It’s our people that make the difference

Our partners and attorneys are highly qualified and highly experienced to advise you in all areas of Intellectual Property law. We advise start-ups, SMEs, and multinational corporations and ensure that your inventions, brands and designs are expertly protected.

Our specialist teams cover a huge range of industries and technical fields, from automotive and aerospace and electronics and electrical engineering to cosmetics and pharmaceuticals.

Services

At AA Thornton, we provide a comprehensive service offering to help you protect your Intellectual Property and maximise your assets. By combining the expertise of patent and trade mark attorneys, as well as solicitors within a single firm, we can offer you a customised comprehensive service.

International

Our clients range from multinational corporations, to SMEs, to individual inventors, across a broad spectrum of industries. Our client base is centred in the UK but covers many other parts of the globe, notably Europe, North America, India and the Far East. We also work for overseas attorneys and professional advisers, representing their clients’ Intellectual Property interests in the UK, Germany and Europe.

Latest News


Why are there so few women inventors?

Around the world women are building businesses, driving scientific breakthroughs, setting new trends and propelling change. World IP Day 2023 celebrates the achievements of women inventors, creators and entrepreneurs and their ground-breaking work. Led by WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organisation) it also flags an issue: ‘Too few women are participating in the intellectual property (IP)… Read more »


Trademarking in the Metaverse and Non-Fungible Tokens – how to classify goods and services in the UK

It is not a surprise that the UK IPO has seen an increase in the number of trade mark applications which attempt to protect goods and services offered in the Metaverse. In Tribunal Practice Notice 2/2023 (“TPN 2/23”), which was published in April 2023, the UK IPO issued guidance on the correct classification of non-fungible… Read more »


Vodafone was ‘the author of its own misfortune’ – Vodafone v IPCom

In the recent case of Vodafone v IPCom [2023] EWCA Civ 113 the Court of Appeal ruled that it would not re-visit a costs order of nearly £1 million following the European Patent Office (“EPO”) subsequently revoking the patent which underpinned the original action. This case highlights the importance of parties to litigation (and their… Read more »


Latest Insights


CLE paper for IPO Annual Meeting – The luxury of consistent treatment of computer-implemented inventions

CLE paper for IPO Annual Meeting – The luxury of consistent treatment of computer-implemented inventions


When is a Cat not a Cat? When it’s a Caterpillar. Or a Tigercat. Or is it?

Author: Dan Byrne   Tigercat International Inc. (“Tigercat”) and Caterpillar Inc. (“Caterpillar”) have been in conflict in numerous countries around the world due to conflict arising between Tigercat’s name and Caterpillar Inc’s commonly used abbreviation “Cat”. Most recently, a dispute in the EU IPO has resulted in Tigercat losing an opposition for its application for… Read more »


IP and AI – UK Government publishes response to second consultation

Author: Fergus Brown   On 28 June 2022, the UKIPO published its response (here) addressing the second consultation on the interplay between artificial intelligence and intellectual property, which ran from October 2021 to January 2022. The consultation sought input on three specific areas: Copyright protection for computer-generated works (CGWs) without a human author; Licensing or… Read more »