HGF tech practice receives another boost with Barker Brettell partner

UK and European patent attorney Oliver Pooley has joined HGF’s Birmingham office. He will bolster the firm’s tech and engineering team.

Pooley has a degree in physics and chemistry and a PhD in electronic and electrical engineering. His technical specialties include electronics, AI, quantum computing, telecommunications, medical devices and additive manufacturing.

Pooley began his career in patent law at UK IP firm Swindell & Pearson in 2011. He qualified as a UK patent attorney in 2014, after having moved to Birmingham-based Barker Brettell. He then qualified as a European patent attorney in 2015.

At Barker Brettell, Pooley was appointed as partner in April 2024. After 13 years at the firm, he has now left for HGF.

Continued growth at HGF

The hire forms part of HGF’s expansion strategy across the UK and Europe following private equity investment in 2024. In September last year, the firm expanded its European patent practice with two partners in Paris and one partner in Munich. Then, at the beginning of this month, the chemistry and pharmaceutical group in London grew with the addition of Garreth Duncan from D Young & Co.

The firm currently has over a 100 patent attorneys, more than 50 of whom are UPC representatives. It operates from 25 offices, including locations in the UK, Ireland, the Netherlands, Germany, France, Switzerland and Austria.

Chris Benson, head of HGF’s technology and engineering group, said Pooley’s appointment would “further strengthen the support we provide to clients across the technology sector”.

High-profile clients

HGF regularly litigates for its prosecution clients, including in EPO oppositions, as well as infringement and nullity suits before civil courts. Its prosecution clients include Fujifilm, Intel, Philip Morris, Samsung Electronics, and Syngenta. The firm represented Philip Morris in an EPO opposition over heat-not-burn technology and acted as a straw man in an opposition over CRISPR/Cas patents. HGF was also involved in the high-profile Xarelto case, representing Amarox/Hetero Lab against Bayer.

HGF is also active in a UPC case. Together with lawyers from Krieger Mes, patent attorney Bernhard Ganahl represents Expert Klein and Expert e-commerce in two disputes with Seoul Viosys that began at the Düsseldorf local division and reached the Court of Appeal.

Pooley’s former firm Barker Brettell has 60 patent, design and trademark attorneys, including 18 UPC representatives. The firm operates from offices in Birmingham, Southampton, London, and from two locations in Sweden.