Ones to Watch UK 2024: Toby Bond

Every year, JUVE Patent carries out extensive research in the UK patent market, culminating in the publication of the UK patent ranking. Our latest research highlighted Toby Bond, partner at Bird & Bird, as one of five ‘Ones to Watch’ in the UK patent market for 2024. The individual Ones to Watch 2024 articles are published alphabetically by surname.

When ChatGPT really took off last year, Toby Bond was already ahead of the curve. The 40-year-old patent lawyer had been dealing with issues of data ownership and artificial intelligence for around six years. Bond is the expert in Bird & Bird’s London IP team for issues relating to generative AI technologies, and increasingly often in relation to patented technologies.

His most important case at the moment, however, revolves around copyright issues. He is representing Stability AI against a claim brought by Getty Images at the UK High Court. Getty Images is accusing the AI developer of misusing more than twelve million Getty photos to train its Stable Diffusion AI image-generation system, with a parallel lawsuit occurring in the US. Meanwhile, consulting on AI accounts for 50% of his working time. “When it comes to AI, Toby Bond is really making a mark in the market,” says one of his competitors.

Right place, right time

On his prominence in AI, Bond says, “I was lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time. I have been dealing with data ownership issues and corresponding licences since 2017, including during a secondment at a bank.” Bond initially studied physics at the University of Nottingham and later completed a legal qualification at the University of Oxford. He then joined Bird & Bird in 2010 and, in 2022, the firm promoted him to partner.

While Bond spends half of his time n AI, the other 50% of his business cases involve classic patent litigation relating to mobile communications. In his career, he has of course also conducted litigation in other technical fields, such as for Ablynx and the Vrije Universiteit Brussel against VHsquared and Unilever on immunoglobulin antibodies. But his current cases mainly revolve around mobile phone patents, where the focus is on two major lawsuits. One is the dispute for Bird & Bird’s regular client Nokia against Oppo, as well as for InterDigital against the same Chinese mobile phone manufacturer.

AI informing the future

His first case at Bird & Bird also concerned UMTS technology, with a partner giving him the case: firstly, Bond had to dig deep into the technology. But understanding complex technology is exactly what motivates him in his work.

“Generative AI technology seems a bit magical to us as all you need is an internet connection and you’re able to access incredibly powerful technology which hardly anyone had heard of 18 months ago,” says Bond. “Of course, if you look under the hood, it’s all based on many years of AI research and development and we’re seeing something similar to the launch of the first smartphones, where existing technologies were combined in a way which had a transformative impact.” This is exactly what excites him about patent litigation.

Even if AI issues do not yet play a major role in patent litigation, Bond increasingly sees links to traditional patent disputes. He suspects that disputes over AI technology will arise between chip manufacturers, because AI applications in smartphones require a new generation of chips. With these currently being developed at full speed, it’s clear that Toby Bond’s time in the AI spotlight is perhaps still to come.

Read JUVE Patent’s analysis of Bird & Bird in the JUVE Patent UK ranking 2024.

Find the full Ones to Watch 2024 list here.