IPAN Members

ACID – Anti Copying in Design – is committed to supporting designers, makers and manufacturers in all sectors to raise awareness about the importance of IP for innovation and growth.  It is the only UK trade organisation exclusively representing designers in 1000+ companies from 25 different industry sectors with a collective turnover of £3 billion and is committed to fighting IP theft to safeguard innovation and ensuring that IP can be fully protected, exploited and commercialised.

Established in 1998, the Alliance for Intellectual Property represents trade associations across the creative, branded and design industries concerned with ensuring that IP rights are valued in the UK and that a legislative regime exists which enables the value and contribution of these rights to be fully realised.  Its members include representatives of the audiovisual, music, games and business software, and sports industries, branded manufactured goods, publishers, retailers and designers.

Briffa Legal is a prominent London based firm of specialist IP solicitors founded by Margaret Briffa with expertise in client focused business strategy and creative thinking as well as IP law.  The firm advises all types of businesses, from start ups to large multinational companies, on all aspects of IP protection and enforcement with a particular emphasis on dispute resolution.  Margaret is well known for her commercial approach to the most complex problems  delivering clients the business solution they want. While resolving disputes in the best way possible, Margaret has represented clients in court on numerous design trade mark patent and copyright matters.

Billings Jackson Design is an industrial design firm founded in 1992 with studios in London, New York and Chicago.  Focusing on the built environment, it works with multi-disciplinary design teams on urban infrastructure projects, calling this applied industrial design, and with leading manufacturers on building products including lighting and furniture ranges.

The British Brands Group is a membership organisation dedicated to championing brands in the UK.  Its objective is to ensure that the positive contribution of brands to consumers, the economy and society, is better understood by policy makers and others.  Its members include leading brand manufacturers of all sizes and it provides a forum for them to discuss issues affecting brands in the UK.

The British Society of Plant Breeders promotes the understanding of the science and business of plant breeding and represents the interests of commercial plant breeders with regulators, policy makers, research funders and other industry organisations. Their success in delivering new plant varieties through innovation depends on being able to operate in an enabling regulatory framework with an appropriate reward for innovation supported with effective powers of IP enforcement and adequate and appropriately targeted public funding for relevant R & D.

Founded in 1934, chartered in 2016, the Chartered Institute of Trade Mark Attorneys (CITMA) is a professional membership organisation with the power to shape law and practice – nationally and internationally.  CITMA represents the interests of over 1500 trade mark and design professionals, and fights to bring recognition to the work they do.  Its community of members includes fully qualified trade mark attorneys, those in training and support roles, and barristers and solicitors with a trade mark or design interest working around the world.

Denton Lovel Associates is a collaboration of industry professionals, based in the Channel Islands and the UK, managing offshore and onshore projects and structuring and providing the experienced directors for business entities to enable tax-efficient delivery of business wealth, growth and strategy.  Founded by Rick Denton in 2013, Denton Lovel Associates works with select family offices, wealthy individuals and investment groups to enable the safe management of wealth and the transformation of businesses.

As the national United Kingdom association of the International Federation of Intellectual Property Attorneys,  FICPI-UK aims to represent the views of its members and their firms, and thus to be broadly representative of Patent and Trade Mark Attorneys in private practice in the UK. Membership views are sought in a variety of ways, and as part of FICPI, FICPI-UK also provides a voice to the UK profession’s views in international issues. FICPI was founded in 1906 in Europe, and now has members in over eighty countries around the World. It holds regular professional meetings, and its representatives have the opportunity to meet with the major IP offices on an annual basis.

Genesis was set up in 1990 by Peter Dealtrey as a marketing and IP advisory business specialising in horticultural and agricultural plants. Genesis protects, markets and licenses plant varieties on behalf of plant breeders worldwide, guiding and advising clients through the PBR, patent or trademark process. It offers a complete service throughout the process of bringing a new variety to market from initial appraisal of a new variety’s market suitability and placing for trials under a Test and Talk trial agreement, to providing a full royalty reporting and collection service.

The Institute of Brand and Innovation Law was established in 2007, by the late Sir Hugh Laddie, within the UCL Faculty of Laws to reflect its strategy of expanding its activity in the field of intellectual property law.  IBIL’s staff have judicial, practical and academic experience and, in addition, are assisted by an advisory panel, consisting of judges, practitioners and members of the intellectual property institutions.

The Institute of Intellectual Property Licensing (IIPL) is a professional body representing the interests of practitioners in the field of IP and its exploitation for commerical use worldwide.  The IIPL was formed in 2019 as the successor to the Institute of International Licensing Practitioners  which it incorporates.

Innovate Product Design was founded in 2001 by Alastair Swanwick as a company that specialised in helping individual inventors and entrepreneurs to design and develop their new ideas.  It continues today to succeed in helping clients market their new product and business ideas.  Innovate’s expanding array of expertise currently includes award winning design engineers, researchers, business development professionals and experts in all areas of IP, product design and manufacture.  Innovate can now help take an idea from paper to product, providing inventors with the best chance of success at market.

4iP Council is a European research council based in Brussels dedicated to developing high quality academic insight and empirical evidence on topics related to intellectual property and innovation.  The research is multi-industry, cross sector and technology focused, working with academia, policy makers and regulators to facilitate a deeper understanding of the invention process and of technology investment decision-making.

4iP Council has corporate observer status within IPAN.

The Intellectual Property Office (IPO) is the official UK government body responsible for intellectual property  rights including patents, designs, trade marks and copyright.  It operates and maintains a clear and accessible IP system in the UK, which encourages innovation and helps the economy and society to benefit from knowledge and ideas.  It helps people get the right type of protection for their creation or invention. In April 2007, the Intellectual Property Office became the operating name of The Patent Office first set up in 1852 in London to grant patents.  It now has over 1,000 staff located in Newport and London.

The IPO has corporate observer status within IPAN.

INTERPAT is a non-profit association of research-based biopharmaceutical companies that promotes effective intellectual property (IP) protection throughout the world as a key incentive of sustainable innovation to advance global health.  Its representatives are the leading and senior executives of its member companies who are responsible for IP and IP related matters.

K&L Gates is a fully integrated global law firm with lawyers located across five continents. Our intellectual property practice is one of the strongest in the profession. The firm represents leading multinational corporations, growth and middle-market companies, capital markets participants and entrepreneurs in every major industry group as well as public sector entities, educational institutions, philanthropic organisations and individuals. The London based IP team works on a wide range of commercial, regulatory, and intellectual property matters, particularly in the technology, sport, consumer products, luxury and gambling sectors.

With over 50 years’ experience supporting students, Nottingham Law School (NLS), Nottingham Trent University, enjoys an international reputation for delivering high quality, dynamic IP education and research. Our courses are accredited or approved by the Intellectual Property Regulation Board and Chartered Institute of Trade Mark Attorneys. The IP Research Group is led by Associate Professor Dr Janice Denoncourt and comprises staff who engage in research and teaching on the LLM in Intellectual Property, Intellectual Property Litigation and Advocacy, and Certificate in Intellectual Property Basic Litigation Skills – Patent Attorney. NLS staff with specialist IP expertise are also willing to supervise PhD students. Our extensive links with the legal and other professions both at home and overseas, reflect and inform the design of our course portfolio and ensure that we continue to lead the way in IP law education. A video summary of our IP Practitioner Courses is accessible here.

The University of the Arts London (UAL) includes Camberwell College of Arts, Central Saint Martins, Chelsea College of Arts, London College of Communication, London College of Fashion and Wimbledon College of Arts. It is the world’s sixth best University for Art and Design.

At UAL we are committed to educating our students about intellectual property. We recognise that is imperative for all of our students, who are working towards a career in the creative industry, to understand both how to protect their work, and how to legally make use of, or avoid infringing other people’s work. We do this through lectures, workshops and events as well as our online educational resource; www.CreativeIP.org.

Valuation Consulting is an international business and intangible asset valuation firm providing business valuation and intangible asset valuation services worldwide.  It shares expertise and works with Valuation Research Group offices worldwide on projects and to manage engagements associated with the valuation of businesses and intangible assets.  Business valuation in its broadest sense is critical to the commercial success of most businesses. The constituent parts of goodwill and intangible assets nearly always represent the key assets in any business.  Valuation Consulting has a balanced client base ranging from Fortune 1000 and Eurotop 100 companies, Governments, Financial Institutions and Banks to small,privately held businesses across all industries.

Dr Janice Denoncourt is Associate Professor (Teaching & Research) at Nottingham Trent University, where she researches in the interdisciplinary field of IP, finance and corporate governance law, broadly conceived.  She holds the degrees of BA (McGill), LLB (Western Australia), LLM (Murdoch), LLM (Bournemouth) and PhD (Nottingham) and is a solicitor (non-practising)  in England & Wales.

Janice believes IP rights law is still siloed within the law discipline and wishes to raise awareness of how IPRs support the creative economy, innovation and business.  She was appointed as a director of IPAN in 2020 and is a member of its Education, and Business & Finance Groups.

Richard Gallafent is a Chartered Patent Attorney, European patent attorney and a past President of the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys. He has been in private practice for over 40 years. He has also devoted a large amount of time to providing voluntary assistance in IP, design, licensing, marketing and investment to a wide range of innovators and inventors, helping them commercialise their ideas.

He co-founded the group ‘Ideas21’ in 2000 and, through this organisation and the related ‘Second Tuesday Club’, offered free IP advice to small businesses and inventors while also mentoring and training students studying IP.   He has actively supported IPAN from its early years and was a Director until November 2018 when he was made an honorary member of IPAN.

Dr Steve Smith is a Chartered Patent Attorney with extensive experience of pharmaceutical industry patent and related IP matters.  Now retired from active IP consultancy, he continues to be a strong advocate for improved education and understanding of the value of IP in government, industry and commerce. He has been actively involved with IPAN and its development since 2000 and was a founding director when it became a limited company in 2011.  He was made an honorary member of IPAN in November 2018.

Professor Ruth Soetendorp is a Professor Emerita at Bournemouth University where she is Associate Director of the Centre for Intellectual Property Policy & Management.  She is a world-renowned authority on IP education and is HEA National Teaching Fellow and Visiting Academic at the Bayes (formerly Cass) Business School, City – University of London.  She is currently the first IP Visiting Professor for the University of the Arts London. She is a passionate champion for extending teaching about IP and its socio-economic value across higher education syllabuses.   She has supported IPAN and its activities from its early years, as leader of its Education Group and as a director and former Chair of the Board.  In August 2019 she was appointed the first Visiting Professor of IP at the University of the Arts London.

She was made an honorary member of IPAN in November 2018 and appointed for a second term to the IPAN board in 2019 where she continues to serve as convenor of its Education Group.

Subina Shami, is an MBA graduate and professional accountant, who began her career as a computer programmer before immigrating to the UK and starting a family.

As a busy working mother, she grew fed up with a lack of methods to make fresh food efficiently without being tied to the kitchen. Her existing cooking gadgets didn’t have automatic features to simplify her kitchen routine. With nothing like this available in the market, Subina turned her frustration into a creative solution and invent her own fully automated appliance, the Cuisine Machine. This not only controls the pressure, temperature, and method of cooking but also automatically introduces different ingredients separately during the cooking cycle – all with the push of a button. Whereas a cook might have to create a dish in stages, returning to the kitchen to add ingredients, Cuisine Machine uses pre-programmed electronic recipe cards which replicate the process automatically.

Subina has since won numerous awards globally for her invention: see https://cuisine-machine.com/ for more information and contact details.