Our People Elizabeth Dale

Elizabeth is a UK and European patent attorney and a member of the chemistry and materials team based in Bristol.  She handles drafting and prosecution work before the UK IPO and EPO, as well as EPO opposition and appeal work.  Elizabeth also has experience in preparing freedom to operate and patentability opinions.  She has experience of handling worldwide patent portfolios, and works across a range of technical fields.

She has a particular interest in green and sustainable technologies, and especially enjoys keeping track of developments in the field of green polymers.  Elizabeth has contributed to an in-depth analysis of how best to approach accelerating patents for green technology, focussing on the UK IPO’s Green Channel.  She is a regular author and contributor to blogs and reports on the topic of green alternatives to conventional polymers, including an article for European Plastic Product Manufacturer, as well as a blog about the use of pyrolysis in chemical recycling of plastics.

Areas of expertise

• Polymers, fibers, textiles and their manufacture
• Composite materials
• Fuel cells and components
• Antibacterial materials
• Graphene technologies and applications
• Small molecule chemicals

Clients

Elizabeth works with a wide range of clients ranging from UK based SMEs to multinational companies, as well as attorney clients in Japan, China and the US. 

Background

Elizabeth has a first class Masters degree from the University of Oxford (2007), during which she carried out a year-long research project in the Chemical Biology section of the Department of Chemistry.  Her Ph.D. research at the Centre for Organized Matter Chemistry at the University of Bristol focussed on the organisation of protein biomolecules for the preparation of higher-order inorganic materials.

Elizabeth joined Mewburn Ellis 2010, qualifying as a Chartered Patent Attorney in 2013 and a European Patent Attorney in 2014.  She received her Intellectual Property Litigation Certificate in 2016.  Elizabeth became a Patent Director at Mewburn Ellis in 2019.  She completed a three-month secondment to a US law firm in 2015, and also undertook a part-time secondment, which ended in 2020, to a multinational chemical company.