Train the Trainer

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.

Catherine Bonner, Murgitroyd

Catherine Bonner files and prosecutes patent and design applications across a wide range of mechanical engineering and physics-based subject matter, including medical technologies, telecommunications, photonics, high speed devices, switches and quantum technologies including encryption, electronics, fintech, software, gaming equipment and systems, fibre optics and cybersecurity.

Working with a broad range of clients including early-stage companies, SMEs and multinational corporations, Catherine also provides advice on invention harvesting, product clearance and the commercial management of IP rights, in addition to industrial designs.

Having graduated from St Andrews University with a Physics degree, Catherine went on to complete a PhD at the Optoelectronics Research Centre (University of Southampton). Her PhD research related to planar waveguide devices.

After entering the profession in 1999 and spending many years in private practice, Catherine joined Murgitroyd in 2019 following the acquisition of Chapman IP. Prior to joining Chapman IP, Catherine spent three years as a patent attorney in the intellectual property division of Dyson Technology.

A tutor within the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys’ tutorial programme, Catherine is one of the authors of the CIPA training manual for trainee patent attorneys. She regularly lectures on intellectual property law at both the University of Southampton and University of Reading.

Ben Hoyle, Hoyle IP Services Ltd

Ben is a patent attorney specialising in computer-implemented inventions. He started his career in GJE in London, before moving to EIP in Bath in 2010 and for the last four years working in his own firm Hoyle IP. He enjoys working with AI inventions and has a number of coding side-projects on the go. He originally trained as an engineer specialising in information and machine learning (before it was cool again).

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.