Optics &

Photonics

Innovations in optics and photonics underpin advancements in high-tech manufacturing, faster communications, medical diagnostics, high-power lasers, nuclear threat identification, solar power and other technologies essential to the health and safety of people worldwide and offers the potential for a scalable quantum computer. Many of today’s ‘must-have’ technologies such as smart phones, high definition TVs, LED lighting and digital cameras are enabled by optics and photonics.

Our patent attorneys have a wealth of experience in the fields of optics, photonics and laser science, with many holding masters and PhD qualifications in this technology space. In addition they have a vast amount of relevant IP expertise at all stages of the patent lifecycle including patent drafting, prosecution, infringement and validity opinions, freedom to operate work, and oppositions. Their patent work covers a range of specific technologies including everything from optoelectronics to medical imaging, laser development and quantum structures to LiDAR equipment and imaging techniques.

Our patent experts really understand the physics behind these inventions and relish the opportunity to work with you to patent this technology.

EPO Opposition Trends in Engineering, Electronics and Software-compressed

Special Report

EPO Opposition Trends in Engineering, Electronics and Software

In autumn 2020, we analysed more than 8000 opposition cases filed at the European Patent Office (EPO) over the last 12 years, studying the timelines for hundreds of engineering, electronics and software oppositions.

The research enabled us to see how oppositions have been affected by procedural changes at the European Patent Office and by the Covid-19 pandemic. With a focus on Transport, Medical Devices, Telecommunications and Software, the report also looks at how opposition outcomes vary across the four different technology sectors and which players are the most active.

Read our blogs

One and done for the UPC Court of Appeal

One and done for the UPC Court of Appeal

by Matthew Naylor

2026 Week 9

BioTryp’s radical new treatment for bacterial infection

BioTryp’s radical new treatment for bacterial infection

by Louise Atkins

Cambridge University spin-out BioTryp is developing inhibitors that disrupt a signalling mechanism of bacteria to prevent the formation of biofilms, thereby reducing infection. Forward: features are ...

UPC Weekly - Claim interpretation points to direct infringement, leading to all the remedies

UPC Weekly - Claim interpretation points to direct infringement, leading to all the remedies

by Matthew Naylor

2026 Week 7 The supply of consumables for printers and copiers has a lot of baggage in the field of IP, competition law and the space in between. Original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) have a lot to ...

Out with the old and in with the new – the Supreme Court hands down its judgment in Emotional Perception

Out with the old and in with the new – the Supreme Court hands down its judgment in Emotional Perception

by Alex Burns

The UK Supreme Court’s decision in Emotional Perception AI v Comptroller General of Patents, handed down on 11 February 2026, marks one of the most significant shifts in UK patent practice in two ...

Forward Magazines Overlapping 6-compressed

Mewburn Ellis

FORWARD MAGAZINE

Mewburn Ellis Forward is a biannual publication that celebrates the best of innovation and exploration. Through its pages we hope to inform and entertain, but also to encourage discussion about the most compelling developments taking place in the scientific and entrepreneurial world. Along the way, we’ll engage with the IP challenges that international organisations face every day.