Ruth Wright Email & Phone Number

United Kingdom

London, Gb

Leading the BT Patents Team as we grow the value of BT's patent portfolio.

London, Gb

As a Senior Patent Attorney at BT I was responsible for directly drafting and prosecuting a portion of BT's patent portfolio, including instructing local counsel in the US and China. Technologies covered included predictive & responsive security, ML (including LLMs), optics & quantum, physical infrastructure, converged network, SDNs, traffic management, wired transmission, and IoT. I also worked on several contentious matters: successfully defending a US lawsuit raised by a non-practicing entity, and contributing to a valuable settlement obtained from assertion of BT patents. My internal Patents Team projects included instigating and leading implementation of a commercially focussed invention prioritisation scheme, arranging for signature of the IP Inclusive Charter, and interviewing candidates for positions in the Patents and Licensing & Commercialisation teams. I also led the recruitment sub-group of an initiative to involve new joiners in improving practices across BT Research.

London, Gb

As a member of the GJE IT & Engineering team I worked on a broad range of patent and design related matters. I provided strategic IP advice to start-ups, scale-ups and investors and worked with foreign attorneys and corporate patent departments to build strong international patent portfolios. My core work included drafting and prosecution of patent applications, both directly and supervising trainees. I also filed UK and European registered design applications, conducted IP due diligence including preparing validity and freedom to operate opinions and gained experience in contentious matters such as European patent oppositions and a European registered design validity action before the European Union Intellectual Property Office's Boards of Appeal. I appeared before the European Patent Office's Examining and Opposition Divisions and Opposition Boards of Appeal.I advised technology businesses in a broad range of fields including, amongst others: telecommunications, payment systems, medical devices, oil & gas pipelines, power tools, food processing and packaging. I gained management experience overseeing a team of attorneys and secretaries working for a large corporate client, ensuring compliance with complex standard operating procedures. This included a major update linked to the client's introduction of a patents portal partly maintained by external counsel. I established and led GJE's MedTech industry sector business development group and was a member of the Photonics and Food, Drink & Hospitality and Norwegian groups. I also developed the non-core skills component of GJE's fee earner training programme.

London, Gb

London, Gb

While working towards qualification my training encompassed direct work with individual inventors and designers, start-up companies, established UK technology businesses and multinationals, as well as agency work with US attorneys.My work at PWF was focussed on telecommunications, in particular wireless protocol standards-related technology including IEEE 802.11 and Bluetooth coexistence. I also worked with technology relating to network interface cards, audio signal processing, GPS and automotive engineering.I gained experience in drafting of UK, European and US patent applications and prosecution of patent applications worldwide. I was also involved with a due diligence project, including freedom to operate work; US contentious matters, including inter-partes re-examination and pre-trial infringement and validity litigation; and prepared Community Registered Design applications.

London, Gb

Postgraduate Certificate, Intellectual Property Law

Bachelor Of Arts (Ba), Physics

Education record