Andy CloughleyPartner

As well as handling day-to-day prosecution before the EPO and the UKIPO, I am experienced in contentious work, including litigation in Europe (in particular in the UK, Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland) and the US. I act for clients before the EPO Boards of Appeal, in addition to Opposition and Examining Divisions, and was involved in the well-known Enlarged Board of Appeal decision G1/06 relating to the filing of divisional applications, in which we successfully represented our client. I also undertake due diligence and provide strategy advice to clients.

My experience includes four years with the UK Atomic Energy Authority, which sponsored me through university and provided a first-hand experience of nuclear reactor shutdown and testing, mechanical and civil design engineering, and experimental work in recovery of oil from geological structures. I then worked as a senior researcher for RWS Information Ltd after which I founded my own IP research business. I subsequently trained as a patent attorney at Miller Sturt Kenyon, which I went on to acquire in a management buyout and run as managing director for almost 20 years before joining Lewis Silkin.

I handle a wide variety of primarily electrical and mechanical subject matter and have worked on pumps and compressors; medical devices; mobile device technology; display devices and touch screens; sensing devices; music synthesisers; electrical circuit design; software; signal, data and image processing and encoding; semiconductors; solid state memories and disk drives; and printers and consumables.

I have lectured extensively in the UK, Europe (including France and Germany) and Japan, covering various aspects of UK and European intellectual property law.