Michael Lord

As a partner in the IT & Engineering Group at GJE I like to lead from the front in helping our clients to identify, obtain and defend their IP, together with giving practical and pragmatic advice upon the myriad surrounding issues that arise along the way. Some of the main IP services I provide are: • High Quality Patent Drafting – the key to a solid patent portfolio • Patent Prosecution at the EPO, UK IPO and around the world • Strategic Advice – assisting with formulating and developing budgeted IP strategies for clients • Leading client-specific nominated teams for larger SME and corporate clients • Extensive use of proprietary and commercial IP portals, particularly for corporate clients • In-house IP Procedures – IP capture and assessment, new product development, inventor reward • Freedom-to-Operate (FTO) – searches, advice and reports with risk assessment and budget control • Infringement & Validity advice, often linked with FTO advice • Litigation – EPO Oppositions and Appeals, pre-action skirmishes, UKIPO hearings, UK IPEC and High Court • IP Assessment and Due Diligence • Second Opinions – for clients seeking confirmation of important issues • Assignments and IP transfers • Monitoring – third party IP and litigation monitoring • Registered and Unregistered Designs – obtaining fast and cost-effective registered design protection at UK IPO and OHIM; plus advice on “automatic” unregistered rights • Excluded Subject Matter – pushing the boundaries for protecting software, business processes and aesthetic creations I work with clients in a very wide range of physics and engineering technologies. My technical background and professional experience have given me particular expertise in: Telecommunications, Computer Software, Oil & Gas, Optics / Photonics, Plasma processing, MRI, Process Control, Document Security and Processing, Imaging, Nanotechnology, Metallurgy and Materials Science.

I was incredibly fortunate to train as an IP attorney at GJE. In my opinion GJE has always provided the best training available in the UK profession. This is achieved due to the firm's culture where partners personally train the trainees themselves and actively include trainees in working alongside the partners in all types of professional work and client interactions. This gives the GJE trainees an unparalleled exposure to real life commercial IP practice and enables them to deliver the firm's industry leading advice and service from an early stage in their professional careers.

I hold a first class degree in Natural Sciences from Cambridge. I studied at Magdalene College for each of my first degree and Ph.D. The Natural Sciences Tripos is excellent in providing a high level of scientific knowledge in a number of scientific disciplines. The courses I took included Advanced Physics, Materials Science, Chemistry and Mathematics. I studied for my PhD in the internationally renowned Phase Transformations and Modelling Group led by Prof. Sir Harry Bhadeshia at the Department of Materials Science, University of Cambridge. My PhD involved the design of novel steel weld alloys using a range of computer modelling techniques. My work relating to neural network modelling won the Granjon Prize, an international research prize for metallurgy.