Venner Shipley LLP

Chemical and Life Sciences

Tim is a European and Chartered Patent Attorney. He heads up our Chemical and Life Sciences team and has a background in chemistry and the pharmaceutical industry.

Tim advises clients in the pharmaceutical sector, helping them develop their IP strategy and helping them achieve desired outcomes by combining his legal, scientific and commercial experience. Tim also works for clients in other chemistry-related industries such as absorbents, additives, agrochemicals, chemical processes, detergents, fine chemicals, food chemistry, liquid crystal displays, oil & gas, and polymers. Tim advises a wide range of client types both large and small, e.g. multinationals, start-ups, and universities, in the UK, Europe and internationally.

Tim’s work has evolved such that he is an expert on EPO oppositions and appeals as well as providing freedom-to-operate advice, enforcement advice, and litigation support. He has been successful in many EPO oppositions and appeals and his input in corresponding contentious proceedings in other parts of the world is frequently requested by clients. This experience helps Tim provide invaluable advice to patent holders and 3rd parties involved in complex post-grant issues. Tim can also apply this knowledge of post-grant proceedings to help clients devise an effective patent filing and prosecution strategy that maximises the chances of their patents surviving any post-grant challenges by 3rd parties.

Tim’s experience in the pharmaceutical and chemical fields covers various subject-matter including adjuvants, catalysis, compositions, personalised medicine, polymorphic forms, small molecule active ingredients, synthetic processes, and first and further medical uses.

Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys Member of the European Patent Institute

Tim graduated from Bristol University in 1998 with an MSci in Chemistry.  During his graduate degree Tim spent 12 months working full-time as a medicinal chemist in the research laboratories of a multinational pharmaceutical company developing and synthesising potential active ingredients.  Tim's university research project related to the study and optimisation of indium-catalysed organic reactions.  Tim has a post-graduate certificate in Intellectual Property Law from Queen Mary College, University of London.