Our Firm
We are a full service European intellectual property firm and we have been at the forefront of the industry for over 200 years.
We are unique in the market for having a top-tier litigation capability with a top-tier practice in patent and trade mark prosecution, opposition and litigation support as well as transactional IP lawyers and copyright experts. With our full service expertise we are able to advise on all aspects of IP from inception to enforcement and litigation in the courts.
From our offices in London, Munich and Dublin, we manage some of the world’s leading IP portfolios, including our clients’ most commercially valuable products and services. We have worked with many of our clients from inception through to becoming market leaders.
We are consistently ranked as a top-tier firm in all independent legal directories, both as a firm and for our individual expertise. Clients testify to our outstanding technical knowledge, commercial acumen and creative thinking. We are agile and informed, working closely with our clients to take on their most ambitious challenges.
Services
Our services are delivered by specialist teams with superb knowledge and professional skills
Whether you need to obtain a patent or trade mark, undertake a complex commercial transaction, manage a patent portfolio or settle a dispute, our teams will work seamlessly on your behalf.
With first-class patent and trade mark attorneys under the same roof as seasoned top-tier litigators, our combined experience provides an unrivalled service in drafting, prosecution and contentious proceedings.
Sectors
Our practice is organised around six key sectors
Each dedicated team represents a pool of specialist knowledge where developments in the law and technology are closely followed. Whenever relevant, that knowledge is shared between teams. This enables us constantly to maintain the highest levels of service that our clients have come to expect.
Our attorneys are experts in their fields, bringing together experience from academic research, insights from working at industry-leading companies and extensive IP expertise.
Our History
Our history dates back over 200 years to 1776 when an entrepreneur named James Poole founded the firm that is now Carpmaels & Ransford. Offering his services to inventors for the sum of 10 guineas, Poole acted as both public patent official and patent agent, to help people through the complex and frustrating process of obtaining a patent.
By the 1820s, Moses Poole, a barrister, had taken over from his father and the two Pooles developed a large and successful patent practice. In 1835, William Carpmael, an engineer and mechanical draughtsman, joined Moses in partnership and the firm of Poole & Carpmael was established at 4 Old Square, Lincoln’s Inn.
A strenuous and persistent advocate for patent reform, William Carpmael was instrumental in the passing of the Patent Law Amendment Act of 1852, bringing about a complete overhaul of the UK patent system and establishing the patent office as we know it today.
The firm’s early clients included Marconi and Bayer, forerunners of the international clients that the firm represents today. In the 1960s, Johnson & Johnson and Allis Chalmer were introduced to the firm. In biotechnology, our pre-eminence is in large part due to our early involvement in the sector, prosecuting cases originating from the West Coast of the US. With the advent of the European Patent Office in the 1970s, our chemistry and engineering teams developed relationships with clients in Japan which persist to this day.
"Carpmaels is a powerful combination of solicitors and patent attorneys, which makes them an attractive offering."