The Patents Training Manual 2021

Emily Dodgson, Abel & Imray

Emily Dodgson is a UK and European patent attorney and a partner at Abel + Imray and has experience of both Examining Division and Opposition Division ViCo in recent months. As well as opposition and appeal work at the EPO, her practice involves drafting and prosecuting patent applications particularly before the EPO, IPO and worldwide. She acts for a range of clients including large multinational companies, established SME’s and ambitious start-ups. Her technical background is in mechanical engineering with a PhD and MEng from the University of Bath.

Jonathan Hewett, Venner Shipley

Jonathan is a partner in the electronics and engineering group at Venner Shipley LLP. Venner Shipley is one of the largest private practice firms in the UK, and has performed substantial recruitment at graduate level in recent years. Jonathan oversees internal training procedures at Venner Shipley LLP in relation to exam-based tuition and day-today professional development. Jonathan is also a member of the CIPA Education Committee.

Debbie Slater, Prevayl Ltd

Debbie works as a patent attorney with Prevayl Ltd: a new company developing wearable technologies.  She is a member of the CIPA Council, vice chair of the CIPA education committee and co-Editor of the CIPA Patents Training Manual.

Joel David Briscoe, IP Consultant, JDB Intellectual Property

Joel has been in the profession for 6 years prosecuting, drafting, opposing and appealing decisions on related patents and patent applications at the UKIPO, USPTO, and EPO. Joel also has experience in international portfolio management. Recently, Joel has been consulting for large and international patent firms based in the UK and the US. Joel’s background is in Physics, and he has been working in the field of telecoms, electronics, aerosol generating devices, automotive technology, and software.

This year is Joel’s 5th year on the Informals committee, having previously been the blog editor, yellow sheet editor, and the Honorary Secretary. After last years’ successful return of the Moot Court, Joel is really looking forward to the second competition under his tenure, which is only going to be bigger and better than last years competition.

John Hull

John Hull has law degrees from the University of Warwick and the London School of Economics.  He is a qualified solicitor and is currently a consultant with a UK firm of patent attorneys and solicitors.  He was previously a partner in Dentons and later with Eversheds where he was head of IP in the firm’s London office.  He has taught a course on the commercialisation of Intellectual Property at King’s College London and at Queen Mary, University of London for the last 10 years.  He is International Fellow at Monash University, Melbourne, Australia.  He is the author of a major text on the law of Commercial Secrets and of more than 80 chapters and papers in academic and professional journals on aspects of intellectual property and also on issues of public law  relating mainly to universities, research institutes and medical Royal Colleges.