ASPA Intellectual Property Seminar with the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys (CIPA)

We are pleased to announce that we will be holding a half-day seminar on IP topics in early October, presented by a delegation from the UK Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys (CIPA).

The seminar will deal with topics of current interest in intellectual property, including:

• the impact of Brexit on European intellectual property
• developments in European litigation procedure
• the role of the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys
• dealing with conflicts of interest
• three dimensional trade marks
• developments in registered design law and practice

The seminar will provide excellent networking opportunities over tea-breaks and lunch. It is open to all ordinary and associate members of ASPA as well as non-members. Advocates and solicitors who have an interest in IP law are welcome to attend.

Seminar Details

Date: Wednesday, 5 October 2016

Time: 12 noon to 5 pm

Venue: Pacific 1 Ballroom, Pan Pacific Hotel, 7 Raffles Boulevard, Marina Square, Singapore 039595

Cost: S$30 members, S$120 non-members (including lunch and tea breaks)

Registration for the ASPA CIPA IP Seminar is now closed.

Programme

11:30 am: Registration begins

12 noon: The Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys

Richard Mair will give an overview of the function and responsibilities of the UK Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys.

12:15 pm: Life After a Vote to Brexit

Bobby Smithson will discuss the impact of the vote to Brexit, what might change once the UK leaves the EU, what won’t change and how you might modify your practice to account for these changes.

12:45 pm: Lunch

2 pm: Updates on European IP Litigation and Handling of Professional Conflicts

Tim Powell will discuss the latest updates in European IP Litigation.

Clare Cornell will describe how conflicts of interest are handled in the UK and also provide an overview of procedures in the United States.

2:45 pm: Networking break

3 pm: Recent Developments in UK Case Law Relating to Registered Designs

Carin Burchell will present on updates on EU and UK Registered Design law and best practice following the recent PMS International Group Plc (Respondent) v Magmatic Limited decision of the UK Supreme Court concerning Trunki suitcases.

Carin will also discuss the changes regarding UK Registered Design practice which are due to come into force on 1 October 2016.

3:45 pm: Networking break

4 pm: Three Dimensional Trade Marks: Possibilities and Pitfalls

Clare Cornell will discuss the protection of 3D trade marks in Europe, particularly in view of the recent decisions from the CJEU and the High Court of England and Wales in Societe des Produits Nestle SA v Cadbury UK Ltd concerning the registration of the shape of the four finger Kit Kat bar.

4:45 pm: Seminar finishes

This programme is subject to change.

View Presentations »

About the Speakers

Richard Mair

Richard has been a member of CIPA’s International Liaison Committee since 1996, and took over as Chairman in 2015. He is a European and UK Patent Attorney with 38 years’ experience. In 1988 he joined Abel & Imray as a Partner and, after stepping down from the Partnership in 2015, continues as a Consultant to the firm.

Richard has been engaged in a wide variety of patent work in the mechanical, automotive and electrical fields, both procedural and contentious. In recent years he has specialised increasingly in trade mark work, including passing off and domain name issues. He has been a member of CIPA delegations to Canada, Japan and Korea, presenting papers to the Intellectual Property Institute of Canada, Japanese Patent Attorneys Association, Japan Intellectual Property Association and Korean Patent Attorneys Association.

Apart from chairing the International Liaison Committee, Richard is Vice-Chairman of CIPA’s Trade Mark Committee, and has represented CIPA on the UK Trade Marks Registry Practice Working Group, the UK IPO Marks and Designs Forum and in discussions with WIPO in Geneva.

Clare Cornell

Clare has been a member of the International Liaison Committee since January 2015, and is the lead for the South-East Asia working group. Prior to joining the International Liaison Committee in 2015, Clare joined delegations to Japan, Korea and India, speaking on issues related to patents, trade marks and registered designs.

Clare has worked in the IP profession for 19 years, starting her career as a patent attorney in the biochemistry and biotechnology field, and subsequently moving into the trade mark field in order to offer clients advice in both disciplines. She has assisted in multi-million dollar IP due diligence projects during both the acquisition and divestiture of businesses, as well as coordinated multi-jurisdictional post-acquisition IP assignment programs, and provided IP auditing services to clients who have acquired large IP portfolios.

Clare joined Finnegan Europe in April 2016 where her practice comprises trade mark prosecution, maintenance, enforcement, opposition and clearance searching as well as IP portfolio management, due diligence, licensing and assignment programs.

Bobby Smithson

Before entering the patent profession, Bobby was awarded a first class honours degree in Chemistry in 2002 from Leeds University. The third year of his degree was spent at Pennsylvania State University, PA, USA where, as well as chemistry, he studied nuclear physics, IT and mathematics.

He has particular expertise in polymer chemistry and organometallic chemistry and has conducted research into spin crossover compounds in organo- Fe(II)/Fe(III) complexes. As well as specialising in chemical subject matter, he has experience in the mechanical field and has drafted and successfully prosecuted various complex mechanical inventions including engines and gearboxes.

Bobby has particular legal experience in supporting in-house patent departments of large companies in the UK and overseas. This involves portfolio management in various countries around the world as well as identifying new inventions and assessing their patentability, drafting and filing patent applications for these new inventions.

Bobby also has broad experience in representing clients before the European Patent Office in Opposition and Appeal proceedings as well as regularly lecturing on UK and European patent protection in the UK and overseas.

Carin Burchell

Founder of BRANDED! (formerly “Carin Burchell Trade Mark Services”) which she set up in 1995. BRANDED! handles all areas of intellectual property advice and strategy and her firm also deals with patents through consultant patent attorneys.

Carin has recently been co-opted onto the International Liaison Committee of the Chartered Institute of Patent Agents, (“CIPA”).

Having obtained a LLB law degree from Queen Mary, University of London, she trained to become a trade mark attorney with R.G.C. Jenkins & Co and then J.A. Kemp & Co, passing the ITMA qualifying exams in 1985. She then went to Hong Kong and worked at Deacons as a trade mark attorney where she handled some of the earliest trade mark registrations under the then new filing system of the PRC. After three years, she returned to the UK and became a director of the trade mark legal arm of Interbrand – known as Markforce Associates. She later helped to set up the trade mark registration practice at Walker Morris LLP, solicitors and then started her own firm in 1995.

Carin has obtained the ITMA Litigators’ Rights qualification from Nottingham Trent University and over the last five years her practice has become more litigation focussed. A number of people have successfully trained through her firm – three of whom were awarded prizes in the ITMA Examinations.

From her office at BRANDED! in York, Carin handles trade mark, design and copyright matters for a wide range of clients in terms of size and sector and, in conjunction with associates, around the world.

She is a mother of three children and is fluent in German and English as well as being an overseas member of GRUR, Germany’s national intellectual property group.

Tim Powell

Tim Powell graduated in engineering from Southampton University in 1986 following four years’ concurrent industrial sponsorship by a multi-national packaging company. After ten years practising in London, Tim joined Eric Potter Clarkson (now Potter Clarkson LLP) in 1995, became a partner in 1997 and joined the firm’s Board of Management in 2006. He represents clients active mainly in metallurgy, consumer goods, electronic component and optics technologies.

In 2005 Tim graduated with commendation in the LLM in Intellectual Property Litigation from Nottingham Law School and obtained a postgraduate certificate in intellectual property litigation from the same university. He is in addition a Member of the Patent Agent Litigators’ Society. In September 2013, Tim became one of a handful of patent attorneys in Europe to qualify as Patent Attorney Advocates. As a result Tim is entitled to provide civil advocacy at all levels in the English court system.

Tim has travelled extensively on business, especially in Asia and the USA. He regularly presents papers on aspects of intellectual property to universities and to international audiences in the USA, China, Korea and elsewhere.

Tim has been a Full or Substitute Member of the Council of the European Patents Institute for approximately fifteen years; and he additionally contributes to the work of the International Liaison Committee of the UK’s Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys.

Register for the ASPA CIPA IP Seminar

Registration for the ASPA CIPA IP Seminar is now closed.