Lawrence Cullen

After a long career at the UK Intellectual Property Office (IPO), Dr Lawrence Cullen recently established his own consultancy to provide advice and develop his interests in IP, especially in the role and relevance of SPCs.

From 2007 to 2024, Dr Cullen was the Deputy Director at the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) in the UK responsible for the patent examination teams in the fields of pharmaceuticals, organic chemistry and biotechnology. He also led the team responsible for the examination and grant, or refusal, of supplementary protection certificates (SPCs) at the IPO. This included the development of UK practice in relation to SPCs and keeping the IPO Manual of Patent Practice chapter on SPCs up to date.

Dr Cullen has a wide experience dealing with questions of validity in the patent and SPC fields. As a hearing officer at the IPO, he was directly involved in over 50 patent cases across all areas of technology including computer implemented inventions as well as biotechnology and pharmaceuticals. In addition, he decided over 25 SPC cases before the IPO gaining a wide experience of UK and EU law in this area. He also has extensive experience of dealing with appeals before the UK courts and, prior to 31 December 2021, referrals to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU).

Dr Cullen gained his BSc in Industrial Chemistry in Ireland and his PhD in organic chemistry in UK. He worked as a research scientist at various universities in Europe, USA and UK before joining the UK-IPO to embark on his career in IP.