The Legal 500

UK > London > TMT (technology, media and telecoms) > Patent and trade mark attorneys The Regions

Editorial sections

Other

All countries

Other countries

Split between Birmingham, London, Southampton and Cambridge, Barker Brettell LLP recruited three new partners to its patent team in 2008 including Ashley Dickson and Carl Yelland. The practice advised Tom-Tom Sat Nav, Compass Group and Bristol-Myers Squibb in 2008.

Boult Wade Tennant is an ‘excellent firm’ known for its ‘quality of work’. Nigel Tucker, Matthew Spencer and Felicity Hide were appointed to the partnership in March 2009. Patent work for Motorola and LG Electronics, amongst others, is handled from the Reading office. Clients include Kraft Foods.

Jonathan Jackson and Robert Dempster were appointed as partners in D Young & Co’s Southampton office in 2008, where many of the firm’s electronics and mechanics portfolios are handled. For example, Jackson, formerly an in-house patent attorney at Sony, handles a proportion of its patent portfolio. Nigel Robinson also handles the ARM portfolio from Southampton.

Frank B. Dehn & Co.’s Brighton office hosts the largest team outside London and handles work for an impressive array of clients, including Bristol-Myers Squibb and Blackberry (which recently instructed Joseph Letang). The firm is also active in Oxford, where Medtronic is a key client. Christopher Davies is ‘well respected’ in the field.

Marks & Clerk LLP has 12 offices across the UK in the South, the Midlands, the North and Scotland, and further expanded following the merger with the Lloyd Wise Group at the end of 2007. The Manchester office handles work for Renovo, AstraZeneca and ImClone Systems, while Cellartis is a new client acquisition secured by the life sciences team in Scotland in 2008.

Out of its Leeds headquarters, Urquhart-Dykes & Lord LLP’s Simon Belcher has handled medical device patent filings for Johnson & Johnson, while Neil Pawlyn filed several patents for DNA analysis for the Forensic Science Service. Andrew Alton has continued to handle Apple Inc’s European patent protection work. The practice also started co-ordinating an environmental technology group for clients out of its Peterborough office at the end of 2008.

Bolstered by the arrival of associate Stuart Latham in March 2008, Withers & Rogers continues to go from strength to strength. Notable new client wins for the firm’s Bristol and Leamington Spa offices include Apple Inc. David Elsy has ‘very good knowledge and understanding of polymer chemistry’, while Russell Barton is also recommended.

At Abel & Imray, Bath-based partner Jim Denness is a chartered chemist, while Ceris Humphreys, who is also based in Bath, has overall responsibility for work in the biotechnology and chemical areas. Her patent clients include Tate & Lyle and the BOC Group.

‘Business acumen and industrial knowledge is usefully above average’ at Elkington and Fife LLP. Dr Richard Gillard is ‘good’ and ‘quick to understand complex issues’.

Outside London, Harrison Goddard Foote HGF has offices in Manchester and Leeds. The Manchester office was bolstered by the recent recruitment of Andrew Wells, formerly an in-house patent attorney, and Dominic Schiller, who joined from IP 21 Limited. Jason Lumber in the Leeds office is a qualified solicitor.

Mewburn Ellis LLP recruited Simon Parry to its Manchester office in April 2008. University clients include Aston University and the University of Glasgow, while in the pharmaceuticals sector KuDOS Pharmaceuticals is another major client portfolio. The firm is one of the few practices in the market to have a team of in-house specialist lawyers handling a range of matters including licensing and technology transfer.

One of the biggest recent developments for Murgitroyd & Co incorporating Kennedys was the acquisition of Raworth, Moss & Cook in January 2009. This absorption meant the London office acquired new partners Stephen Wise and Graham Feakins, in addition to Michael Marchant who joined from Mathys & Squire LLP. Recent highlights include the revocation of a patent relating to methods of dealing with gratuities in credit transactions.

Potter Clarkson LLP boasts impressive strength and depth, with some 15 patent partners and two trade mark partners based in one office in Nottingham. The practice has handled Heptares’ patent portfolio since the end of 2007, while Nokia and Novo Nordisk are examples of older clients of the firm. Other recent highlights include filing supplementary protection certificates for GlaxoSmithKline’s Human Papillomavirus vaccines. Dr Saiful Khan and Stephen Smith were promoted to the partnership in 2008 and David Clark joined as a senior associate.

Reddie & Grose’s Cambridge office is a scientific stronghold, with consultant Dr Jonathan Davies, who specialises in pharmaceuticals and biotechnology, and Dr Neil Thornton, based there. Dr Simon Goodman, also based in Cambridge, handles materials science and trade mark matters. Highlights included securing a £40m investment to develop a clinical trial drug for Addex, and working on the global protection of the first over-the-counter chlamydia test.

Appleyard Lees is based in Halifax, with 11 UK offices located in the North West.

Chapman Molony’s head office is in Winchester, with additional offices in Cardiff and Leamington Spa. Haemair, Cyden and Plum Baby were new clients for the firm in 2008. Other recent highlights include developing a patent strategy for Mamas & Papas.

Franks & Co Limited has offices in Sheffield, Manchester and Leeds.

HLBBshaw has offices in Leeds, Birmingham, Cambridge, Reading, and Epping, as well as London. It handles patent and trade mark prosecution work, and is also active in European patent opposition and appeal proceedings and UK-based litigation.

IP 21 Ltd has offices in London, Norwich and Ipswich.

Based in J A Kemp & Co’s Oxford office, Amanda Simons was promoted to partner in April 2008. Sony is a major client advised from the Oxford office.

Mathys & Squire LLP’s regional offering encompasses offices in Cambridge, Manchester, Reading and York. The Manchester office was recently strengthened by the recruitment of Jane Evenson and Toby Simpson, from Page White & Farrer and Harrison Goddard Foote HGF respectively.

Rouse & Co. International covers patents, trade marks, copyright and design from its Oxford and London offices.

W P Thompson & Co’s 12 attorneys handle patent, trade mark, copyright and design matters. The firm has offices in Liverpool, London, Letchworth and Munich.

With offices in Manchester, Birmingham and London, Wilson Gunn’s 25 attorneys include UK and European registered patent and trade mark attorneys.

Press releases

The latest news direct from law firms. If you would like to submit press releases for your firm, send an email request to

Legal Developments in the UK

Legal Developments and updates from the leading lawyers in each jurisdiction. To contribute, send an email request to
  • Student employees – new restrictions on employment

    On 10 February 2010 a Statement of Changes to the Immigration Rules was laid before Parliament which is due to come into force on 3 March 2010.
    - Penningtons Solicitors LLP
  • Landlord & Tenant Briefing

    Dilapidations in commercial premises – ten points to consider
    - Bircham Dyson Bell LLP
  • Being a helpful Landlord may be a mistake!

    Most landlords and their solicitors try to resist the impulse to be helpful, however, in these recessionary times when landlords are concerned to avoid empty space, there may be the temptation to take shortcuts to ensure a letting proceeds. In circumstances where it is intended that Part II of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 (the 1954 Act) should not apply to the tenancy, i.e. that the tenant should not have the benefit of security of tenure, then occupation before the lease has been finalised (and the appropriate ‘contracting-out’ steps taken) is a potentially dangerous step and needs to be taken only when the landlord has fully comprehended the potential consequences.
    - Bircham Dyson Bell LLP
  • New regime for approval of major transport projects set to ‘switch on’

    The Planning Act 2008 (the Act) introduces a new regime designed to speed up the planning and, in turn, the delivery of infrastructure projects of national significance. For transport projects, it is one of the most important pieces of legislation in recent years. The new procedure will have to be used for any third runway at Heathrow, amongst other high-profile projects.
    - Bircham Dyson Bell LLP
  • Divorce and the media: the courts, the pay-outs and the speculation

    The rising divorce rate and some well-publicised settlements running into tens of millions of pounds have focused attention on a growing issue in divorce cases: just how far can spouses go to obtain information about their partner’s financial affairs?
    - Schillings
  • Top ten really useful cases of 2009

    If you want your panel solicitor to‘get off the fence’, need to know when a cause of action accrues or wondered whether the judiciary live in the 21st century, the following cases from 2009 provide some really useful guidance. With professional negligence claims on the increase, whether you are giving or receiving legal advice, the cases discussed below highlight practical points for all legal advisers to be aware of.
    - Bond Pearce LLP
  • The twilight zone: legal issues for directors

    there is no legal definition of the term ‘twilight zone’ (perhaps derived from the cult TV series, the writer would like to think), which is now widely used to describe a period of trading when a company has, or is predicted to have, insufficient cash to pay its debts as they fall due. This might be an immediate cash-flow crisis or the problem might be anticipated many months ahead.
    - Holman Fenwick Willan
  • Cloud computing:key issues for SMEs

    Although many definitions exist, broadly speaking ‘cloud computing’ is the outsourcing of specified IT functions via the internet (the cloud) to provide or receive services that would otherwise only be available if the end user had installed the appropriate hardware and/or software on desktops, or on local networks controlled by that organisation itself. Such services may include the use of software over the internet or remote storage of business data by a third-party provider. One benefit of this is that businesses can structure payment for these services differently (for example pay-as-you-go or on a subscription basis), rather than having to pay large sunk costs for long-term software licences, and the purchase and installation of IT infrastructure necessary to support the services locally.
    - SJ Berwin LLP
  • Commission victorious in ‘regulatory holiday’ action brought against Germany

    On 3 December 2009, following an action brought by the European Commission under article 226 of the EC Treaty (now article 258 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU) the European Court of Justice (ECJ) confirmed that Germany had failed to comply with its obligations under the European regulatory framework for telecommunications (the Common Regulatory Framework (CRF)). The ECJ’s judgment in European Commission v Germany [2009] confirms that Germany acted unlawfully by adopting a national law excluding ‘new markets’ from regulation – so called ‘regulatory holidays’.
    - SJ Berwin LLP
  • New Commission

    On Friday 27 November 2009 the new European Commission, which will begin its mandate early in 2010, was announced by Commission President José Barroso. This announcement followed a week after the appointment of Herman Van Rompuy and Catherine Ashton as the President of the European Council and the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy respectively, the two new roles created by the Lisbon Treaty, which entered into force on 1 December 2009.
    - Berwin Leighton Paisner LLP

Press releases

The latest news direct from law firms. If you would like to submit press releases for your firm, send an email request to