News

AA Thornton managers and partners discuss unconscious bias As one of the first signatories of the IP Inclusive Charter, it was great to be part of collaborative sessions for AA Thornton partners and managers discussing and raising awareness of our unconscious bias. Together we took part in some thought provoking discussions, facilitated by Catherine Hamilton from… Read more »

AA Thornton’s advice for EPO management EPO President Mr António Campinos invited AA Thornton to provide recommendations for the EPO’s strategic plan for 2019-2023, and our letter is shown below. AA Thornton has actively encouraged the EPO in several of its recent initiatives. The ‘Early Certainty from Search’ scheme and the recent major reorganisation of… 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 Matt… 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 used… 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 and… 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… Read more »