John Sykes

Position: Director

John has been a Partner at Lupton Fawcett since 1992, then member and director at Lupton Fawcett LLP.

He graduated in Business Administration, Edinburgh, and then qualified as a solicitor.

John trained as a patent attorney in the offices of two leading patent attorney practices.

John is a CEDR trained mediator.

John received his Diploma in EC competition law from Kings College, London and has now received his Masters with Merit.

He is listed as an expert in his field in Chambers UK: A client's guide to the legal profession, and the Legal 500 directories. In the recent editions he has been described as:

“…especially good, he really knows his stuff…”, “Pioneering…”,

“…doyen of IP…”, an “effective communicator”, ‘his “accurate, common-sense approach makes him a favourite with clients",

and, in the 2010 edition of Chambers, "a specialist who truly knows his IP.".

John advises on:

transactions involving intellectual property both in my home country and internationally, often leading teams working on major transactions.
businesses about the application of EC and UK competition law in relation to the deals they are doing or proposed new ventures or market initiatives.
the enforcement of patents, trade marks, designs, and other intellectual property rights or defending infringement claims.

Over the last twenty years John has handled many landmark intellectual property disputes. He has worked equally for gamekeepers and poachers. A few of these cases include House of Spring Gardens -v- Waite and Others (1982, HCt) (patents and copyright case), Improver -v- Remmington (1990, Court of Appeal) (patent case), Portakabin -v- Powerblast (1991, HCt) (trade mark case), 1-800 Flowers Inc (2002, Court of Appeal) (trademark case), Tyco European Metal Framing -v- New Systems (2002, HCt) (design case), Paxman –v- Hughes (Court of Appeal, 2006) (patent case).

Professional Societies

Law Society
Chartered Institute of Patent Agents (Ass)

Articles/Books

Valuation and Exploitation of Intellectual Property and Intangible Assets.
Intellectual property in designs.
Chartered Institute of Patent Agents/Trade Mark Agents – UK and EU Design Manual, contributor.

Specialist Areas: