Intellectual Property and Global Britain – unleash your export potential

Luke Jessop, Deputy Director for Procurement and Intellectual Property at the Department for International Trade

Luke leads the Department for International Trade’s Procurement and Intellectual Property trade policy teams, with responsibility for advancing the UK’s trade policy objectives for procurement and intellectual property via the negotiation of new free trade agreements and engagement in multilateral fora. Previously he managed DIT’s trade policy coherence team, and developed UK trade policy positions and negotiation strategies for free trade agreement negotiations.

Before joining DIT, Luke held roles in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Department for International Development.

Andy Burwell, Director for International at CBI

Andy’s responsibilities extend across the full spectrum of international trade policy and how it delivers sustainable, inclusive prosperity for all. From the interdependence with UK domestic policy, how the UK shapes its independent trade agenda and how the UK leads on the international stage including in multilateral bodies such as the WTO and G7. This involves working with the 190,000 businesses the CBI represents to understand how they can drive prosperity forward across the UK, working with Government to ensure their policy supports this and communicating with stakeholders to help demonstrate the impact business can have. Andy joined CBI from the UK civil service, having an 11-year career across international trade and investment, business, and national security. During that time, he spent five years in Hong Kong and China, working with foreign investors and British business to support UK growth and has responsibility for the UK regional offices in China, India, and the US.

Gwilym Roberts, Honorary Secretary, CIPA

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.

Alasdair Poore, British Council

Alasdair has an unrivalled breadth of experience across the IP professions. A science and law graduate, he originally qualified as a barrister in the late 70s before going on to qualify as a patent attorney, a solicitor and a trade mark attorney.

Alasdair worked to introduce and structure the then new professional regulator, IPReg, travelling the country as Vice-President, President and Immediate Past President to gain consensus across the profession over the implementation of the new regulatory regime.

Since then he has kept an eye on regulation while promoting UK patent attorneys’ litigation skills (including working on CIPA’s first Litigation Skills Course and representing CIPA on the IP and Intellectual Property Enterprise Court User Committees), editing the CIPA Journal, assisting in organising Congress, chairing various CIPA committees, speaking at seminars and generally working to ensure CIPA and the UK patent attorney profession both remain world class.

Lee Davies, Chief Executive, CIPA

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.