IP Transactions: Law and Practice 2025

Dates:  31 March to 4 April 2025
The course will be held in-person
Cost: £3950 (VAT exempt)
Application deadline: 31 January 2025

Drafting, negotiating, interpreting and advising on intellectual property (IP) agreements requires a special set of legal skills.

In addition to understanding relevant provisions of IP law, practitioners need to be familiar with a wide range of commercial law subjects, including personal property, contracts, competition, insolvency, tax, employment, and various areas of regulation, such as data protection and export controls. To advise effectively on IP transactions, it is also necessary to be aware of commercial practice in the relevant industry sector.

The mix of legal and practice issues that transactional IP lawyers face can be very different from those experienced by IP litigators or general company/commercial lawyers.

Understandably, traditional IP law courses focus on a wide range of IP issues such as subsistence, validity, infringement and enforcement, and spend relatively little time on transactional aspects. Commercial law courses may use examples from the field of IP transactions, but tend not to focus exclusively on this area.

Course Structure

Each day of the course focuses on a different market or practice area, provides instruction on legal and commercial topics that are relevant to IP transactions in that area, and gives an introduction to the IP agreements that are encountered.

The topics covered include IP aspects of mergers and acquisitions, information technology contracts, agreements in the life sciences sector, contracts with universities and government bodies, and agreements in the media and consumer goods sectors.

The course as a whole is designed to cover all the main types of IP (including patents, copyright, database rights, registered and unregistered designs, trade marks and confidential information), the main types of IP transaction (including licensing, assignment, sale of IP products, and IP aspects of corporate transactions), and various areas of commercial law that affect all kinds of IP transactions (including competition law, insolvency and tax).

A reading list is provided in advance of the course, so that students can start the course with a core knowledge of relevant IP and contract subjects.

An important aspect of the course is that it is both academically rigorous – to the standards that one would expect from a leading UK law faculty – and, at the same time, very practical in its focus.

Each day of the course includes

• Lectures on the law. Each lecture is delivered by a lead speaker who is supported by a secondary speaker, who may comment on what the lead speaker is saying, provide examples from their own experience, and generally interact with the lead speaker;
• Discussions on legal and commercial practice, in a similar format to the lectures on the law; and
• Practical workshops in smaller groups, each led by an experienced practitioner, where we look at documents that are encountered in the area under discussion (eg draft agreements and due diligence reports).

The course will be information-rich – it will cover a considerable amount of material in the course of a week – but will also have a social side. We will allocate students to study groups that will have the opportunity, at the end of each day, to discuss the next day’s practical workshops.

Approximately three weeks after the course finishes, there will be a two-hour exam, which will give students the opportunity to apply the information they have learnt to a selection of practical questions.

Students who complete the course and pass the exam will receive a Certificate in IP Transactions from the Institute of Brand and Innovation Law at UCL Faculty of Laws.

Feedback from the course :

• "Well structured, excellent presenters and tailored to practising lawyers rather than just talking about the law and issues in an academic context. I thought it was a very worthwhile course."
• "The practical nature of the course and focus throughout on real-life practice was extremely valuable."
• "I greatly appreciated the amount of context the course provided around the legal issues - in many ways it helped the 'pieces fall into place' on matters I have previously assisted on but never had fully explained."
• "The course was very well structured and well taught and felt like it was set at the right level (coming me as a patent attorney)."
• "I thought the course was extremely well-organised and very much appreciated how smoothly it was run. The texts have already proved to be very useful to me in my day-to-day work. I will definitely be recommending this course to my colleagues."

Learning Hours

29 learning hours

Who is this course for?

Our course has been designed to focus on the legal and practice issues that are directly relevant to transactional IP practitioners.

The course has a strong focus on the needs of practitioners who are in the early stages of a career in IP transactions. We have assumed that most people attending it will be qualified English solicitors and barristers, typically with between zero and two years’ post-qualification experience, although more experienced practitioners are welcome.

Other IP practitioners, including patent attorneys, trade mark attorneys and licensing executives, will find the course useful, provided they have an understanding of the basic elements of contract law and IP law, and have had some exposure to IP transactions. Overseas practising lawyers who wish to learn more about English law in this area, are also welcome.

The legal aspects of the course focus on English law. We recognise that many IP transactions are international, and that practitioners often have to consider questions of non-English law, in consultation with overseas colleagues.

For this reason, we have included a session on dispute resolution, including choice of law and jurisdiction and, in other sessions, we make occasional reference to differences under other systems of law. At the same time, we intend to avoid diluting the usefulness of the legal content by making it generically “international”.

About the teaching staff

Mark Anderson is a leading IP solicitor and an honorary professor at UCL’s Institute of Brand and Innovation Law.  Mark is the convenor of the IP Transactions course. After qualifying as a barrister and completing pupillage, he spent three years as an in-house lawyer with a technology-based company, before joining Bristows, where he worked on IP transactions for seven years. In 1994 he started his own commercial IP law firm, which has since grown to about 20 people. The firm advises a mixture of companies, universities, hospitals and funders. He and several of his partners are recommended in Chambers and IAM Patent 1000. He is a founder member and vice-chairman of BioLawEurope, a network of life science lawyers across Europe. He has written numerous textbooks and articles on IP and commercial law subjects, including Technology Transfer (4th edn, Bloomsbury 2000). He has written template agreements for several publications. His blog, www.ipdraughts.wordpress.com has been viewed over one million times and has won an American Bar Association award.As chair of the Law Society’s IP Law Committee (2015-18), he helped to steer revisions to the IP threats legislation, and twice gave oral evidence to Parliament. He is now a member of the Council of the Law Society.

Gina Bicknell is a Partner in Pinsent Masons’ transactional IP team in London, where she handles a wide range of IP, data (including digital health) and commercial issues.  Gina’s clients appreciate her calm approach and her ability to find commercial solutions to complex legal issues. She has significant experience in major licensing deals, international corporate M&As, restructurings and joint ventures, as well as R&D collaborations and other life sciences commercial agreements. With a degree in Biological Sciences, Gina has a technical background as well as legal expertise, being both UK and US qualified as an English solicitor, US attorney-at-law (Illinois) and registered US patent attorney. Gina has been a guest speaker on the IP Transactions Course for many year, and enjoys playing Jeopardy in her spare time.
 

Lucy Charlton is Counsel in Goodwin’s Technology and Life Sciences group. She has experience in advising on a wide range of intellectual property and commercial matters, with a focus on life sciences, technology and healthcare sectors. Lucy advises on transactions, including licenses, collaborations, distribution, manufacturing and R&D projects. She also advises on the intellectual property aspects of corporate transactions, including M&A, IPOs and venture capital investments.

 

Toby Crick is a Partner in Bristow’s IT & Digital Group. Toby advises on and negotiates commercial, technology and outsourcing agreements. He has particular expertise in working with clients to help them manage and structure complex deals and is recognised for his work on digital transformation, software and telecoms projects. The primary focus of Toby’s work is on technology, communications and outsourcing projects where he has acted on both the client and supplier side in sectors such as financial services, telecommunications, healthcare, manufacturing, insurance and life sciences. Toby also advises on other complex commercial transactions and he has particular expertise on deals involving the use and exploitation of technology and intellectual property.  Toby has also gained in-depth experience of advising clients on procurement strategies (eg supplier selection, pricing models and performance incentive mechanisms) and has spent time in-house with a large IT services company, an international telecommunications provider, and a mobile telecommunications company.

Sam de Silva is a Partner & Global Co-Head of the Commercial Practice Group at the Top 10 global law firm, CMS Cameron McKenna Nabarro Olswang LLP (CMS). Sam specialises in advising companies (from the FTSE 100 to start-ups) and the public sector in complex and strategic technology and outsourcing projects and regularly advises on AI, data protection, and cyber-security issues. Sam was the former Law Society’s representative on the EU Commission’s Expert Group on Cloud Computing Contracts and is the current UK solicitor representative on the IT Law Committee of the Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE). Samwas an elected Trustee of the BCS from 2019 to 2024 and was on the BCS Council from 2016 to 2024. Sam has been the Chair of the BCS Legal Specialist Legal Group since 2020. In 2019 Sam won the BSI Standards Makers Award for the category of “Representing the UK” for his work in leading in the development of the first ISO Standard on the Management of Legal Risk (ISO 31022) and was also the winner of the Governance Champion of the Year at The Chartered Governance Institute Awards in 2021. Sam is named in the Who’s Who of Information Technology 2024, Who’s Who of Data Privacy and Protection 2024, and the Who’s Who of Data Security 2024 as both a Global Leader and Thought Leader. Sam was also the winner of Lexology’s Client Choice Awards in 2021 and 2024 for Data Privacy & Protection in the UK.

John Enser is a partner at CMS, where he leads the Practice Group covering technology, media and IP.  He provides commercial, regulatory and copyright law advice to clients across the Technology, Media and Communications sector, in particular, those offering audio and audio-visual content via digital platforms, as well as platform operators.  He has been at the forefront of digital media developments for over 30 years, assisting clients to launch new and innovative services across a range of technologies; from the dawn of satellite television, through the birth of digital interactive media to today’s multi-channel synchronised offerings across smart TVs, tablets, phones and other connected devices. As well as general audiovisual content, many of John’s clients are involved in the exploitation of music and sport. John has a particular expertise in the licensing of music rights (both individually and collectively) and has represented parties in leading UK Copyright Tribunal cases. His clients include linear and on-demand audio and video service providers, sports rights holders, record companies, pure-play digital content businesses and mobile operators as well as companies that invest in and provide debt finance to the sector.

Tom Foster is a partner in the Patents team at Taylor Wessing. Tom has a mathematics background and has technical expertise in 3G, 4G, 5G, broadband, HEVC, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and other technologies, and has represented clients in many leading cases involving SEP and FRAND matters. Tom also advises on trade secret strategies and litigated the first case in the UK courts under the Trade Secrets Directive. Additionally, Tom advises clients in the healthcare industry – particularly where healthcare intersects with digital technologies. Tom is recognised by long-standing clients as "an excellent attorney and litigator and a very valuable member of our team" and as "demonstrating an excellent command of detail and also the ability to digest and present that complicated technical detail in an easy-to-understand manner for the court or senior management". Tom is co-author of the chapter on UK patent law in 'Patent Enforcement in the UK and Trans-Pacific Countries'.

Louise Fullwood advises on intellectual property, healthcare regulatory, commercial and technology matters for a range of clients at Pinsent Masons. As a transactional IP lawyer, Louise's practice area is advising clients on the identification, protection and commercial exploitation of intellectual property rights. Louise worked in cardiovascular research at Nottingham University Hospital prior to her legal career and spent 4 years as a non-executive director of NHS Blood & Transplant. Louise is a co-lead on an EU Innovative Medicines Initiative research programme on use of Big Data to improve prostate cancer outcomes. She also has particular experience in advising the public sector on intellectual property matters and has advised many UK government departments, research institutions, universities and NHS Trusts in this area.

Dillon Fuzi is a senior associate in Ashurst's corporate transactions practice with a focus on mergers and acquisitions and equity capital markets transactions. Dillon has a particular focus on tech M&A, advising founders, companies and investor in tech related transactions. Dillon advises clients on all aspects of their businesses including acquisitions and disposals, capital raising, restructurings, joint ventures, strategic structuring, director’s duties and corporate governance.

 

Philippe Gamito is a senior Tax adviser at Baker & McKenzie and has over a decade of experience in VAT with a particular emphasis on financial services. Philippe advises international clients on their complex cross-border flows, restructuring projects, M&A transactions and financial products. Philippe regularly publishes articles in leading tax journals in the UK and in Europe with respect to financial services VAT. He holds a MSc in taxation from the University of Oxford, a Master in tax management from the Solvay Brussels School of Economics and a Master of Law from the University of Brussels.

 

Faye Harrison is Of Counsel in Bristow’s Data Protection team. Faye specialises in data protection and online safety. She advises UK and international organisations on their data privacy strategies, including developing and maintaining privacy compliance programs, implementing data transfer mechanisms and navigating new product development. Faye’s practice covers a broad spectrum of data protection issues, with a focus on the tech and digital entertainment industries. Her experience includes managing contentious data subject requests and complaints, as well as responding to regulatory investigations and data breaches. She has a particular interest in the protection of children, regularly advising on matters relating to childrens’ privacy and online safety. Her data transfer work includes drafting complex global transfer agreements and advising some of the world’s largest companies on their implementation of Binding Corporate Rules.  Faye has a background in commercial IT transactions, having previously advised upon and negotiated a wide range of technology-focused contracts, often with data at their core. She has also spent time on client secondments both in London and overseas, including with US headquartered Big Tech companies, a household name fast food chain and, most recently, a UK regulator.

John Hull is a solicitor and was a partner in a Global law firm for 20 years. He is currently a legal consultant with Impact IP, a firm of patent and trade mark attorneys based in London and Oxford. His practice covered contentious and transactional IP, IT and data privacy law. He developed a subsidiary practice in public law, focused on Medical Royal Colleges, universities and research institutions. He is a Teaching Fellow at Queen Mary’s Centre for Commercial Law Studies where he teaches courses on the Commercialisation of IP and on Trade Secrets. He is Visiting Professor at King’s College London where he also teaches Commercialisation of IP, and participates in the teaching of UCL’s IP Transactions course. He is the author of a text on Commercial Secrecy and of over 90 over papers, notes and reviews in academic and professional publications. He is currently writing a book on the foundations of trade secrets law.

Charles Kerrigan is a corporate finance and emerging technology lawyer at CMS Cameron McKenna Nabarro Olswang LLP.  He is the author of The Financing of Intangible Assets: TMT Finance and Emerging Technologies (Butterworths).  He is the General Editor of Practical Lending and Security Precedents, and author the Security over IP chapter (Sweet & Maxwell).  He is a partner at CMS in London.  He works on debt and equity funding transactions for IP-rich business, including fintech, deep tech and crypto firms in EMEA and the US.  He performs advisory and implementation work on AI and digital assets projects.  He is a board member of Holistic AI, AI & Partners, and RAK Dao.

Vik Khurana is a Partner in the IT & Digital team at Bristows. Vik is a technology law expert, regularly leading complex tech transactions, digital transformations, outsourcing, cloud, AI, digital health and fintech projects. He is regularly asked to speak about tech law trends and issues at global conferences. Vik regularly leads complex and strategic technology projects, including digital transformation, outsourcing, cloud and software projects, platform roll-outs, application design and build and other projects involving the use or exploitation of IP, data and technology. Vik also advises clients on artificial intelligence and machine learning, ranging from some of the world’s leading developers on their AI product launches, through to sophisticated users in life sciences, financial services and the public sector seeking to implement AI in a responsible and compliant way. In addition, Vik is the host of our popular technology law podcast, The Roadmap, each month diving into the digital transformation trends that are re-shaping the modern economy.

Mark Lubbock is an experienced commercial IP and data protection lawyer at EIP. Mark has advised clients in many industry sectors on a wide variety of commercial arrangements including technology transfer agreements, IP licences, trademark licences and franchise agreements, R&D and collaboration agreements, and outsourcing, development and system procurement agreements, and in corporate and corporate finance transactions. Before he joined EIP, Mark was a partner with Brown Rudnick LLP for the past four years, and before that Mark was at Ashurst LLP for over 20 years heading up different teams in IP and tech during his time there.

Paul Maclennan is a Partner at Anderson Law LLP and advises on IP licensing and technology contracts in the software, engineering, life sciences and university sectors. Paul’s clients include commercial companies of all sizes as well as a number of leading UK universities (including their TTOs), public research organisations and university spin-outs.  Paul is listed in both Chambers & Partners and IAM Patent 1000 in the field of IP and IP transactions. He has a background in Computer Science and has contributed to a number of Anderson Law’s publications on intellectual property and commercial law, including Technology Transfer (Bloomsbury) and Drafting Agreements in the Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Industries (Oxford University Press).  

Maria McAlister is a senior associate in Ashurst's corporate transactions practice. Maria advises a variety of corporate clients and investment banks on a wide range corporate finance transactions with a particular focus on public takeovers and equity capital markets matters. Maria also advises listed companies on a range of general corporate advisory and governance matters.

 

 

Sam Oustayiannis is a partner at CMS Cameron McKenna Nabarro Olswang LLP in the sports and media team. His work on the launch of the Esports World Cup has seen the TMT team shortlisted for 2024  “TMT Team of the Year” at the British Legal Awards. Sam provides commercial and regulatory advice to clients across the media, sports and Esports industries, including in relation to: (i) event organisation; (ii) the launch of new platforms, (iii) content distribution; (iv) media regulatory developments; and (v) advertising and marketing.  Sam has worked closely with his clients over the past 5 years on the launch of a number of new media technology products, so much so that there aren’t many households in the UK that don’t own a smart TV, STB or smart speaker that Sam hasn’t helped launch. Sam’s clients include household brands, linear and on-demand service providers, rights holders, tech giants and advertisers.

Sally Shorthose is a Partner in Bird & Bird's London IP and Life Sciences team, and is one of the most experienced partners specializing in transactional IP and regulatory matters. She is joint head of the International Life Sciences Regulatory Group. She offers a wealth of knowledge to businesses at the cutting edge of research, development, and technology, having more than 35 years of experience, 11 of which were in senior in-house roles.  She is a great advocate of ADR and has undertaken roles as a mediator. She has been awarded several honours, including being "one of the most influential women in IP" (MIP); according to Who's Who Legal Life Sciences, she is a Global Elite Thought Leader (Transactional IP) and is highly recommended for her regulatory work. She helped to establish Bird & Bird’s Dublin office and remains on the management team there.

Jeff Skinner is a Teaching Fellow in Entrepreneurship at London Business School where he leads on a variety of MBA entrepreneurship programmes.  A long time ago he studied Physics and went on to gain a PhD in thin-film Optics before deciding that he was far more interested in the commercialization of technology than the technology itself.  So it was that in 1990 he joined University College London as Commercial Director and for 17 years led and grew their Technology Transfer Unit where he worked with hundreds of academics, co-founding dozens of new ventures, starting seed funds and more broadly stimulating research engagement with businesses.  In 2007 he joined LBS as Director of Innovation and Entrepreneurship – but never left behind his science roots, still mentoring and training hundreds of entrepreneurially-minded researchers and fellow TTOs across Europe.

Mario Subramaniam is a partner in Bird & Bird’s highly rated (Legal500 and Chambers) Life Sciences and IP Team, advising Life Science clients on strategic licensing, collaboration and partnering transactions. Mario has over 15 years of experience in advising Life Science clients on the development and exploitation of pharmaceutical, biotech, medtech and digital health technologies, with a particular emphasis on strategic IP licensing, collaboration, and partnering transactions, as well as joint ventures, high value manufacturing, supply and outsourcing arrangements. He also provides strategic support on M&A and asset acquisitions and disposals for Life Science clients. His background includes substantial periods as a research scientist in immunology and molecular biology and as in-house counsel at several prominent Life Science companies. This gives him a unique perspective and a deep understanding of the technology and issues involved in complex and innovative transactions. Mario provides clear and pragmatic advice that aligns with his clients' business objectives and regulatory strategies. He has been recognized as a notable practitioner and a key lawyer in Life Sciences by IP Stars and Legal 500, respectively. He is proud to have contributed to the UK Government's efforts to combat the COVID-19 pandemic by advising on the purchase and deployment of COVID-19 vaccines and antiviral therapies.

Matthew Warren is a Partner in Bristow’s commercial & IP Transactions group and advises on transactions involving the development, exploitation and transfer of intellectual property rights. Matthew's scientific background is of assistance when negotiating and advising on transactions involving new technologies. He has advised on a number of successful global licensing programmes for the exploitation of new technologies and has also advised in relation to international patent pooling arrangements. He works across many sectors but has experience in the pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, medtech, electronics, software, telecoms, petrochemical, cleantech and other industrial sectors. Matthew's experience in negotiating commercial contracts for pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medtech clients includes technology licensing agreements, R&D collaboration agreements, drug development and licensing agreements, clinical trial agreements and option agreements for licences. He also advises pharmaceutical and biotechnology clients on the commercial and intellectual property law aspects of manufacturing, distribution, co-promotion and marketing agreements. He advises on the intellectual property aspects of setting up joint ventures and other collaborations including in relation to the ownership and licensing of intellectual property and improvements. Matthew has experience advising on intellectual property issues relating to technical standards including FRAND terms for licensing standard essential patents.

Course schedule and brochure

Coming soon

Entry Requirements

There are no formal entry requirements for the course, but it is designed for IP practitioners as described above. Applicants will be asked to provide a short CV that demonstrates their suitability for entry on the course, including that they are in legal practice in the IP field, and a short personal statement that indicates what they hope to achieve from attending it. We reserve the right to reject any application.

If the course is oversubscribed, we also reserve the right to select the students that we consider to be most suitable

Application

Applications for this course are open:
MAKE AN APPLICATION

Application deadline: 31 January 2024

NB: Remember that to complete your application you will need to upload your CV and write a Personal Statement to support your application

Fees

The fees for this course are £3950 + VAT
There are discounts of 15% available for UCL alumni, IBIL Sponsoring firms, and delegates from the speakers' firms.

Queries

If you have any queries about this course please email Lisa Penfold (Events & CPD Manager, UCL Laws).