Department:
Chemical & Life Sciences

Location:
Cambridge

Service:
Patents

Industry:
Biotechnology, Chemical, Medical Devices, Pharmaceutical

Languages:
German (native)

Contact: aelend@vennershipley.co.uk

Allie is a Chartered and European patent attorney with over ten years' experience. She joined Venner Shipley in 2003 from another leading firm of patent and trade mark attorneys and now heads up the chemistry & life sciences group in Venner Shipley’s Cambridge office.

Allie specialises in chemical subject matter, in particular pharmaceuticals, small molecule medicinal chemistry, formulation chemistry, and also drug delivery, diagnostics and therapeutics, antisense technology, transdermal patches, medical devices, synthetic chemistry, and chiral chemistry. She also has experience in polymer chemistry, films and fibres, materials, agrochemicals, petrochemicals, and process chemistry.

Over more than ten years in the profession, Allie has gained extensive experience in drafting and prosecuting British, European and international patent applications, as well as in patent prosecution in other countries using local attorneys. Allie regularly advises her clients on infringement and validity in the UK, and is experienced in conducting oppositions and appeals before the European Patent Office.  Her clients include international and medium-sized pharmaceutical and chemical companies, start-ups, academic institutions and universities, as well as private individuals.

Allie has a particular interest in the pharmaceutical industry. She especially enjoys drafting and prosecuting 'evergreening' applications, creating intricate webs of patent protection. Allie has considerable expertise in infringement and validity issues and regularly clears her clients’ pharmaceutical products prior to launch. Allie also enjoys representing her pharmaceutical clients at opposition and appeal hearings before the European Patent Office, where she has an enviable track record of success. High-profile cases she has successfully had revoked include Pfizer’s European patent covering a combination of Pfizer’s blockbuster drugs Lipitor® and Norvasc® (European Patent No. 1003503).

Allie lectures on infringement and validity at the Patent Academy organised by GenericsWeb® for personnel of generic and innovator pharmaceutical companies. She also regularly attends meetings of the European Generic Medicines Association (EGA) and International Generic Pharmaceutical Alliance (IGPA).

Professional Memberships

Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys
Member of the European Patent Institute
Member of the Royal Society of Chemistry

Education

Allie has both a first class honours degree in Chemistry and a DPhil in Organic Chemistry from the University of Oxford. For her doctoral research she developed a new methodology for the enantiospecific synthesis of alpha,alpha-disubstituted alpha-amino acids via 2-ferrocenyl-oxazolidin-5-ones. Allie also has a a certificate in Intellectual Property Law from Queen Mary, University of London.