Mr David Cochrane > Spoor & Fisher > Pretoria, South Africa > Lawyer Profile

Mr David Cochrane

+27 12 676 1001 d.cochrane@spoor.com View profile View profile View profile View profile

Work Department

Patent Chemical

Position

David is a partner at Spoor & Fisher. He specialises in domestic and international patent matters, including the preparation and prosecution of patent applications. As an expert patent attorney, David specialises in filing applications in the pharmaceutical, nuclear medicine, chemical, petrochemical, agrochemical, explosives, metallurgical and biochemical fields, as well as plant breeders’ rights.

Career

David completed a BSc degree at the University of the Witwatersrand in 1991 and an LLB degree at the same institution in 1994. He joined Spoor & Fisher in 1995, and qualified as an attorney in 1997 and as a patent attorney in 1998. David became a partner of Spoor & Fisher in 2004. David practices in the Chemical Patent Department at Spoor & Fisher where he specialises in the drafting and prosecution of patent applications locally and internationally. He also specialises in Plant Breeders’ Rights.

Professional activities

SAIIPL Plant Breeders’ Rights Law and Practice lecturer and examiner.

Guest lecturer on Patent Protection for Pharmaceutical Inventions at IP LLM course – University of Stellenbosch.

Author of the Plant breeders’ rights chapter of Dean & Dyer: Intellectual Property Law in South Africa,  2014.

Market Recognition

Listed in IAM’s World’s Leading Patent Professionals 2011 – 2020.

Listed in the Managing Intellectual Property IP Stars 2014 – 2021.

Listed in World IP Review Leaders – Best IP Practitioners 2016 – 2020.

Listed as one of the World’s Leading Practitioners in Euromoney’s Expert Guides – Patents 2017 – 2020.

Listed in IAM Strategy 300 – The World’s Leading IP Strategists 2019 – 2020.

Listed in IAM’s Global Leaders, 2021.

Languages

English, Afrikaans

Memberships

Fellow and member of the Council of the South African Institute of Intellectual Property Law (SAIIPL).

Member of the International Federation of Intellectual Property Attorneys (FICPI).

Member of Plant Breeders’ Rights Committee at SAIIPL.

Member of the Japanese Chamber of Commerce (CCIJ).

Member of the South African Plant Breeders’ Association (SAPBA).

Member of the Legal Practice Council (LPC).

Education

BSc (Chem) LLB. Patent Attorney, Attorney of the High Court of South Africa.

Leisure

Spending time with his family. David keeps fit by riding his mountain bike and kitesurfing. David enjoys adventure holidays like overland trips that take him camping in Botswana and Namibia.