How I can help your business

• Draft and prosecute patent applications for complex software, electronics and photonics technologies, with strategies designed to secure robust international protection.
• Advise on patenting artificial intelligence and software-related inventions, including addressing excluded subject matter and technical effect requirements.
• Provide clear, practical IP advice to support decision-making across the patenting process for clients at all stages.

Overview & Expertise

Aline Heyerick is an Associate and a UK and European Patent Attorney based in Marks & Clerk’s Manchester and Glasgow offices. Her international background, including experience working and living in the UK and Europe, enables her to support clients in navigating coordinated patent strategies across multiple jurisdictions.

Her practice covers a wide range of technologies, including semiconductor fabrication, metamaterials and plasmonics, machine learning and artificial intelligence, video processing, data compression, cybersecurity and medical technologies. This combination of software and electronics expertise enables her to provide clear, practical guidance on complex, multidisciplinary inventions.

Aline works with clients ranging from early-stage start-ups and SMEs to multinational organisations, providing advice tailored to their commercial objectives. Her experience in these areas helps clients navigate differences in European and UK patent practice and secure effective protection for innovative technologies.

She holds a BSc in Electronics Engineering from Ghent University, a European MSc in Photonics jointly awarded by Ghent University, Vrije Universiteit Brussels and the University of St Andrews, and an MPhil in Physics from the University of St Andrews.

Client Work & Case Experience

• Semiconductor sector — drafting and prosecuting patent applications for advanced manufacturing technologies, supporting the development of core patent portfolios.
• Cybersecurity start-up — advising on drafting and international prosecution, supporting portfolio development from early-stage through to exit.
• AI and software clients — prosecuting applications in areas including machine learning, video processing and computational metrology, securing commercially relevant protection.
• Electronics and photonics sector — advising on codec, holography and radiation source technologies, translating complex innovations into robust patent filings.