How I can help your business

• Provide clear, practical advice to help you build and manage patent and design portfolios aligned with your business objectives
• Guide you through patent drafting, prosecution, obtaining registered designs, and handling of invalidity challenges against patent rights such as oppositions or invalidity attacks
• Support you in managing IP risk, including freedom to operate and strategic advice, with particular focus on start-ups

Overview & Expertise

Dominic O’Connor is a Principal in Marks & Clerk’s London office and a Chartered Patent Attorney, European Patent Attorney, European Design Attorney and UPC Representative. He advises on patents and registered designs, with a focus on providing practical, commercially grounded guidance aligned with his clients’ objectives.

Dominic handles cases across a broad range of engineering-based technologies, including data processing from mechanical systems. He has years of experience in automotive technology including engines, drivetrains, tyres, vehicle suspension systems, turbochargers, vehicle batteries and wireless charging systems for vehicles.

In addition to his automotive work, he has significant experience in patenting aerospace technologies, for example jet engines and control and propulsion systems for drones. He has handled cases relating to medical devices, hand tools, heating and cooling cycles, cleantech, solar power and fuel cells.

Much of his work involves proceedings before the European Patent Office (EPO) and the UK Intellectual Property Office (UK-IPO), as well as securing international protection, particularly in the United States.

Dominic holds an MEng in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Bristol. Before joining Marks & Clerk he worked for Rolls-Royce Defence Aerospace in Bristol as an engineer on the Pegasus engines for the Harrier family of aircraft.

Client Work & Case Experience

Successfully defending a start-up client’s sole European patent against opposition filed by a competitor. The patent was maintained in a more limited form, but the client was still very happy with the final scope of protection.

Managing a client's re-registration of their large EU registered designs portfolio in the UK following the UK’s exit from the EU, under tight deadlines, ensuring continuity of UK protection.

Leading a complex restoration project following the inadvertent lapse of many patents in a European patent family, successfully reinstating the majority of rights across Europe.