Russell Woolley

Russell is part of the Chemistry team at Carpmaels & Ransford. Building on his PhD spent researching fuel cell electrodes, Russell has a particular focus and expertise in the field of energy storage and conversion, including lithium-ion batteries. He is responsible for drafting and managing global patent portfolios in this field as well as advising on freedom-to-operate. He works for firms big and small, from established industry players to guiding start-ups with their first few patent applications. His work stands up to scrutiny: Russell’s clients have secured major investment following in-depth due diligence assessing the strengths of portfolios he has drafted and prosecuted.

Russell has taken action vs. numerous competitor patent applications in the field of battery technology, filing third-party observations raising new objections missed by patent offices, resulting in significant and commercially relevant limitations being made to the claims. His work here has been concise and cost-effective, leveraging his technical know-how and extensive experience of contentious patent matters.

Russell loves to dive deep into the science at all stages of the lifetime of an invention. He enjoys working closely with inventors at the drafting stage, identifying the key concepts from a technical perspective and establishing how best to use experimental data from a legal perspective to support a patent application. This technical know-how is carried right the way through to contentious opposition proceedings, where Russell gets to the bottom of complex cases and teases apart large datasets to best represent his client’s interests.

Russell studied undergraduate chemistry at the University of Oxford, specialising in inorganic chemistry. He was awarded a first-class degree, finishing top at his college. He completed a PhD at Imperial College London, researching electrodes for fuel cells. Russell published several articles in scientific journals and was awarded a prize for his thesis.

A keen sports fan, Russell was awarded a Blue for water polo at university. He still finds the time for exercise whenever he can and enjoys working up an appetite for a large healthy meal.