Laurence has more than 18 years’ experience in intellectual property; obtaining commercially valuable patent rights, enforcing and defending patent rights after grant. A European Patent Attorney and a UK Chartered Patent Attorney (qualifying with the highest mark in his year), his practice covers a range of fields across engineering including electronics, computer systems and networking, medical devices, and general engineering.
Laurence has extensive experience of building and maintaining focussed, relevant patent portfolios for clients ranging from FTSE 100 and S&P 500 companies through to SMEs and individuals. This includes freedom-to-operate searching, identifying patentable inventions, advising on the prospects of obtaining useful patent protection, as well as drafting and prosecuting applications in the UK, Europe, US and worldwide.
On the contentious side, Laurence has advised and represented clients in post-grant enforcement against competitors and defended granted patents against invalidity actions. This includes opposition proceedings before the European Patent Office, post-grant revocation proceedings and declaration of non-infringement at the UK IPO, proceedings before the UK Intellectual Property Enterprise Court (IPEC), and proceedings before the UK High Court.
Before training as a patent attorney, Laurence worked in the electricity industry.
Laurence has a first class degree in Engineering (Electrical and Information Sciences) from Cambridge University. This covered the fundamentals of Electrical, Electronic, Software, Mechanical and Civil Engineering and Laurence later specialised in Electronic, Electrical and computer systems engineering.