News

AA Thornton’s advice to European Patent Office management EPO President Mr António Campinos invited AA Thornton to provide recommendations for the EPO’s next strategic plan, and we have done this. AA Thornton Partner Mike Jennings also participated in a review of EPO quality in Munich on 7 February, with the EPO Standing Advisory Committee’s quality… Read more »

AA Thornton Partners Ian and Vanessa are mentioned in the 2019 edition of the World Trademark Review We are thrilled to announce that Partner Ian Gill and Consulting Attorney Vanessa Lawrence, have been, once again, recommended in the 2019 edition of the World Trademark Review (WTR) 1000: The World’s Leading Trademark Professionals, in the “prosecution and strategy” category…. Read more »

Reporting on the second annual ABHI Parlimentary Reception   Attorneys Marianne Privett, Alex Bone and Chris Burnett from our Medical Devices team attended the second annual Association of British Healthcare Industries (ABHI) parliamentary reception at Westminster on Monday night. They were joined by over 200 guests, including Secretary of State for Health and Social Care… Read more »

European Commission proposes changes to Supplementary Protection Certificates Supplementary Protection Certificates (SPCs) are an intellectual property right that serve as an extension to a patent right (for up to five years) specific to pharmaceutical and plant products that must undergo extensive testing and clinical trials before being authorised by marketing authorities in Europe. Earlier in 2018,… Read more »

 AA Thornton reflect on the past year in the battery and energy storage industries On the 4th and 5th of December, Patent Attorneys Marianne Privett and David Blair attended the ‘Battery and Energy Storage Show 2018’ hosted by Warwick University (with Matt Havron joining them on the 5th December). At the event, Marianne and David… Read more »

Suzanne Power reports on recent EUIPO Board of Appeal case – Nikken International, Inc. v Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited   Trade Mark Associate Suzanne Power recently contributed to the December edition of the Pharmaceutical Trade Mark Group’s Law, Lore & Practice publication. Suzanne reports on a recent decision from the EUIPO’s Board of Appeal regarding preparations… Read more »

AA Thornton celebrates IP Inclusive Week AA Thornton took part in the celebration of IP Inclusive Week, to showcase the importance of diversity and inclusion in the IP professions. At the start of the week, IP Inclusive launched a pack for running a work experience day, making it easy for firms to invite students to… Read more »

Patenting Artificial Intelligence – CIPA’s Computer Technology Committee Training   CIPA’s Computer Technology Committee provided an excellent update on ‘Computers and IP’ on 22 November in London, including contributions from AA Thornton partner Mike Jennings who chaired a panel discussing patentability of artificial intelligence. The panel focussed on the many technical applications of machine learning… Read more »

  The Legal 500 2019 edition has now been published and we are delighted that the firm has once again been ranked as a leading firm for both patents and trade marks, and that our level of service was recognised, once again, as “outstanding”:  “The ‘excellent’ A.A. Thornton & Co. ‘goes the extra mile to provide outstanding customer service’ and has… Read more »

Brexit: EU Trade Marks and Community Designs, including if there is ‘no deal’   What is the current situation? The UK is to leave the EU (“Brexit”) on 29 March 2019.  When Brexit becomes fully effective, EU unitary trade mark registrations (“EUTMs”) and registered Community designs (“RCDs”) will cease to have effect in the UK,… Read more »