Ellen has broad IP experience and specialises in advising clients on non-contentious IP matters with a focus on transactions that involve the development, exploitation, and transfer of IP rights. She advises clients across a range of sectors, with a particular focus on the life sciences sector. Her clients range from large multinational companies, investors, start-ups and growing companies, to spin-outs and academic and non-profit research organisations.

Ellen frequently advises on high value research and development collaborations and licensing and option deals. She also advises on a range of other commercial agreements including research funding agreements, manufacturing and supply arrangements, clinical trial agreements, service agreements, material transfer agreements, confidentiality agreements, IP assignments, joint ownership and revenue share agreements.

Ellen also frequently advises on the IP aspects of academic spin outs and her breadth of experience gives her valuable insight into the aims and motivations of all the parties involved in these complex transactions. Ellen also supports our IP litigation practice by advising on settlement agreements for high value patent and trade mark litigation, and supports our corporate and financing teams advising on IP issues arising in the context of corporate transactions (including M&A and investment deals).

Some of Ellen’s work highlights include:

• Acting for a global pharmaceutical company on an AI enabled target discovery research collaboration and option agreement with a UK based biotech company with expertise in machine learning.
• Acting for a global biopharma company on an AI enabled antibody discovery collaboration with a UK based AI enabled drug discovery company.
• Acting for a world leading research organisation on the licensing of technology to a company focused on machine learning and high-throughput drug discovery.
• Advising a leading medical research charity on its membership of a world leading health research partnership.
• Acting for a global pharmaceutical company on the settlement of a large number of EPO patent oppositions relating to a blockbuster drug.
• Advising a leading UK research university in connection with a licence agreement entered into by a portfolio spin-out company with a large global pharmaceutical company.
• Acting for a world leading research organisation on a worldwide patent licence to an RNA therapeutics spin-out company.
• Advising a global non-profit organisation focused on accelerating the development of vaccines on various aspects of its framework agreements with commercial and academic partners.
• Advising a global mid-sized pharmaceutical company on a number of academic research collaborations relating to an alternative formulation of the company’s key commercial product.
• Advising a leading UK research university on the establishment of new clinical research facilities in collaboration with an NHS Trust.
• Advising on GMP manufacturing agreement for the manufacture of IMP for a Phase 1 clinical trial of a novel oncology product.
• Advising a global pharmaceutical company on an R&D collaboration and option agreement relating to the use of organ on chip technology for development of CAR-T therapies.
• Advising a world leading university on the licensing of its vaccine platform technology to a global pharmaceutical company for the research, development and commercialisation of a vaccine for SARS-CoV-2.

Ellen has benefited from time in-house at two multinational companies and has a clear understanding of what her clients need when working with external counsel.

Ellen regularly speaks and presents on a variety of legal topics and is one of the facilitators of the transactional IP workshop as part of the University of Oxford Postgraduate Diploma in Intellectual Property Law and Practice.

Ellen regularly participates in events aimed at broadening access to the legal profession, including mentoring aspiring solicitors. She also acts as a mentor to a number of junior lawyers inside the firm as part of the Bristows mentoring scheme.

Ellen is a member of the Licensing Executives Society.

Additionally, Ellen is a member of the Bristows Trainee Committee (responsible for recruitment and training of our trainee solicitors) and the Bristows Inclusion Group (which oversees the firm’s DE&I initiatives). Ellen is also a member of the firm’s Environmental and Sustainability Reporting Committee.