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An international team of world-class chemistry specialists

A powerful combination of legal and detailed technical expertise

From polymers to paints, cosmetics to cleaning products, the chemical sector is diverse and ubiquitous in our everyday lives. It’s also highly technical. Chemical firms and investors need advisors with a deep knowledge of chemistry. With Marks & Clerk you get a powerful combination of legal and detailed technical expertise.

Our approach

Our approach is to gain an in-depth knowledge of your technology and your commercial aims. We will work to understand what you need from us and where we can add the most value. We use intelligent and commercially-focused legal thinking to provide your business with astute and relevant advice. We work with our clients in the way that suits them best.

Technical knowledge

Our large and diverse team of over 50 highly-skilled qualified chemistry patent specialists includes PhDs, post-docs, attorneys with industrial research experience and attorneys who have worked for in-house legal departments. We combine our first-hand experience from academia and industry with first class legal knowledge to provide our clients with innovative, practical and commercially-focused advice.

Specialists

for the result you need

Photo: Kirsteen Gordon

Kirsteen Gordon

Partner Chartered (UK) and European Patent Attorney, UPC Representative
Kirsteen drafts, files and prosecutes patent applications worldwide and has experience of opposition and appeal work at the European Patent Office.
Photo: Charlie Balme

Charlie Balme

Partner Solicitor (UK)
Charlie is a Partner and patent litigator at Marks & Clerk Law who advises clients on the enforcement, defence and commercialisation of intellectual property, with a particular focus on patent litigation and licensing disputes in the life sciences field. He frequently collaborates with patent attorneys to coordinate strategies across UPC participating member states.

Gianfranco Matteucci

Partner Singapore Registered Patent Attorney and European Patent Attorney
Gianfranco has a wealth of knowledge in intellectual property law, having had global experience from practising in Europe, Japan, and Singapore.

Mark Dauncey

Partner Chartered (UK) and European Patent Attorney, UPC Representative
Mark graduated from the University of Sheffield with a first class degree in Chemistry and a PhD in Computational Biochemistry, which involved the use of a computational genetic algorithm to develop a model to predict the structure of different DNA sequences and explore their binding to different proteins.

Mairi Rudkin

Partner Chartered (UK) and European Patent Attorney, UPC Representative
Mairi joined the patent profession after working in the fields of synthetic organic chemistry and medicinal chemistry.

Giles Pinnington

Partner Chartered (UK) and European Patent Attorney, UPC Representative
Giles specilaises in chemistry, chemical engineering, and mechanical engineering with a particular focus on hydrogen. He particularly enjoys working at the interface of chemistry and engineering, and has a great deal of experience working with a range of clients from start-ups to SMEs to global businesses as well as in-house.
Photo: Will Nieuwenhuys

Will Nieuwenhuys

Partner Chartered (UK) and European Patent Attorney, UPC Representative
Will has experience in a variety of technical fields, with particular expertise in small molecule organic and pharmaceutical chemistry. His work often involves representing clients before the European Patent Office (EPO) and advising on patent strategies across participating member states.
Photo: Donald McNab

Donald McNab

Principal Chartered (UK) and European Patent Attorney, UPC Representative
Donald advises a variety of clients, including universities and multinational companies.
Photo: James Baker

James Baker

Partner | Head of Chemistry & Life Science Canada | Canadian Patent Agent
James Baker is a partner and registered Canadian patent agent in the Ottawa office of Marks & Clerk Canada.

Jonathan Stafford

Partner Chartered (UK) and European Patent Attorney, UPC Representative
Jonathan handles patent matters in the chemistry and life science sectors, with emphasis on pharmaceuticals, medical and diagnostic devices, industrial chemistry, materials, and synthetic methods. Jonathan has particular expertise in the area of small molecule drugs and formulations, cardiovascular devices and wound care, polymers and polymer additives, graphene, catalysis, and stereoselective synthetic processes. He regularly represents clients in EPO opposition proceedings and coordinates these with UPC litigation strategies.

Legal expertise

Not only do we have exceptional expertise in drafting patent applications and prosecuting global patent portfolios, we have vast experience in defending and attacking patents post-grant. We frequently represent our clients in opposition and appeal proceedings at the European Patent Office, where our attorneys are able to work closely with our litigation specialists to deliver successful outcomes. Similarly, Marks & Clerk’s teams of specialist UK and Canadian IP litigators regularly handle some of the most complex and high-profile patent litigation heard in the national courts.

In addition to protecting and defending our clients’ IP rights, our team of commercial IP lawyers is highly experienced in advising clients on contracts, agreements and licences. 

Our expertise covers all aspects of IP – our team of trade mark attorneys advises chemical clients on branding strategies to maximise commercial value, as well as providing extensive experience in defending and opposing marks.

At Marks & Clerk, we work with investors, companies and institutions to perform IP due diligence and freedom to operate analysis in the chemistry sphere. Our experience in this area, together with the unique perspective provided by our prosecution, litigation and commercial expertise, provides you with a complete service.

Protecting innovation in polymers

Our attorneys are well-equipped to handle all aspects of polymer-related intellectual property matters.

Polymer expertise

Data driven IP insights

Welcome to our series of expert insights valuable to scientists, researchers, IP professionals, and industry leaders.

Browse the article series

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