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

Not just a phase: challenges in patenting alloy inventions at the EPO

Not just a phase: challenges in patenting alloy inventions at the EPO

by Isobel Stone

Alloy patents have long presented particular challenges under the European Patent Convention, in particular in relation to the assessment of clarity of claims to alloy inventions. Clarity is assessed ...

UPC first instance decisions on inventive step after Court of Appeal guidance

UPC first instance decisions on inventive step after Court of Appeal guidance

by Matthew Naylor

2025 Week 49 Last week, we reported on the landmark Amgen v. Sanofi / Regeneron and Edwards v. Meril 25 November 2025 decisions from the UPC Court of Appeal (CoA), which together set out the ...

Pulsed Field Ablation: Innovation, Adoption, and the Patent Challenges

Pulsed Field Ablation: Innovation, Adoption, and the Patent Challenges

by Andrew Mears

Pulsed Field Ablation (PFA), a non-thermal energy technique that ablates heart tissue using microsecond high-voltage pulses, is a transformative technology in the treatment of atrial fibrillation ...

Beyond the Courtroom - enforcing registered designs on online market places

Beyond the Courtroom - enforcing registered designs on online market places

by Caroline Hart

In today’s digital-first retail landscape, enforcing registered designs doesn’t always require a courtroom battle. Platforms like Amazon, Etsy, and eBay offer streamlined takedown procedures that ...

UPC Weekly - Court of Appeal settles the UPC framework for inventive step

UPC Weekly - Court of Appeal settles the UPC framework for inventive step

by Matthew Naylor

2025 Week 48 If you only read one UPC decision this year, read one of these. You can take your pick, based on technical background. Amgen v. Sanofi / Regeneron is in the field of antibodies for ...

UPC Weekly - Same parties, same prior art, same patent – different claim interpretations in the UPC and UK lead to different outcomes

UPC Weekly - Same parties, same prior art, same patent – different claim interpretations in the UPC and UK lead to different outcomes

by Matthew Naylor

2025 Week 47 We don’t often get to see the same patent being assessed in an EPO opposition, in the UK Patents Court and also at the Unified Patent Court. So we’ve lucked out with Advanced Cell ...

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.