Richard Bray

Key Details

Richard supports a wide range of clients operating in the UK, and also those headquartered internationally in the USA, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Ireland, Japan and Korea. Richard's clients range from universities, to start-ups and spin-outs, and on to globally-known household brands, across a wide range of technological fields. Those clients are world-leading in technological sectors such electronic consumer goods, defence, food products, and the more emerging technologies of autonomous vehicles, vehicular head-up displays, virtual and augmented reality, image guided therapy, nuclear (e.g. fusion), quantum security, and more. Richard acts as a liaison for many of Appleyard Lees’ largest clients and the firm's sector-specialist teams that support those clients. Richard also leads on relationship building with new and existing contacts, bringing together his wide technological and client bases to help identify IP issues and trends, and related solutions and opportunities, and using all of this as a basis for structuring short, medium and longer-term IP strategies. Richard really enjoys listening to clients, and solving their problems.





Leader Profiles

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Partner and Patent Attorney   As well as his BA (Hons) and MA in Natural Sciences, Howard has a PhD in metallurgy from the University of Cambridge. Having worked in industry and the academic sector before joining the profession, Howard understands the challenges faced in these areas and appreciates the commercial realities of, and the value derivable from, intellectual property. Howard is fluent in both English and Portuguese, has published a number of articles in scientific journals and been named as inventor on several patents.   Appleyard Lees
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Partner   Chris is a dual-qualified solicitor and chartered trade mark attorney, experienced in contentious and non-contentious intellectual property (IP) matters, including trade marks, designs, copyright and patents. Working closely with a range of businesses, from blue-chip multinationals to SMEs, Chris provides tailored strategic and commercial advice to help IP-conscious businesses better protect and police their IP rights. Chris has capitalised on his experience and commercial know-how to build and establish the firm’s highly-respected disputes team, and has acted for and advised clients in the High Court, the IPEC, and the UK and European trade mark registries. Chris is also experienced in formal mediation. Acting for clients across a spectrum of sectors, Chris specialises in fashion, sports, consumer goods, technology, food and beverage, and manufacturing sectors. He frequently works with clients to establish and maintain successful global anti-counterfeiting campaigns, both on and offline.   Appleyard Lees
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Senior Associate   Paul's strong engineering background and in-house experience makes him well-positioned to offer clients commercially sensible, tailored support. Paul works with a range of start-ups and SMEs to maximise the value of their IP. Paul has significant experience drafting and prosecuting patent applications in a broad range of mechanical and electromechanical fields, including aerospace, thermodynamics, green technology systems, medical devices, hydraulic systems and consumer electronics. During a three-year secondment to the in-house patent department of a consumer products company, Paul gained valuable experience of managing a large patent portfolio. He experienced first-hand, the challenges inventors and companies face when bringing products to market.   Appleyard Lees
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Partner   Christopher Mason is a qualified patent attorney, and senior associate at Appleyard Lees in our chemistry team. Working with his clients, Chris develops pragmatic intellectual property (IP) strategies that secure the client‚Äôs own IP protection whilst avoiding the IP of others.¬† Within these strategies Chris prepares, prosecutes and manages portfolios of patent applications in Europe and worldwide.¬† Chris also represents his clients at hearings before the European Patent Office and advises in relate to freedom to operate and contentious infringement matters, as well as commercial agreements. Outside of work, Chris enjoys maintaining an involvement with the wider chemistry community by serving as treasurer of the Royal Society of Chemistry's Central Yorkshire local group and as a committee member of the society's Law Group. Chris is leading a data-driven approach to providing clients with insights. More recently Chris lead a joint-project with the marketing team, our Inside Green Innovation: Progress Report 2021. The report was based on Chris' findings regarding green innovation in patent data, and authored much of the content.   Appleyard Lees