Will James

Will is an intellectual property lawyer who advises clients in all aspects of IP in a wide range of industries.

Will has particular expertise in advising on patent issues in the biotech, pharmaceutical and chemical sectors. In the biotech sector, he has advised on a number of core biotechnologies including chimeric and humanised antibodies, DNA arrays, reverse genetics, stem cells and erythropoietin.

Will has also advised on litigation relating to GPS electronic tagging systems, RFID technology and a dispute concerning the development of the North Atlantic air traffic control system.

He has acted before the High Court, Patent Office and an appeal to the House of Lords. In addition, he is a solicitor advocate with Higher Rights of Audience and has acted as junior counsel in the High Court. He has also been involved in several mediations.

Will advises clients on commercial issues and IP licensing as well as due diligence, freedom to operate and IP strategy. He has been involved in a number of multi-jurisdictional commercial matters including complex worldwide securitisations of future patent royalty streams.

He often works as part of an integrated team of IP specialists from many countries, mainly within Europe, and often in a co-ordinating role for US clients in both commercial and litigation matters.

Will has advised in relation to trade mark and promotional issues for an international surf brand, a parallel imports case for Xerox and repackaging and trade mark issues for a major pharmaceutical company, copyright litigation in respect of architectural plans, a database right dispute in customer lists and a number of different design matters.

He has a particular, and perhaps unique, experience advising the inventors on the first ever successful employee inventor compensation claim in the UK.

Prior to joining Marks & Clerk Solicitors in October 2005 he worked at Herbert Smith.

His interests include snow, mountains, water, wind and waves.

Educational Qualifications

BSc Zoology Newcastle University (1992)

MSc Research in Bioscience and Neuroscience, BBSRC Scholarship, Oxford University (1996)

Qualified as a Solicitor (2001)

Diploma in Intellectual Property Law Bristol University (2001)

Higher Rights of Audience (2007)

Recent Cases/Matters

Affymetrix Inc v Illumina Inc

Elmotech Ltd v Guidance Monitoring Ltd

Kelly & Chiu v GE Healthcare Ltd

Fox & Gardner v Novamedix Ltd

Xerox Inc v Manor House Stationers

NLA v M&S

EDS v NATS