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Lee Davies has been the Chief Executive of the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys (CIPA) since February 2012. Prior to this, Lee was the Deputy Chief Executive of the Institute for Learning (IfL), the professional body for further education teachers. Lee’s professional background is in engineering (mechanical services) and further education teaching. Lee has experience of the governance of professional bodies, having served as the President of the Chartered Institute of Plumbing and Heating Engineering (CIPHE) in 2011-12.
Lee says that such a varied career, from apprentice plumber to CEO of CIPA, via organisations such as the Highbury College in Portsmouth, the Workers’ Educational Association (WEA) and IfL, has left him a little confused about his professional identity. Lee now identifies as an ‘association leader’, although the concept of association leadership is, in Lee’s words, “woefully undervalued and little recognised in the UK”. Lee is a passionate advocate for the association sector and is President and Chair of the Institute of Association Leadership (IAL), where he leads the Chief Executives’ Forum.

Chris Mercer joined the patent profession in 1975 and passed the UK Finals exams in 1979. For the majority of his career, Chris was either a partner or a consultant for Carpmaels & Ransford, with a large practice in oppositions and appeals at the EPO and litigation before the UK courts. Chris is a member of Council for CIPA and is also on a number of CIPA committees, including the Education, Patents and Litigation Committees. He is also on epi’s Council and on various epi Committees and was a founding member of EPLIT. Chris is a former president of both CIPA and epi. He appeared as an advocate in a Moot Court event in 1977.

Simon has a Chemistry (with Biochemistry) degree from Bristol University and qualified as a UK patent attorney in 1990. He became a European Patent Attorney in 1992 while with Kilburn & Strode and joined J A Kemp in 1994. He became a partner in J A Kemp’s biotechnology group in 2005 and moved to Schlich on the south coast in January 2022.

Simon handles patent and trade mark work in a wide variety of life science, chemical and pharma fields, including stem cells, human genes and genomics, drug delivery systems, contrast agents, GM crops, algae technology and CRISPR technology. He also handles mechanical work ranging from drones to electric vehicle charging. He works for a broad variety of clients ranging from individuals, SMEs and private clients up to UK universities and biotechnology start-ups. He also acts for EU and US genomics and academic institutions.

Simon chaired CIPA’s Life Sciences Committee for 20 years and relinquished that role earlier this year. He still Chairs the epi Biotech committee. He is a member of CIPA’s Council, Patents Committee and International Liaison Committee. He is a member of epi Council and the By-Laws committee and has been selected to be a member of SACEPO.

He is currently the President of CIPA for 2026.

He enjoys wine, gigs, playing the sax, running and cycling.

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Alicia graduated from the University of Leeds with an honours degree in Colour and Polymer Chemistry and was awarded a PhD in Synthetic Organic Chemistry for her research in the area of photochromics.

Her research included altering the molecular structure of naphthopyrans to develop predictive techniques for producing molecules of tailored wavelengths for use in the ophthalmic industry and resulted in seven published scientific papers.

Currently, Alicia works particularly in the fields of chemistry, dyes and pigments photochromic materials, medical devices, laboratory consumables, toys, clothing, oil & gas and natural sciences in general.

Alicia is a Chartered Patent Attorney, a European Patent Attorney and a Chartered UK Trade Mark Attorney, having won the Payne/Bennett Memorial Award for scoring the highest mark in the UK for one of her Final Trade Mark examination papers.

Alicia has also obtained the Intellectual Property Litigation and Advocacy Certificate at Nottingham Trent University which enables her to represent clients directly before the High Court.

Alongside sitting on the Council for the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys’ as a Past President for 2022 and being an active member of their Trade Marks and Design & Copyright Committees, Alicia also sits on the Council of FICPI-UK as treasurer and the Council of EPI.

In her spare time Alicia enjoys crafting in particular knitting and crochet and she’s often found with a ball of wool and needles around her person, she also enjoys tinkering with cars and has rebuilt a couple of rotary car engines in her front room!

Nina is an experienced patent attorney with an academic background in physics & mathematics and extensive experience with software and robotics inventions.
Nina’s career has spanned a wide spectrum of the IP landscape: she trained in private practice in Munich, drove commercial IP strategy in-house at IBM and Porsche in Stuttgart, and has now moved into the public sector at the UK Atomic Energy Authority—a research organisation leading the delivery of sustainable fusion energy.

Beyond her day job, Nina is deeply committed to the future of the IP profession. She is part of the team working on Visser’s Annotated European Patent Convention. She actively contributes as an epi Tutor and committee member, focusing on education and IP awareness, advocating for a more inclusive environment via the Diversity & Inclusion Working Group, and championing professional development through the pilot epi Students Mentorship Programme: https://patentepi.org/en/epi-students/epi-students-mentorship-programme/.

Electing a representative who is both new to the UK and deeply experienced within the epi’s governance is an opportunity. Nina’s extensive internal experience ensures she can be immediately effective, understanding the epi’s mechanisms and key issues from day one and offering the UK membership a unique and powerful blend of deep institutional knowledge and a fresh perspective.

Should she be elected, Nina promises to represent the UK’s interests within epi and to promote epi within the UK IP community. She asks for your vote to bring both newcomer energy and epi expertise to the UK delegation.

Gwilym Roberts advises clients on all aspects of the patent process including IP audit and capture, IP filing strategies and patent portfolio management techniques. He acts for a range of clients including individuals, SMEs, Universities, and spin outs through to multi-nationals and handles a broad and diverse range of cases before the UK Patent Office, EPO and WIPO.

Jim joined the profession in 1980, qualifying UK 1984 and EPO 1985. His entire career has been in private practice [although with a period acting as out-house IP counsel to a multi-national]. Jim is a fervent European and agree with Michael Bloomberg that Brexit was the ‘stupidest thing any country has ever done’. Although Brexit (or perhaps one man’s approach to Brexit) means we, as a country, are not members of the UPC, our European credentials do at least mean we can act there.

In his past, Jim has been a tutor of UK candidates for UK and European examinations; an examiner for a UK trademark examination; member of the Professional Conduct Committee of epi; vice-chair of Committee III of the EQE; member of a Disciplinary Board of the EPO; and former member of Council and Honorary Secretary of CIPA.

Jim is now a member of epi Council and chair the EPO Finances committee and the “Chemistry” sub-committee of the European Patent Practice Committee. He also works on epi’s EPO Guidelines working group.

Jim has been called opinionated and awkward (and that’s by friends) but I try to encourage progress rather than sit in the past.

Professional history:
2008: Entered profession as a trainee at Phillips & Leigh after completing doctorate in Physical & Theoretical Chemistry at Oxford.
2013-2014: Qualified as UK attorney (2013) and European representative (2014).
2015: Passed CIPA Intellectual Property Litigation Certificate (thereby qualifying to practice before UPC).
2015-2019: Visiting Lecturer at Brunel University for IP management course.
2017-Present: Marking Examiner for Patent Examination Board relating to FD4 (infringement and validity) advanced paper.
Present workplace: Greenwoods Legal Services Limited (www.greenwoods.co.uk).

Arthur have spent my professional life in private practice, coming from a chemistry background but also including a healthy proportion of computer-implemented inventions (including machine learning/AI) in his present caseload.

Arthur believes his track record outlined above shows that, as well as having been a qualified member of the profession for over a decade, he is also keen to contribute to the education and development of new professionals and to communicate ideas about IP to those who are not yet in the profession. Having done this within the UK profession for a decade, Arthur believes seeking to serve as a substitute member on Council is the next logical step in giving back to the profession.

John D. Brown is a highly respected patent attorney whose career has spanned more than four decades at the forefront of the intellectual property profession. Educated at Northampton Grammar School before completing a BSc (Hons) in Chemistry at Nottingham University, John entered the patent profession in 1964 and qualified as a UK Registered Patent Attorney in 1969.

He became a partner at Forrester Ketley & Co in 1972 and went on to co-found Forrester & Boehmert in 1977. Throughout his career, John acted extensively before the European Patent Office, appearing in numerous Oral Proceedings before Examining Divisions, Opposition Divisions and the Boards of Appeal. He later served as Senior Partner at Forrester Ketley & Co from 2003 to 2006 before retiring from both firms in 2006.

John has been deeply engaged in professional service throughout his career. He has been a long-serving member of the Patents Committee of CIPA, a longstanding Council member, and has twice served as President of CIPA. In addition, he has been a long-serving substitute member of the epi Council and Chairman of the epi Harmonisation Committee. He has frequently represented both epi and CIPA at the Standing Committee on the Law of Patents (SCP) at WIPO. John has also held significant roles within the SCI, including Past Honorary Treasurer and Past Chairman of its Finance and Investments Advisory Committee.

John is an experienced UK and European patent attorney based in Scotland. Originally working in the electronics and physics field, John has always handled a wide range of mechanical and electronic/digital subject matter. He trained in-house in London before moving to private practice in 1993. In 1997, he relocated to Scotland, where he has been based ever since. John has worked in both small and large firms. In 2014, he established his own consultancy and now supports other firms by providing high-value patent services to their clients. Today, his clients include a UK-based multinational innovating in broadband delivery, alongside his consulting role for other firms.

John has been active in the epi Council continuously since 2008 and maintains good relations with other country delegations, epi office bearers and staff, as well as EPO management. Though currently a substitute member of Council, John participates actively in Council and Board meetings as Chair of epi’s Online Communications Committee (OCC). The OCC collaborates with the EPO and others to develop and improve all the online services that we rely on in our daily work. John is also appointed by the EPO President as an ad personam member of the main SACEPO and of the SACEPO Working Party on the Electronic Patent Process, representing the profession.

With proposals to rotate committee chairs after three terms, he is keen to be elected a full member of Council, so that he may continue to contribute fully. Council can seem an unwieldy decision-making body at times, but with vigilance, goodwill and innovation, it can play its full role as the key deciding body of epi.

Since 2011, John has also been a member of epi’s Disciplinary Committee, serving actively as a chamber chair and in working groups to update the rules of procedure and internal processes. The constitution of the disciplinary bodies is a live topic in Council, and the voices of current and former members are valued.

John believes that principles of diversity and inclusion have been central to the strength and success of the European patent profession, and he is proud to have been a founding member of epi’s Diversity and Inclusion Working Group. This ad hoc group is now to be replaced by a permanent DEI committee. The number of UK voices in the new committee will be limited by rules, which makes it especially important to have diversity champions also elected to the Council.

Fatema brings an in-house Pharma, Global Health and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI)) perspective to the epi Council and to the work of the epi.

Fatema is a member of the EPPC Pharma Group which meets annually with EPO’s DG1 to discuss and influence Pharma patent prosecution matters, including the effect of G decisions such as G2/21. She has 23 years’ in-house experience in the Pharma sector at GSK as a Senior EP and UK Patent Attorney. Her expertise lies in small molecules (medicines); she has a PhD in Organic Chemistry and is currently providing overall IP support for pipeline and marketed Pharma assets, including development of IP strategies. She has extensive experience in Access to Medicines IP Strategies for the Global Health space, particularly medicines for developing world diseases such as tuberculosis and malaria, working with external academic and industry collaborators and with NGOs.

Fatema is passionate about Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) in the patent profession. Fatema has led a number of outreach activities, including organising and leading Legal Careers Days and co-leading Legal Internships for students from less-advantaged backgrounds. Fatema has brought that passion to epi and since 2022, Fatema has been part of the epi D&I Working Group, and has now been elected by epi Council to the new epi DEI Committee. Amongst many activities, Fatema campaigned strongly among epi Council members from many countries, to maintain equity and fairness in the EQE entrance requirements, to enable bright students from all backgrounds to enter our European patent profession. There is much important ongoing DEI work to do to support epi members and their clients, as well as epi students, and she would be proud to be part of DEI during another term on epi Council.

Harry has a background in private practice in both contentious and non-contentious matters. He has experience in a wide range of technical fields from medical devices and biotech to computer-implemented inventions. He currently manages a boutique patent practice where he focuses on representing clients in oral proceedings before the EPO, managing global patent portfolios and providing strategic advice on due diligence, freedom-to-operate, and infringement.

Julia Gwilt is a partner at Appleyard Lees and specialises in software inventions.

She has had a passion for training for over 15 years.  As one of the patent attorney members who established the Patent Examination Board (PEB), she oversaw the UK professional examinations for over six years until her term ended in 2020.  She is now chair of the epi Profession Education Committee which oversees training and other aspects of the EQE for trainee European patent attorneys.  Together with other members of the PEC, she has been heavily involved in the proposal for a new digital EQE.