Intellectual property
IP work can be divided into two main areas: hard and soft intellectual property. ‘Hard’ intellectual property relates to patents, while ‘soft’ intellectual property covers trademarks, copyright, design rights and passing off. IP barristers advise on issues that range from commercial exploitation to infringement disputes and agreements that deal either exclusively with IP rights or with IP rights in the wider context of larger commercial transactions. Science and technology might be an unusual platform from which to embark on a career at the Bar, but that was the case for Chris Hall, who began his career in physics. The switch to the Bar did not come for some time. “After I left university, I worked as a private physics tutor for a couple of years before joining BT as an IT project manager,” he explains. “After a while, I found that advocating the technical ideas of others was more enjoyable than doing the programming myself, and I began to earn a reputation as someone who could sell a new project to the bosses.” Chris was really getting into the advocacy, and at the same time was missing the aspects of self-employment he had enjoyed as a private tutor: “The routine and order of corporate employment was becoming frustrating.” He was surrounded at that time by a number of colleagues who were leaving employment to pursue other interests, and he too was inspired to take a risk: “With advocacy, self-employment, and my science and technology experience, a career at the IP Bar made sense.” Now a qualified barrister, Chris handles a varied IP caseload. “Most IP barristers start out as general practitioners working across the four key areas – copyright, trademarks, patents and designs,” he explains. “It is common for people with science backgrounds to specialise in pharmaceutical or technology patents, but many IP barristers retain wide practices, as the IP Bar is such a specialised area anyway.” He also
emphasises that IP barristers are regularly involved in many wider cases, such as IT, media or commercial contractual disputes, “where there is an IP angle.” IP law focuses on the granular detail, so Chris’s physics background has stood him in good stead. “Most IP sets will tell you that a science, maths or engineering degree is advantageous, if not strictly necessary, because one key skill that IP barristers need is the ability to understand how things work,” he explains. This is the case particularly for patents and designs, which usually involve looking at the specific detail of a tangible thing and asking how it works, why it is a certain shape and so on. There are also more specialised niches within IP, so Chris suggests that “you are unlikely to be able to understand complex pharmaceutical patents without some training in chemistry, for example. It is true that a science education lends itself to IP. Nevertheless, a PhD in biochemistry is neither necessary nor sufficient; what really matters is the ability to master new concepts quickly.” Advocacy opportunities In IP, there are lots of opportunities to go to court, making this a rich practice area for junior barristers. “The IP Bar is unique in that although it is commercial, there are many fixed-cost and low-cost tribunals, affording junior barristers plenty of opportunity to get out there and argue cases. This experience can be difficult to get elsewhere at the commercial Bar,” Chris explains. “Junior IP practitioners regularly appear in tribunals at the UK Intellectual Property Office, and in the new, bespoke Intellectual Property Enterprise Court. I probably spend one day a week in court on average, although this is by no means spread out evenly, and a similar amount of time – if not more – preparing for court.”
In terms of litigation, there is an even split between instructions on the side
For more chambers that work in this practice area, please use the “Pupillage index” starting on p519.
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