Mark Bell

Background

Mark is a qualified UK and European patent attorney. He joined Dehns in 2007 having graduated from Oxford University with a first class Master of Physics degree in 2003 and having completed a DPhil in high energy particle physics, also at Oxford University. He was made an Associate of the firm in 2013, Senior Associate in 2019 and Partner in 2022.

Type of clients and client work

Mark acts for clients of a variety of sizes, from start-ups, university spin-outs and SMEs all the way through to multinational corporations, with a particular focus on small and medium sized technology companies for whom their patent portfolios are one of their major assets.

He has experience in drafting new patent applications, prosecuting these applications to grant before the UK and European Patent Offices, and also handling international patent portfolios. He also files registered designs in the UK and Europe, as well as providing strategic advice regarding the infringement and validity of patents and designs.

Mark regularly advises clients on IP strategy and due diligence, and has performed a number of reviews of patent portfolios, both for SMEs and investors. He has also undertaken a number of analytics and investigation projects, advising clients on patent landscaping and competitor filing strategies.

Expertise

Mark’s work involves handling patents in a wide variety of high-tech engineering and physics fields, including: quantum computing, graphics processing, nuclear fusion, satellite technology, telecommunications, solid state lighting, pressure regulation, construction, water oxygenation, nuclear decommissioning and medical devices.

Qualifications and Memberships

• Authorised Representative before the Unified Patent Court (UPC) (2023)
• Basic Litigation Skills Course, 2017
• UK Chartered Patent Attorney, 2012
• European Patent Attorney, 2011
• Certificate in IP Law, Brunel University, 2008
• Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys
• Member of the European Patent Institute
• Associate Member of the Institute of Physics

Higher Education

DPhil, Particle Physics, University of Oxford, 2007

MPhys (First Class) Physics, University of Oxford, 2003

Mark’s DPhil research involved studying the decay of sub-atomic particles (charm and beauty mesons decaying semi-leptonically to electrons) in the large scale ZEUS detector on the HERA electron-proton accelerator at the DESY laboratory in Hamburg.

Other

Mark has recently been recognised in the Patent 1000 IAM 2023 edition, with feedback from peers and clients noting: “We have worked with Mark for over 10 years, and he has successfully prosecuted patents for us in a number of jurisdictions. Mark has been eminently competent, capable, approachable and personable at all times. He is very knowledgeable and can provide good advice as needed. His service is consistently diligent. Mark is reliable, informed and an excellent communicator, and has demonstrated himself to be eminently capable of constructively addressing any challenge.”

Mark was recognised as a “Notable Practitioner” in the 2023 and 2022 edition of Managing Intellectual Property’s IP Stars publication. Mark has previously been recognised as a “Rising Star” in the 2018, 2019 and 2020 editions of the publication. He has also been recommended in the 2017 edition of The Legal 500 directory, where he was singled out for his “ability to understand novel new physics related inventions and quickly transpose them into a clear and understandable documents, ready for patent filing”. Mark was again singled out in the 2018 edition for his work with the US lighting products company Cree on its European patent applications.

Mark has has retained the position of “key lawyer” of the firm in the 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023 editions of The Legal 500.

In the 2023 edition of The Legal 500, one of his clients commented: “We work with Mark Bell, who has looked after our IP portfolio for nearly 10 years now. He is always very responsive, thoughtful and communicative.”

On the back of Mark’s article “Obtaining patents for artificial intelligence and machine learning in Europe”, published in November 2018, Mark was contacted by the American Bar Association (ABA) and invited to give a talk to their members on “Patenting Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Europe”; the feedback he received from the webinar participants was all “Excellent”.

Mark is a prolific writer of technology and IP articles, in addition to him featuring in numerous Dehns podcasts. See below for his articles and podcasts.