Biography: Franchise

Joycia Young is a partner at Clyde & Co, an international law firm with 27 offices and over 1300 lawyers. Joycia is a partner in the intellectual property practice, based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Admitted to practice law in England, Wales and New South Wales, Australia, Joycia has over 12 years experience in advising multinational organisations on trademark, copyright and domain name protection and has extensive experience in licensing intellectual property through traditional franchise models and in the development of franchise rights.

Joycia also advises on the commercial aspects of intellectual property and has focused on brand development and extension, the creation of strategies for managing global intellectual property portfolios and the licensing and commercialisation of intellectual property assets.

Specifically, Joycia's work in the Middle East region has involved advising blue-chip international brands on franchising their rights throughout the six countries of the Gulf Co-operation Council, which currently comprise Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. In a complex, yet developing and exciting market, Joycia has been praised by franchise clients for providing "true insight" into the UAE market and assisting clients in navigating the myriad of local laws and regulations which indirectly govern the conduct of a franchised business in the Middle East. Joycia "really hits the mark on a wide range of IP work" (Chambers Global 2011) and is "highly regarded as a leading IP lawyer in the region" (Legal 500 2010).