Journal

CIPA Guide – new General Editors update and a request for feedback

Work has started on updating the 10th edition of the CIPA Guide to the Patents Act (aka The Black Book).

There is a new team of three General Editors – Greg Corcoran, Nicholas Fox and Rose Hughes – working alongside the established team of CIPA volunteers as well as the publishing team at Sweet & Maxwell. [See more details below.]

The Editors are keen to ensure that The Black Book remains as relevant as possible to CIPA members and have therefore asked if members could provide them with feedback on the current CIPA Guide content, so as to guide the production of the new edition.

As part of that exercise, we would like to know what about the publication works for you, and anything that doesn’t.

• Is there anything you would like to see changed?
• Are there sections that could be reduced or removed?
• Is there anything that you would like to see added?
• Is anything in the book inaccurate or out of date?
• Do you have any other general comments about The Black Book?

We would welcome thoughts and ideas from all CIPA Guide users.

If you could please email any feedback to [email protected]. As the rewriting of The Black Book is likely to start in the next few weeks, we would be grateful if you could let us have your comments preferably by mid-March.

The General Editors – Greg Corcoran, Nicholas Fox and Rose Hughes

CIPA Guide to the Patents Acts – new General Editors

We are pleased to confirm that a new edition of the CIPA Guide is planned for publication in 2026, but it’s with sadness that we announce that Paul Cole and Richard Davis KC will be stepping down as General Editors, after respectively 15 years and ten years at the helm. Luckily for us, Paul will be staying on in a consultant capacity for at least the next edition. We would like to thank Paul and Richard for all of the hours they have put in over the years, their stalwart dedication to the book, and the enormous contribution they have made to its success and longevity. The publication wouldn’t be what it is today without the efforts of the editors and the ongoing work of the contributors.

We are delighted to announce and introduce three new General Editors who will be working with Publisher Kirsty Swain and the wider editorial team at Sweet & Maxwell on the new edition. Recruitment for additional contributors to support the existing team is also underway.

Greg Corcoran

Greg Corcoran is a European and a UK Chartered Patent Attorney (‘CPA’), and a UPC Representative based in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. He has 25 years of experience of intellectual property practice, much of it working in-house at the leading Dutch semiconductor equipment supplier ASML working on a broad range of technologies and participating in international projects that at times questioned the scope of the law. In March 2025, he founded his own practice to bring his in-house experience to a broader range of clients, enabling them to secure robust patents for their technology in the patent landscape – tools for his clients to use in realising their business ambitions and seeking to meet their commercial goals. He is Vice-Chair of the CIPA Congress Committee having acted as Chair of Congress 2025. He is a member of various professional bodies such as the LES Benelux, IOP, and epi and an associated member of the Orde van Octrooigemachtigden in the Netherlands. He is an occasional conference panellist and an active writer, having a number of recent publications on European legal matters and practical approaches to international practice, in titles such as IAM, IPKat and the CIPA Journal.

For further details – please see Greg’s Linked-in profile.

Nicholas Fox

Nicholas Fox is a solicitor and partner at Mathys & Squire LLP. In addition to being a solicitor, Nicholas is also qualified as a European and a CPA with full rights of audience to appear in Intellectual Property proceedings at all levels in the English High Court and is also qualified and admitted as an Attorney-at-Law in the State of New York. Nicholas is the author of A Guide to the EPC 2000 published by CIPA and has been a contributing author to the CIPA Guide to the Patents Acts for a number of years, responsible for writing the sections of the book relating to the regulation of the patent profession. He has lectured on litigation and intellectual property matters for the European Patent Academy and has been a guest lecturer on patent matters at Queen Mary. Previously, Nicholas was a patent attorney member of the IPReg Board.

For further details – please see Nicholas’s Linked-in profile.

Rose Hughes

Rose Hughes is a biotech and pharmaceutical patent specialist with over a decade of experience in intellectual property. Rose is currently a patent attorney at pharma-IP specialist firm Evolve Intellectual Property, where she leverages a unique fractional in-house model to provide clients with deep patent law expertise combined with the strategic commercial oversight typically associated with senior in-house counsel.

With a PhD in Immunology from UCL, Rose applies her technical background to complex innovations in biologics, cell and gene therapies, and the rapidly emerging field of AI-assisted drug development. Previously, Rose held the role of Director, Patents at AstraZeneca, where she was responsible for global IP portfolios and IP strategy at every stage of the pharmaceutical pipeline, from platform development and on-market commercialisation to SPCs and patent term extensions.

A recognised thought leader in the field, Rose has been a regular contributor to IPKat since 2018, offering practical insights into European patent law developments. She is also a frequent speaker on the epi podcast, a guest lecturer for the Brunel University IP law Postgrad Certificate, and a contributing author to published books A User’s Guide to Intellectual Property in Life Sciences (2021) and Developments and Directions in Intellectual Property Law (2023).

For further details – please see Rose’s Linked-in profile. Welcome to Greg, Nicholas and Rose! See here for information on the CIPA Guide.