Sean Jauss

Sean heads up our legal and dispute resolution teams and is also a member of our Management Board.  He has over 20 years of experience advising on contentious and non-contentious IP matters, including patents, trade marks, designs, copyright, database rights and trade secrets across a range of industry sectors. Sean works closely with senior management and their external counsel to deliver a wide range of IP related projects in a pragmatic and commercially-focussed manner, including on IP protection, commercialisation, technology transfer and dispute resolution.

Areas of Expertise

• IP litigation and dispute resolution.
• Structuring IP deals to maximise their value or potential, and to manage risk.
• Drafting and negotiating a wide range of IP and commercial contracts relating to technology transfer, buying, selling, developing and commercialising IP rights.
• Managing and protecting IP rights.
• Conducting IP due diligence in connection with the sale or purchase of IP rights, or for corporate investments, M&A or IPOs.

Clients

Sean’s clients range from specialist SMEs to well-known global brands. They are predominately based in the UK, Europe and the US. He works across a number of industry sectors, but mainly in life sciences, chemistry and engineering.

Background

Sean has Bachelors in Microbiology from Imperial College London and a PhD in the same subject from Cambridge University. He studied law at the College of Law, then trained and qualified (in 2003) at Slaughter and May. He established and managed the technology transfer office at the London School of Hygiene before re-entering private practice at Osborne Clarke, specialising in IP. He joined Mewburn Ellis LLP in 2011 to run the Legal Services team. He joined the partnership in 2014.

Recommendations

Sean is named a Patent Star in Managing Intellectual Property: IP Stars 2023 and 2024.

He is also recognised in the IAM Patent 1000 2024.

Sean is ranked in Chambers & Partners 2023-2024, The Legal 500 and Managing IP. He has been described as “extremely commercially astute, dedicated to his clients and a pleasure to work with. He explains complex issues in a coherent and concise way.” He is recognised as having “expertise in IP protection, commercialisation and rights enforcement, with a strong presence in the life sciences, engineering and nanotechnology sectors”. One client says: “He explains complex ideas in a way that’s easy to understand, he identifies areas of risk and he is a real pleasure to work with.” Sean has also been praised for being "excellent in providing considered, reasoned advice".

"Sean is a very good and precise technician." - Client, Chambers and Partners 2025

Focus on Inclusivity

Sean has personally signed up to the IP Inclusive Leader’s Pledge and is focussed on playing his part to ensure we continue to embed diversity and inclusion into our culture to benefit our people and our clients. Of particular importance to Sean is building diverse teams to ensure depth of thought and experience.