Darren Smyth

Partner, European Patent Attorney
London
UPC Representative

As head of the EIP Elements practice group, Darren has technical expertise in a range of fields, including pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, food chemistry, polymers, oligonucleotides, organic LEDs, semiconductors, metallurgy, batteries, and process chemistry.

He has 20 years of experience in private practice, having joined EIP from a position as Partner at the largest IP practice in the UK. Darren has considerable experience in handling difficult cases, contentious matters, and complex advisory work. He has particular experience of opposition and appeal hearings at the EPO, and has advised in relation to patent litigation in the UK and other European countries. Darren also has recognised expertise in the field of registered designs.

Darren is on the editorial board of the Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice, to which he also frequently contributes. He blogged for The IPKat from 2012 to 2017 and also maintains a personal blog as IP Alchemist. Darren is a founding committee member of IP Out, the LGBT+ networking group within the IP Inclusive initiative which promotes diversity and inclusion within the UK Intellectual Property professions, and was a speaker at its inaugural event.

Experience

  • Representation of Applicant before Enlarged Board of Appeal in G2/08 - Patentability of dosage regimes (link)
  • Technical consultancy for Tate & Lyle in patent revocation and infringement action concerning crystalline maltitol Tate & Lyle Technology v Roquette Freres (link)
  • European patent concerning appetite suppression by resistant sugar polymers successfully revoked in Opposition at EPO (link)
  • Technical consultancy for Daiichi Sankyo in CJEU case C-6/11 - Supplementary Protection Certificates for drug combinations (link)

Education and qualifications

Darren's educational background is in chemistry, with his postgraduate study and post-doc focusing on synthetic organic chemistry.

  • European Patent Attorney
  • UK Chartered Patent Attorney
  • 1996 — 1998
    Post Doctoral Fellowship, Royal Society and JSPS, Tokyo Institute of Technology
  • 1992 — 1996
    Doctor of Philosophy, New College, Oxford University
  • 1988 — 1992
    Master of Arts, New College, Oxford University

Career history

  • 2012 — present
    Partner, EIP
  • 2003 — 2011
    Partner, Marks & Clerk
  • 1998 — 2003
    Associate, Marks & Clerk

Languages spoken

  • Japanese
  • Spanish
  • German
  • French

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