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Alicia graduated from the University of Leeds with an honours degree in Colour and Polymer Chemistry and was awarded a PhD in Synthetic Organic Chemistry for her research in the area of photochromics.

Her research included altering the molecular structure of naphthopyrans to develop predictive techniques for producing molecules of tailored wavelengths for use in the ophthalmic industry and resulted in seven published scientific papers.

Currently, Alicia works particularly in the fields of chemistry, dyes and pigments photochromic materials, medical devices, laboratory consumables, toys, clothing, oil & gas and natural sciences in general.

Alicia is a Chartered Patent Attorney, a European Patent Attorney and a Chartered UK Trade Mark Attorney, having won the Payne/Bennett Memorial Award for scoring the highest mark in the UK for one of her Final Trade Mark examination papers.

Alicia has also obtained the Intellectual Property Litigation and Advocacy Certificate at Nottingham Trent University which enables her to represent clients directly before the High Court.

Alongside sitting on the Council for the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys’ as a Past President for 2022 and being an active member of their Trade Marks and Design & Copyright Committees, Alicia also sits on the Council of FICPI-UK as treasurer and the Council of EPI.

In her spare time Alicia enjoys crafting in particular knitting and crochet and she’s often found with a ball of wool and needles around her person, she also enjoys tinkering with cars and has rebuilt a couple of rotary car engines in her front room!

Ben Micklewright is a Deputy Director in the Intellectual Property Office’s Tribunal. He has particular responsibility for running the Patents Tribunal and the Opinions service, and sits as an inter partes hearing officer.  Ben’s career at the IPO has spanned over 25 years, joining initially as a patent examiner working in computing technologies following a PhD in physics. He has had a varied career, working in the IPO’s policy and legal teams and leading patent examination teams, including the team responsible for examining patent applications in the computing field. For some years he was in charge of the recruitment of new patent examiners. More recently, Ben led the IPO’s Legal section, which involved, amongst other things, working with the IPO’s Transformation programme in developing new services.

Jonathan is a partner at Beck Greener in London. He joined Beck Greener in 2009, having previously worked in-house for Dyson. His background is in physics, with a PhD in organic LED displays. Jonathan is a contributing author to the CIPA Black Book, the standard reference text for patent attorneys. He is a regular speaker and presenter.

Alex’s current practice focusses on oral advocacy at the European Patent Office (EPO), where he is highly sought-after in the automotive/power/electronics fields.  He is part of a revered team at Dehns having an in-depth knowledge of the opposition and appeal procedure, and has acted as lead advocate for well over a hundred cases before the TBA.  Alex is retained for his specialist and expert knowledge in the more complex and high profile cases, such as those involving co-pending litigation.

Amanda Murphy, Ph.D., brings over 19 years of experience to her life sciences intellectual property practice. As a U.S. patent attorney practicing in London, Amanda focuses on developing patent filing and prosecution strategies tailored to clients’ worldwide business goals. Her practice includes patent application preparation and prosecution, pre-litigation portfolio and due diligence analyses, and contentious PTAB proceedings.

Yelena is an experienced patent attorney with technical expertise across different fields of engineering, most particularly in information technology and software, telecommunications, and AI. Being qualified in the US and in Europe, Yelena practices in both jurisdictions, focusing on patent procurement and portfolio development for a diverse range of global clients. Using her knowledge of the different legal approaches employed on both sides of the Atlantic, Yelena provides a pragmatic advice and develops creative solutions enabling businesses to meet their commercial objectives.

Yelena currently serves on the Board of Directors of the American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA) and is the Board liaison to the AIPLA international committees. She also is an active member of the Women in IP Group of the IP Inclusive Task Force.

Rachel is a Patent/IP Litigation Partner and advises on contentious intellectual property matters for clients across a broad range of sectors including, life sciences, pharmaceuticals, healthcare, chemicals, food and beverage, aviation, media and telecommunications industries. Rachel has extensive experience of litigating before the UK Patents Court, High Court and Court of Appeal. Rachel regularly advises on pan-European IP litigation strategy, including UPC litigation. Rachel is the Head of the Law Group at HGF and co-leads HGF’s UPC offering.