The Legal 500

Work Department

Intellectual property and technology department (contentious).

Position

Head of IP and technology department and of IP and technology dispute resolution, experience includes: large Court of Session intellectual property and IT litigations (including numbers of successful mediations) relating to patent trade mark, passing off and copyright infringement. Practice includes pharmaceutical and oil industry patent disputes and luxury brand trade mark disputes. IP clients include: Performing Rights Society; FMC Technologies; Cameron; WL Gore & Associates Ltd; Roche Diagnostics; Boehringer Ingleheim; Toolmex Corp; Capgemini Limited; Axway; Arrow Generics Limited; Pringle; Philips; Charles River Laboratories; Technip; Business Software Alliance; Microsoft; Coty Prestige Lancaster Group; Virgin; WL Gore & Associates; Glaxo SmithKline. IP cases include: Verathon Inc v Aircraft Medical Limited (patent infringement); FMC Technologies v VetcoGray; Cameron v VetcoGray; Arrow Generics v Akzo Nobel (pharmaceutical patent case); Nowsco Wells v Copipe Systems (patent infringement); ITPSA v Coflexip Stena Offshore Ltd (patent infringement); Boehringer IngelheimMunro (parallel importing); Scottish Widows v Leisure Probe (cyber-squatting); SpeechWorks Inc v SpeechWorks Ltd; Lancaster Group v M&S Toiletries Ltd (parallel import cases regarding JOOP and Davidoff brands); GlaxoSmithKline plc v Munro Wholesale Ltd (parallel import pharmaceutical case); UVG (Ambulances) ltd v Wilker Auto Conversions Ltd (design right infringement); Gillette UK Ltd v M&S Toiletries (acting for Gillette); Redrow Homes Ltd v Bett Brothers (for Redrow); Conoco v Merpro Montassa (for Conoco); other trade mark disputes include: Harley Davidson; Glenfarclas; Virgin; Jack Wolfskin; Laphroaig; JLo; Jil Sander; Gillette; Hype; Ford; Ben Hogan; James Bond 007; EasyJet; Route 66; and Marriott; handled numerous domain name dispute referrals to UDRP and Nominet.

Career

Articled Edinburgh and Stirling; qualified 1988; litigation department, Maclay Murray & Spens 1989-91; seconded to IP litigation department, Bristows, London, 1991-92; Droste, Munich 1992 (close proximity to the EPO); partner Maclay Murray & Spens 1993; contributor of IP articles to MIP, ECTR, CIPA Journal; EIPR; JIPLP; Scottish editor of ‘CIPA Guide to UK Patents Act’ (including recent 6th edition); contributor of Scottish section of ‘Guide to European Trademark Law and Litigation’ (Sweet & Maxwell); regular conference speaker on IP litigation in Scotland; Scottish member Sweet & Maxwell, ETMR and European Copyright & Design Reports Editorial Board: Law Society accredited intellectual property specialist.

Member

Associate CIPA; committee member TIPLO; Law Society Intellectual Property Committee; International Trade Mark Association (INTA); associate member ITMA; member of AIPPI; editorial board of the ‘Journal of Intellectual Property Law and Practice’, published by Oxford University Press; committee member INTA Parallel Imports; committee member Licensing Executives Society.

Education

Inverness Royal Academy; Edinburgh University (1984 LLB Hons, 1985 Dip LP).

Leisure

Scuba-diving, skiing, hill-walking, running club, sports club, travelling.

Practice Areas

Information technology; Intellectual property