How can I help your business

• Prosecute your patent portfolio across major international jurisdictions, seeking protection aligned with your commercial objectives.
• Draft patent applications for your innovations, identifying key inventive concepts and developing an appropriate filing strategy.
• Provide clear guidance on the patenting process and practical management of growing patent portfolios.

Overview & Expertise

Mark Schuster is an Associate and Chartered (UK) and European Patent Attorney based in the Marks & Clerk Cambridge office. Since joining the firm in 2021, he has worked with clients across the chemical and life sciences sectors, advising on the filing and prosecution of patent applications in major international jurisdictions.

His experience covers a broad range of technologies, including novel chemical species, formulations, methods, chemical engineering systems and biotechnology. Drawing on a background spanning both chemical and biological sciences, he works with clients to identify key inventive concepts, develop filing strategies and progress patent portfolios in line with their commercial objectives.

Mark graduated from Selwyn College, University of Cambridge, with a first-class BA and MSci in Natural Sciences, specialising in chemistry with a particular focus on organic chemistry and chemical biology. His final-year research project explored the application of organic synthesis to antimicrobial resistance in bacteria. Before joining Marks & Clerk, he worked as a policy adviser at the Department of Health and Social Care during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Mark qualified as a Chartered Patent Attorney (UK) and European Patent Attorney in 2025. He was awarded the Moss, Chris Gibson and Keith Farwell prizes by the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys for achieving the highest marks across four of the five UK Foundation Examinations. He has lectured on intellectual property at the University of Cambridge and Anglia Ruskin University, and has written on innovation and intellectual property for Cambridge Business Weekly and Life Sciences IP Review.

Client Work & Case Experience

• Corporate clients — Took over representation of large patent portfolios, rapidly becoming familiar with the underlying technologies while maintaining prosecution consistency and refining strategy where appropriate to improve prospects of allowance.
• Corporate clients — Implemented a revised prosecution strategy on one portfolio, resulting in the cancellation of oral proceedings and the issuance of notices of allowance for three European patent applications previously facing rejection.
• Start-ups — Drafted patent applications for technologies at an early stage of development, helping clients identify and protect commercially relevant innovations.
• Universities and research organisations — Worked closely with researchers to develop patent strategies that extend protection from specific experimental results to broader commercial concepts.