The majority of our patent work involves drafting, preparing for filing and prosecuting European patent applications and dealing with all aspects of oppositions and appeals before the European Patent Office. We handle several thousand pending applications and have one of the largest opposition practices in Europe. We have considerable experience in representing clients at formal oral proceedings before Examining Divisions, Opposition Divisions, Appeal Boards and the Enlarged Board of Appeal. We are also highly experienced in drafting, filing and prosecuting UK patent applications, as well as in conducting revocation and infringement actions before the UK Patent Office and the Patents County Court. We have considerable experience in acting, together with other professional colleagues, in connection with the complex requirements of patent litigation in the High Court and on appeal to the Court of Appeal and the House of Lords. The firm also has considerable experience in dealing with all aspects of patent prosecution world-wide. This includes filing and prosecuting applications under the Patent Co-operation Treaty and, using our excellent network of local attorneys under our instruction, prosecuting applications, oppositions, revocation actions, infringements suits and interferences in many countries, in particular in the USA and Japan. One of the particular strengths of the firm is the provision of strategic IP management advice, whether for a single patent family or for an entire patent portfolio. We also devote considerable time to advising our clients on non-litigious matters such as licences, clearance searches and validity and infringement issues, and we have extensive experience in assisting the due diligence process. We include specialists in all the major fields of science and technology. We have a particularly strong practice in prosecution of applications, oppositions and appeals before the European Patent Office in the biotechnology area. The firm is proud to be ranked, once again, in the top tier of UK firms for patent prosecution in the 2008 survey conducted by the Managing Intellectual Property publication. |
