ABOUT US

Berni Hambleton the founder of Sterling IP is a Chartered UK Patent Agent, a European Patent Attorney & also qualified as an Australian Patent & Trade Mark Attorney.

Berni has a strong technical & commercial focus with more than 6.5 years experience working in GlaxoSmithKline's IP department. Initially she worked within the respiratory field with canister coating technology & new chemical entities including surfactants & respiratory drug candidates. Berni went on to work on cardiovascular and anti-biotics compounds & more recently with cancer (therapeutic) vaccines, HIV vaccines & malaria vaccines. In particular she has experience protecting proteins, adjuvants, viral vectors, DNA vaccines, & gene profiles.

Berni has drafted, filed & prosecuted many patent applications in a variety of fields. She has provided numerous opinions & has performed a number of due diligences. She is experienced in drafting & filing European oppositions & responses thereto on behalf of the patentee. Berni is experienced in oral proceedings before the Opposition Division & Technical Boards of Appeal.

Berni also worked in private practice for Davies Collison Cave in Sydney Australia.

Berni started as a medicinal chemist at Roche and in GlaxoWellcome's inhalation department. She began training to become a patent attorney in 1997.

Berni is a member of Joint Examining Board for UK Patent & Trademark Attorneys & is responsible for the legal paper practice paper (P2), one of the four final exams, which UK patent agents must pass to become chartered.

Berni tutors trainee patent attorneys on how to pass P2 and for a number of years has taught on the JDD revision course.

Qualifications and Memberships First class honours degree in Chemistry MSc in Management of IP Law Chartered Patent Agent European Patent Attorney Australian Patent Attorney Australian Trade Mark Attorney Grad. Cert. Trade Mark Law and Practice Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Patent Agents Member of the Royal Society of Chemistry Member of the European Patent Institute Member of the Joint Examining Board