Materials team

Alex Rogers

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

Alex is a partner and co-leader of the Materials team. He has over 20 years’ experience in the patent profession working with clients on technologies such as materials for use in prosthetics, hydrogel and hydrocolloid materials for use on human skin, new food materials, synthetic diamonds, carbon fibre materials, mineral materials and their use in plastics and paper, new printing materials, including 3D printing and electrophotographic printing areas, and new materials for use in Li-ion batteries. Alex also has considerable experience in oppositions and appeals at the European Patent Office. He has a first class honours MChem degree from Oxford University.

Michael Ford

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

Michael is a partner and co-leader of the Materials team. With a first-class MEng and a DPhil in Materials Science from the University of Oxford, he works with patent applications across the whole spectrum of materials. He has particular experience in drafting and prosecuting applications relating to metals and alloys, minerals, electrochromics, semiconductor device fabrication and fibre-reinforced composites, and works with SMEs, universities and multinationals. He also advises on freedom-to-operate and has experience of EPO opposition proceedings. Michael has a special interest in the use of computer modelling in the development of new materials and carried out research in this area at the University of Oxford, the Ruhr-Universität Bochum and the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Joanne Addison

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

Jo is a partner. Having an MSci in physical chemistry with research involving aluminosilicates, Jo works on a wide range of materials technologies. She works with SMEs, start-ups, universities and multinationals and has particular experience in drafting and prosecuting applications relating to functionalized fabrics, fiber-reinforced composites, batteries, diamond technologies, fuel cells and semiconductor device fabrication. Jo advises on all stages of the life cycle of a patent, from the initial drafting and examination of patent applications to post-grant validity challenges such as EPO oppositions. She also advises on freedom-to-operate and infringement issues.

Luke Dent

UK and European Patent Attorney

Luke is a patent attorney. He graduated with a First in MEng Materials Science from the University of Oxford, where his master’s thesis on a novel method of ceramics sintering earned him a nomination for a national award. Luke has experience in industrial research, including the manufacture and characterisation of synthetic diamonds, and the degradation of nuclear steels. Luke has worked on drafting and prosecuting patent applications across a broad range of materials technologies, including graphene-enhanced materials, spintronic sensor devices, carbon-carbon composites, polymer packaging processes, and nuclear fusion technologies.

Magnus Johnston

UK and European Patent Attorney

Magnus is a partner. He works with many multinational corporations, including major energy companies, large steel producers, smart glass manufacturers and speciality minerals producers, all of whom value Magnus’ years of experience in the patent profession and his deep knowledge of their technologies. He has a BSc in Chemistry with New Materials Technology and a PhD in the synthesis of novel acentric open-framework crystalline materials containing transition metals. Magnus has a considerable case load of European oppositions and appeals, helping clients defend key patents in their portfolio and also helping them challenge the validity of competitors’ patents.

Stephan Schultes

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

Stephan is a senior associate, where his PhD and industry research experiences into the thin film properties of a range of inorganic and organic semiconductor materials have proven invaluable in understanding the technologies of clients working in areas such as photovoltaics, data and energy storage, semiconductor manufacturing and sensors. He provides practical advice on all aspects of patent and other IP rights, from developing an initial IP strategy through to post-grant proceedings. He also has extensive experience advising on validity and infringement matters.

Greg Sharp

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

Greg is a senior associate. Having obtained a Masters in Mechanical Engineering, he works with patents relating to the engineering aspects and practical applications of materials. He has significant experience in drafting and prosecuting UK and European patent applications in these fields, along with expertise in the opposition and defence of granted patents before the EPO and UK IPO. Greg has a particular interest in the design and applications of composite materials, having focussed one of his major university projects on the use of fibre-reinforced plastics in dynamic structures and the effects of differing fibre orientation on their behaviour.

Harriet Crawford

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

Harriet is an associate. She is experienced in advising clients in numerous areas of materials science and across the whole patent lifecycle. She has drafted and prosecuted extensively for battery and construction technologies and also has experience in prosecuting applications relating to alloys, semiconductor manufacture, coatings, plastics processing, industrial processes and furnace technologies. Her work has included a substantial amount of EPO opposition and appeal work, both defending and opposing. She has a BA in Natural Sciences, specialising in Materials Science, and her summer research experience (at ETHZ) included studying tribology of steel. She has worked with and advised all sizes of companies – from micro-enterprises working on their first patent family through to large multinationals with established IP portfolios.

Matt England

UK and European Patent Attorney

Matt entered the patent profession in 2017 following several years as a post-doctoral researcher at a scientific institute in Japan. He qualified as a European Patent Attorney in 2022, and as a UK Patent Attorney in 2023 before joining HLK in 2024. Matt’s curiosity and drive to understand new technologies has aided him in his work on patents covering a broad range of technical fields, and he has gained extensive experience prosecuting patent applications for chemical products and processes, pharmaceuticals, molecular probes, medical devices, and consumer products to grant at both the UK-IPO and the EPO. His research background includes work on hybrid materials, functional surfaces, nanomaterial systems and drug delivery.

Emily Taylor

Trainee Patent Attorney

Emily is a Trainee Patent Attorney at HLK. She completed a PhD in Chemistry at the University of Bath. She has a particular interest in sustainable materials, material deposition, and thin film semiconductors, fuelled by her PhD research into the growth and properties of semiconducting materials for thermoelectric and photovoltaic application. Emily has industrial research experience, specifically in the fabrication and characterisation of photodiodes. Emily has worked on a wide range of material technologies, and has experience drafting and prosecuting applications related to functionalised fabrics, composites, batteries and semiconductor device fabrication.

Oran McNaughton

Trainee Patent Attorney

Oran is a Trainee Patent Attorney at HLK. Oran has accumulated research experience in a multitude of fields such as, high temperature superconductors, computational chemical modelling, artificial intelligence, renewable energy and pharmaceuticals. Oran possesses a master’s degree in Chemistry from the University of Edinburgh where he completed a research project investigating the degradation of high temperature superconductors. Oran has also gained research experience at the University of Cambridge where he joined an international research group and computationally modelled the degradation of Li-ion batteries in order to determine the long-term stability of such batteries. Oran also has industrial experience as a material scientist, where he conducted experiments and investigated a wide range of fields such as polymorphism, solid-state properties of small molecule pharmaceuticals and crystallisation. Oran then undertook a research project within this role in which he optimised a reactive crystallisation process for a major drug product using supervised machine learning algorithms.