Patents

Identify and protect

• We can assist in the process of invention harvesting and helping inventors and scientists with the exploitation of ideas.
• We have a wealth of experience in the drafting of patent specifications across a broad spectrum of technical areas. Our breadth and depth of knowledge and the range of technical backgrounds of our team allows us to select the most appropriate team to work on any given matter, be it a complex inventive concept relating to gene therapy, a novel electronic device, a new chemical composition, a control system for a diesel engine or a simple mechanical gadget.
• We have experience in first filing applications in the UK, in Germany, and at the European Patent Office. We also regularly file international (PCT) patent applications at those offices, and we coordinate the filing of applications in other countries using a network of trusted firms.

Secure and preserve

• We have significant experience and expertise in prosecuting patent applications – our most senior IP specialists have decades of experience of acting before the European Patent Office (EPO), the UK Intellectual Property Office (UKIPO), the German Patent and Trade Mark Office (DPMA) and the International Bureau (IB) of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO).
• We prosecute applications worldwide, from filing to grant, using an extensive network of reputable and trusted international agents, many of whom we have worked with for decades. We are typically responsible for over 10,000 patent applications at any given time.

• Our advice is tailored to fit a client’s commercial priorities, attitude to risk and legal and technical understanding. Our team provide innovative and novel solutions to complex problems.
• We are large enough to be able to provide sufficient resources for a client’s needs, whilst still being small enough to be able to maintain our close and friendly working relationship with them. Many of our clients start off with inventions in a relatively narrow technical field, which then expand as their businesses grow. We have sufficient depth and breadth of technical skills within our British and German IP teams to be able to bring in additional resources as required.
• We can work to short deadlines and have developed processes to meet the high expectations of efficiency that our clients rightly demand of us, whilst nevertheless maintaining quality.
• We have a suite of secure software applications (many of which we developed in house) including BoultRenew, to help clients keep track of their upcoming renewal due dates and instruct us to pay renewal fees, and BoultView, which allows clients to securely view details of their cases in our records.
• Our experienced and friendly paralegal team are also able to assist with the recording of assignments, licences and changes of names at the respective intellectual property offices.
• We can also assist clients with Supplementary Protection Certificates (SPCs) and both UK and EU plant variety rights.

Advocate and defend

• One of our particular strengths is in opposition and appeal proceedings before the EPO, whether opposing third party European patents, or defending our clients’ own rights. Several of our partners are globally renowned for their experience and expertise in inter partes actions before the EPO, and we have a genuinely outstanding “win rate”.
• We have a dedicated team whose role is to continually keep us and our clients up-to-date with the growing body of case law and the decisions of the EPO Boards of Appeal and the Enlarged Board of Appeal.

Investigate and advise

• We are able to offer in depth reviews of our clients’ patent portfolios in advance of business transactions such as mergers and acquisitions, or prior to establishing a licencing arrangement. We are also able to provide an assessment of a portfolio as a precursor to any investment opportunity.
• We provide pragmatic advice regarding the associated risks and will seek to resolve potentially contentious situations as early as possible.
• We have longstanding relationships with leading firms of IP solicitors and barristers to support our clients through court processes across Europe/in jurisdictions around the world.
• We have experience requesting intellectual property office opinions.