Martin Delafaille
Martin is a dual qualified senior solicitor and registered trade mark attorney. He joined Kempner & Partners in August 2010, having previously worked at Addleshaw Goddard and before that top IP firm Bristows, where he trained and qualified.
With significant High Court and alternative dispute resolution experience, Martin advises on all aspects of contentious intellectual property, with a particular emphasis on copyright, designs, trade marks, domain names and confidential information.
As a registered trade mark attorney, Martin has extensive experience of advising brand owners on the registration and exploitation of their trade marks, both in the UK and internationally. Martin regularly represents clients before the UK Intellectual Property Office, the Community Trade Marks Office and the European General Court.
Dr Brian Whitehead
A senior solicitor Brian focuses on intellectual property law issues pertaining to the technology sectors. He has a particular interest in licensing, enforcing and litigating patents in various spheres of technology. Prior to becoming a solicitor, he obtained a first degree in chemistry and a PhD in biochemistry, and worked as a research chemist in the Netherlands. He also worked as a scientific publisher with responsibility for a portfolio of journals in the biotechnology sector.
Paul Colpitts
Paul is an assistant solicitor, responsible for both litigation and non-contentious matters for clients across the full scope of the firm’s practice, which includes patents, trade marks, designs, copyright and passing off.
Sanjeet Plaha
Sanjeet is an assistant solicitor and a specialist in intellectual property law. Assisting with all areas of the firm’s practice, her degree in Biomedical Sciences further bolsters the firm’s credentials in relation to the highly technical matters it handles.
Andy Robinson
Andy is a consultant solicitor to the firm. He specialises in all legal and commercial aspects of intellectual property (IP) law, with particular emphasis on dispute resolution and litigation. Andy has acted on some of the most significant and high profile IP cases in the last 5 years. Examples include:
Black & Decker -v- ALM Manufacturing: Successfully acting for ALM – the country’s leading supplier of spare parts and consumables for garden machinery and equipment by defeating claims brought by Black & Decker against ALM for patent infringement.
Dyson -v- Qualtex: In this landmark case the Court of Appeal considered in detail - and for the first time in 10 years - the extent to which manufacturers are able to prevent third parties from supplying replica (“pattern”) spare parts by UK unregistered design right . Andy was not involved at the High Court stage of this case, in which Dyson was largely successful in its claims, but was later instructed by Qualtex, Europe’s largest manufacturer and distributor of spare parts for domestic appliances, to conduct Qualtex’s appeal against the High Court ruling to the Court of Appeal. Although the Court of Appeal decided not to interfere with much of the High Court’s ruling, it was persuaded to find in favour of Qualtex on a number of points.
Honda Motor Company Ltd and Others -v- Neesam and Others: In this ongoing action involving parallel imports and trade mark rights, Andy successfully defeated the majority of Honda’s infringement claims which were decided during a 17 day trial in December 2007 and January 2008.
Andy also has significant expertise in obtaining and defending against emergency injunctions and other urgent procedures such as “search and seizure” orders.
He has extensive experience of carrying out detailed risk assessments for proposed new products, services or brands. He advises clients of the risk of infringing any third party IP rights prior to launch, enabling them to make any necessary changes at the earliest opportunity. Andy has over 15 years experience in resolving IP issues for clients, both informally through negotiation or by litigation – he has considerable experience of litigating in both the High Court and in the Court of Appeal. Andy also resolves IP disputes using alternative procedures such as mediation, arbitration and the Nominet and WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organisation) procedures for resolving domain name disputes.