within contracts with our technology suppliers. She provides timely and balanced advice, and is always mindful of the contract context and wider risk picture, allowing us to achieve a balanced final contractual position.”
The Legal 500 2025
“Jessica Bent provided outstanding support during what proved to be an extremely challenging renegotiation of an existing know-how license. Her diligence, understanding and hard work were crucial in getting us over the line.”
The Legal 500 2025
“Jessica has a very thoughtful approach to contracts. She is very good at explaining concepts, contextualised in a more commercial manner. She is very pragmatic and understands what matters.”
Chambers UK 2024
“Jessica is very good, fast in responses and has a pragmatic approach to matters.”
Chambers UK 2024
“She is a great sounding board and really understands the sector.”
Chambers UK 2024
“Jessica Bent is an excellent partner with lots of experience. She offers pragmatic advice to her clients and is commercially savvy.”
The Legal 500 2024
“Jessica Bent is excellent. She has decades of experience in the sector and remains at the cutting edge. She is down to earth and approachable but has great heft as an adviser, instilling confidence in clients. ”
The Legal 500 2024
“Jessica Bent is very experienced in her field and offers a fantastic service to clients. She is pragmatic and commercial in her advice.”
The Legal 500 2024
“Jessica Bent has been outstanding in all relevant and necessary areas.”
The Legal 500 2024
“Jessica Bent is extremely knowledgeable, has many years of experience in the sector and is very reliable.”
The Legal 500 2024
“Jessica Bent is pragmatic, commercial and had the law at her fingertips when we needed it.”
Chambers UK 2023
“Jessica Bent is excellent. She is incredibly knowledgeable about trade mark matters.”
The Legal 500 2023
“Jessica's focus on legal advice around copyright and intellectual property within the publishing industry has been invaluable.”
The Legal 500 2023
“Jessica has a high level of expertise in the area of know-how licensing which proved to be very protective of my rights in the licensing process.”
The Legal 500 2023
“Jessica Bent provides a proactive approach, ensuring that timescales are met by driving meetings and calls.”
The Legal 500 2023
“Jessica is very pragmatic, has good insights and exceptional focus on client’s business priorities.”
The Legal 500 2023
“Jessica was reliable and efficient. Following an initial brief on what we wanted to achieve, she set out clearly what we needed to collate and gather to feed the insight and supporting documentation. Conversations were always honest but professional.”
The Legal 500 2023
“Jessica Bent was our lead. Jessica steered & navigated us expertly through the process of gathering the right type of information needed which assisted us significantly. The finished submission was well crafted and depicted the journey of our brand story perfectly.”
The Legal 500 2023
“She is very experienced in the sector, agile and responsive to client priorities. The Legal 500 2023”
The Legal 500 2023
“Jessica Bent is very knowledgeable about the sector, down-to-earth and pragmatic. Very focused on getting a good outcome for clients.”
The Legal 500 2023
“Jessica Bent, a direct, practical and client-oriented lawyer with a focus on the technology sector and the creative industries.”
WTR1000 2023
“Jessica Bent is a very good IP lawyer and very pragmatic with it.”
Chambers UK 2022
“She brings a proactive approach to projects.”
Chambers UK 2022
“Jessica Bent is thorough, pragmatic and innovative in her approach. The Legal 500 2022”
The Legal 500 2022
“The standout individual is Jessica Bent. Jessica is very diligent and has an in-depth knowledge of the field. She is very approachable. We have direct access to her with phone and email.”
The Legal 500 2022
“Jessica Bent is very responsive and knows her subject inside out.”
The Legal 500 2022
“Jessica is extremely professional, knowledgeable and pragmatic.”
Chambers UK 2021
“I've found her very approachable and easy to talk to, and she gives practical advice. ”
Chambers UK 2020
“Her advice is nuanced, practical and very much accessible to lay clients. The service that we receive from her is outstanding.”
Chambers UK 2019
“I'm impressed with the time she has taken to understand our portfolio. She has a good understanding of the relative importance of each asset and advises a proportionate response.”
Chambers UK 2018
“A very safe pair of hands.”
Legal 500 2017
“Highly recommended for her breadth of knowledge and experience
”
for Technology, Media and Telecoms Legal 500 2016
Jessica qualified as a solicitor in 1998. Prior to joining Keystone Law in 2018, she worked at the following firms:
- Royds Withy King
- TLT
- Hammonds Suddards
