Profile
Chris undertakes work in all fields of intellectual property law with a particular interest in patents and trade marks. He has appeared in the High Court, Patents County Court and before other tribunals such as the Trade Mark Registry. As a pupil Chris worked on both EPO and CFI cases during the course of which he attended hearings in Munich and Luxembourg.
Career
Chris read the four-year Master of Natural Sciences course at Cambridge University, specialising in Materials Science and Metallurgy. During the first two years of his degree he studied the full Chemistry course alongside Materials Science. In his final year Chris was a recipient of King’s College’s John Rose Prize awarded for writing about a scientific subject in a manner accessible to the layman.
After graduating from Cambridge, Chris took the Graduate Diploma in Law at City University followed by the Bar Vocational Course at the Inns of School Court of Law. Inner Temple awarded Chris a Duke of Edinburgh entrance scholarship and an exhibition for his BVC studies. He achieved a Very Competent grade for the BVC including Outstanding marks in Advocacy, Civil Litigation, Criminal Litigation, Negotiation and Professional Conduct.
Before embarking on his pupillage, Chris worked for thirteen months in the IP department of a major city law firm primarily assisting with research and writing about legal developments in relevant fields for internal and external publication.
Chris is writing, together with Nick Caddick, the third edition to A Users Guide to Trade Marks and Passing Off to be published by Bloomsbury during 2011. Chris assisted with the Statutory Intellectual Property chapter of Clerk & Lindsell on Torts in both the fourth supplement to the nineteenth edition and the forthcoming twentieth edition. He also assisted with the third supplement to the fifteenth edition of Copinger and Skone James on Copyright and the forthcoming sixteenth edition.
Chris regularly writes articles that appear in journals such as EIPR, JIPLP, CIPA Journal and the New Law Journal.
Cases
Chris was junior counsel to the Defendant during the High Court trial of Dyson Technologies Ltd v Samsung Gwangju Electronics Co Ltd [2009] F.S.R. 15, a case in which the validity of a large number of claims in two patents was contested.
Chris was junior counsel to the Claimant during the Patents County Court trial of Care Monitoring 2000 Ltd v Burral Infosmart Ltd, a case concerning entitlement to, validity and infringement of, UK unregistered and Community registered designs.
Chris acted for Safenames in the high profile Pocket Kings Ltd v Safenames Ltd and the Commonwealth of Kentucky [2010] 2 W.L.R. 1110 relating to the attempted extra-territorial forfeiture of domain names by the US state of Kentucky.
In addition to the above, Chris has acted in a number of High Court trials which have settled prior to judgment in matters relating to trade mark infringement, passing off, databases, confidential information and contractual matters. Chris recently acted as junior counsel for a major UK PLC defending a counterfeiting case in the Crown Court. He appears regularly in the High Court for Phonographic Performance Limited.
He assisted with the following hearings during his pupillage in addition to other matters that settled or reached trial at a later date:
Symbian v Comptroller-General of Patents [2009] R.P.C. 1 - Appeal to the Court of Appeal relating to the inherent patentability of computer programs.
Meridian International Services v Richardson and others [2008] EWCA Civ 609 - Appeal to the Court of Appeal from a claim relating to ownership of the copyright in computer software.
Artificial Solutions Germany v Creative Virtual [2008] EWHC 593 (Ch) - High Court trial of a preliminary issue regarding German contract law in a claim relating to breach of an exclusive licence to distribute computer software in the UK.
Symbian v Comptroller-General of Patents [2008] EWHC 518 (Pat) - Appeal to the Patents Court from the Intellectual Property Office relating to the inherent patentability of computer programs.
Qual-Chem v Corus [2008] EWPCC 1 - Patent infringement and validity trial in the Patents County Court.
Campbell v Devon County Council [2008] EWPCC 2 - Copyright and trade mark infringement trial in the Patents County Court.
Honda v Seat [2009] E.T.M.R 34 - Appeal to the Court of First Instance of the European Communities from the Boards of Appeal of OHIM in opposition proceedings.
Starsight Telecast's Patent Application - European Patent Office opposition division hearing concerning the validity of a European patent relating to menu systems for televisions.
Membership
Chris is a member of the IP and Chancery Bar Associations.
Qualifications and Regulations
M.A. M.Sci. (Cantab)
Called to the Bar 2006, Inner Temple