AGILE IP - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Chartered Patent Attorney, Registered Trade Mark Attorney
A senior member of the UK Profession with over fifty years experience in private and industrial practise, Alan joined the Profession in 1958. His first position was with Power Jets Limited, a company set up to develop and exploit patents directed to gas turbines for aircraft and industrial use, jump jet technology and hovercrafts. In 1966 he entered private practise with an established Firm of Attorneys before joining the British Steel Corporation (now Tata) Patent Department. In 1982 he left British Steel with a colleague to set up his own Firm in Surrey which quickly grew to a medium ranking Firm of Patent Attorneys employing a significant number of qualified and part qualified patent attorneys.
Alan loves the work he does so much that he will never truly retire from it, but now spends only a couple of days in the office, but that's not say he is not working whilst he is at home. Modern day technology allows him to continue his passion wherever he may find himself. His vast experience in patent, design and trade mark prosecution, including litigation before the High Court, the Patents Court and in several overseas territories including USA, Italy, France, Holland and Germany continues to prove invaluable to Agile IP.
Alan is a lifelong supported of West Ham United FC. He often says that he finds this more hair-raising than running the businesses he has had over the years.
Job Titles:
- Chartered & European Patent Attorney, European Trade Mark & Design Attorney / Education
David entered the Profession in 1996, having completed his masters degree, and is the third generation of his family to be a patent attorney. Prior to forming Agile IP, David worked for two well known firms in London and Surrey and has a broad range of experience in IP matters. Clients value his enthusiasm, down to earth approach and experience in commercial IP issues. David trained in the city at one of the world's leading firm of Patent and Trademark Attorneys and recognised early on in his career that individuals, small, and even medium sized businesses were either seeing intellectual property protection as a necessary evil or were avoiding it all together because of the cost.
In October 2008 David set up Agile with the mission statement of trying to bring IP protection back to the small to medium sized businesses that need it most. Over the last ten years in particular he has learnt a lot about business, having taken the plunge into self-employment himself. The valuable experience of running a business himself, together with over twenty years in the patent profession has given him a very commercial approach when advising on intellectual property matters and he often finds himself talking himself out of work for the benefit of his clients or any new budding entrepreneur hoping to change the world and make their fortune in the process.
David works hard to ensure that Agile offers an excellent client-focussed and friendly service at very competitive prices. Unlike most firms, it is Agile's policy to not generally charge for telephone calls, emails or meetings. David believes that his clients would not ring him in the first place if they thought they would get an invoice just for asking a question.
Under David's careful guidance, Agile try and act as if they are the in-house IP department for their clients so that they feel they can call upon anyone within the firm as and when they need to without much concern. All the staff and attorneys at Agile get extremely excited when hearing about the successes of their clients, if they didn't Agile would not be for them!
David's experience is mainly in the mechanical sectors. In particular, he has many clients in the construction and renewable energy fields. He acts for several Dragon's Den investments. Other attorneys within Agile have other specialities to ensure that the firm can look after inventions, creations and brands in any sector.
Nicola also has a wealth of experience in IP formalities and also holds the CIPA certificate in Patent Administration and the CITMA Certificate in Trade Mark administration and is an Associate of these Chartered Institutes.
Nicola looks after all of the case deadlines and ensures that all the formalities required to get a patent, registered design or trade mark are completed with as little fuss as possible. She makes sure that the attorneys don't miss anything due and is the unsung hero in respect of rights we get for our clients. If you need an update on any of your cases, Nicola is the one to call.
Despite all the cases she manages through our records system though, we still don't keep her as busy as her two young children.