Beck Greener

Firm overview:

Beck Greener is “the best firm you’ve never heard of”, with the patent practice doing high-quality work but perhaps with less visibility than some of its counterparts. The firm serves a premier league client base that has expanded dramatically in recent months, and which includes household name brands. Teams are structured around the core areas of Mechanical, Engineering, Physics and Digital; Chemistry, Pharma and Chemical Engineering; and Medical and Life Sciences.

Patent experts offer services covering patent applications and filings, portfolio management, strategy, and transactional work. Highlights of the year for non-contentious work include acting for leading Switzerland-based pharmaceutical company Tillotts Pharma, advising on its global patent portfolio across 80 countries.

Beck Greener has a particularly notable track record in contentious matters, with an unusually high success rate in cases brought before the European Patent Office (EPO) which belies the firm’s size. Alongside this, the team has recently acted in High Court patent revocation proceedings and its first Unified Patent Court (UPC) revocation matter—one of only 57 yet filed at the court.

Team overview:

Beck Greener has 12 partners including 10 patent specialists. Former CIPA president Matt Dixon joined the firm in 2024 as executive chair, and is responsible for leading the firm’s growth.

Another notable appointment in 2024 was Claire Irvine who joined from HGF, and is one of the most experienced European and UK patent attorneys in life sciences.

Many of the firm’s partners and attorneys have PhDs, post-doctoral experience, or direct industry experience in its key sectors, with their knowledge of clients’ technologies leading some to consider them as extensions of their in-house team.

Partner Catherine Jewell “delivers the best results” and “really understands what we need as in-house counsel”, says an industry peer, who adds that “no one has come close to what Catherine has delivered”. Jewell’s patents practice is focused on the chemicals field and her client work ranges from representing large multinationals at the EPO to working with high-growth companies bringing cutting-edge products to market. She is also experienced in trademarks.

Key matters:

• Drafting and filing new patent applications—UB Infrastructure

Construction company UB Infrastructure—one of Beck Greener’s major new clients, wins this year—uses new technologies to design and build carbon-neutral infrastructure solutions for entities such as Network Rail, TfL and the Department for Transport. Its products are in high demand for both retrofitting and new builds.

Beck Greener drafted and filed a UK application for the company in relation to its innovative componentised building structure.

Partners Jonathan Markham and Catherine Jewell lead Beck Greener’s team for the client.

• Patent prosecution—White Motorcycle Concepts (WMC)

Beck Greener is representing WMC, a UK-based motorcycle concept, design and engineering company headed by former Formula 1 mechanic Robert White. WMC’s products include an electric land speed motorcycle, hybrid electric motorcycles for use by emergency services, and a sports motorcycle with an advanced duct design.

Beck Greener’s London-based patents team obtained patents for the designs in the US, UK and Japan, with additional patents expected to follow.

Partner Jonathan Markham, who started his career at Dyson and has broad sector knowledge, led the team.

• Rocep Lusol v Lindal Dispenser

Beck Greener represented Rocep Lusol in the firm’s first case before the UPC. Lindal Dispenser brought a revocation action against Rocep Lusol’s European patent for adhesive dispensing apparatus at the Paris Central Division.

The case is at an early stage with a defence having been filed by the Beck Greener team. It is one of only 57 revocation actions filed at the UPC since its opening in June 2023.

The senior members of the team are executive chair Matt Dixon, and partners Anna Hatt and Catherine Jewell.

• Madras High Court appeal—Tillotts Pharma

The firm represents Tillotts Pharma in a range of patent matters, including filing an appeal at the Madras High court. This aimed to reverse a decision by India’s Patent Office refusing a particular patent application for lack of basis.

The team, led by partner James Stones and associate Sarah-Jane Crawford, also prosecutes the existing global Tillotts portfolio relating to new drug delivery technologies, covering over 80 countries.

Clients:

Bruker Daltonik, FabRx, Flashy, Intract Pharma, Rocep Lusol, Tillotts Pharma, UB Infrastructure, White Motorcycle Concepts