Overview
Ian is widely acknowledged as a leading IP specialist with particular expertise in disputes. He also has extensive experience of commercial issues including licensing, structuring IP aspects of transactions and insolvency. He is a solicitor advocate and a qualified arbitrator and mediator.
Ian was a member of the firm’s Partnership Board from 2012 to 2015 and in 2000 founded the firm’s TMT sector group.
Work highlights
Ian has led on many leading IP disputes. These include:
- Actavis v Merck, a leading case on the patentability of second medical uses and which set a precedent for the Court of Appeal departing from its earlier decisions
- Aerotel v Telco concerning the patentability of computer programs and business methods
- Cranway v Playtech concerning a patent for online gaming
- Advising easyJet on the brand licence with its founder
- Tate & Lyle v Roquette a significant case on patentability of discoveries and the of attributes of a chemical product
- Sierra Wireless in an arbitration relating to royalties under patent licences
- Merck & Co., Inc. in a long-running trade mark dispute with Merck KGaA, a German company, over the use of “Merck”
Professional experience
Ian is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. He has been a deputy Reporter General, of AIPPI (the International Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property), one of the leading international organisations for intellectual property protection.
Ian is also a member of the Civil Justice Council, an advisory public body with responsibility for co-ordinating the modernisation of the civil litigation system, and a Trustee of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
Ian lectures and writes on IP issues. He is on the editorial board of the European Intellectual Property Review and the Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice.
Education and qualifications
Ian studied chemistry at Worcester College, University of Oxford and law at the City Polytechnic.
