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


Iceland (country) v Iceland (supermarket) – another chapter of the trade mark saga closed

In September 2022, I considered some recent developments in the Iceland trade mark saga in this article. Following those developments, the Grand Board of Appeal of the European Union Intellectual Property Office (‘EUIPO’) has dismissed the appeals of Iceland Foods Limited (‘Iceland Foods’) and decided to invalidate its ICELAND trade marks. Background The British chain… Read more »


Automotive news: McLaren triples up and Ford brings it home

In a look at some of the latest patent filings in the automotive industry we highlight McLaren’s patent application to a powertrain using three electric motors, and Ford’s application to a car that can drive itself away if the owner fails to keep up with repayments! McLaren – Patent Publication no. EP4112349 British supercar manufacturer… Read more »


Electric Avenue – is this the road ahead?

The EV revolution In a series of articles, senior associate Stuart Greenwood looks at the current state of electric vehicles, the very latest developments in the field, what lies ahead, and some examples from around the world at how cities and countries are adapting and preparing for the coming of the EV. Electric Avenue –… 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 »