Malcolm qualified 30+ years ago, first as a UK Patent Attorney and then as a European Patent Attorney. A Higher Courts IP Litigation Certificate followed in 2001, one of the first awarded.
He set up his own sole practice in the late 1980’s, grew it as managing partner, divested and then started Concerto IP in 2015 after a legal research sabbatical. Trained in the London profession under the late David Woodcraft (“a huge good fortune”), Malcolm is a lateral thinking, energetic problem-solver with a business head.
“This case was scheduled for a 3-day Hearing. New case law came up on Day 1 which I grasped only partially. An idea got me up during the night, and I fixed it in my head. We were third opponent to present argument on Day 2 against validity of the competitor’s patent. No-one else understood the case law either! But the nocturnal idea proved convincing – the patent was revoked. A tough way to work, but probably essential to success in this case.”
Malcolm has been involved with a number of IP developments, both at the frontiers of technology and those of the law:
CHEMISTRY/MATERIALS SCIENCE
- Phase change ink jet printing ink blocks (very early solid ink patents, acting for the pioneer)
- Manufacture of fodder for farmed fish (patent oppositions, acting for large Norwegian player)
More ….
LIFE SCIENCE
- The single block thermocycler from Mullis’ Nobel Prize-winning PCR work (patent opposition, acting for the licensee of the technology)
- bFGF – fibroblast growth factor (patent opposition & appeal, acting for a world-renowned research institute on an important molecule)
More ….