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Frances Wilding

Frances Wilding

Partner

UK and European Patent Attorney | European Patent Litigator (representative before the UPC)

Location
London (UK)

About Frances

Frances is a high tech and AI partner who is highly regarded for her instinctive ability to craft simple, commercially-focussed solutions to complex problems. Frances has built up significant experience in drafting and prosecuting Machine Learning and other algorithm/software patent applications worldwide, but primarily in Europe and the US, focussing on Bioinformatics, CNNs/Deep Learning, simulations, data centres, cloud and Internet of Things inventions and business-related software. Frances’ extensive experience across a broad range of subject matter allows her to work together with clients from many different technical areas, who are now looking to protect AI and software inventions for their business.

Frances started her career as a Patent Examiner at the European Patent Office in Munich, where she spent 8 years working on examination and opposition of European cases and PCT examination. The technical fields covered included manufacturing and conveyor systems, circuit protection, packaging machinery and valve and dispensing technology. Frances then transferred to private practice in the UK, working in the fields of medical implants, fixed telecommunications, geosynthetics and other mechanical technologies, and a variety of electro-mechanical devices.

At HLK, Frances has continued to work across a broad variety of fields, including mobile telecommunications, healthcare, medical and display technology, including user interfaces, simulation systems, data centres, design and implementation of neural networks (AI), and business and internet-based inventions. One of Frances’ health-tech clients comments: “Frances Wilding is extremely astute in her assessment of disclosures. She quickly understands new developments across the health-tech sector. She has a constructive and focused approach to discussions with inventors. Her responsiveness is top notch. Frances is highly recommended for her pragmatism and knowledge of the use of AI in the healthcare space. She is also commercially savvy.”

Frances enjoys the commercial aspects of client advice, including portfolio management, litigation preparation and due diligence projects, which she undertakes alongside her prosecution work. For several of her clients she interacts closely with their in-house teams to drive FTO, invention mining and large scale original-drafting projects through to successful fruition.

Frances has a wide client base, which includes large multinational Japanese and German corporations as well as smaller UK businesses and French, German, US and Japanese law firms. She has an excellent working knowledge of French and Italian, is fully fluent in technical German, and is a regular visitor to Japan and Germany.

Legal notice – Haseltine Lake Kempner LLP

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Specialisms
Qualifications

BEng Manufacturing Engineering (Brunel University, London)
UK Patent Attorney
European Patent Attorney
European Patent Litigator (representative before the UPC)

What clients say about Frances:
My experiences of working with Frances have been, quite simply, exceptional. She has added value to projects far beyond expected, and has become one of our favourite legal advisors supporting the engineering teams.
— Dr Andrew Hilton, Intellectual Property Counsel (UK), Ford Global Technologies LLC

Insights from Frances

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