The  first residential weekend of CIPPM’s Postgraduate Certificate in Intellectual Property (IP) for patent and trade mark attorneys, took place between 5-7 February 2026.

Hosted by CIPPM, the course drew leading experts from academia and industry who shared their expertise and experience with the patent and trade mark attorney students.

Professor Ilanah Fhima, Professor of Intellectual Property law at University College London and Co-director of the Institute of Brand & Innovation Law (IBIL), opened the first of the Spring Public Lectures, with an insightful talk on ‘Average Consumers’ in trade mark law. Professor Fhima pointed out the inadequacies of the ‘average consumer’ concept in trade mark law, illustrating how it does not protect the interests of minorities – a point which her presentation highlighted through trade mark law’s approach to languages other than English.

Gabriela Felix Francisco provided an insight into trade mark enforcement, drawing on her extensive expertise as a trade mark attorney at LUSH. Highlighting both success stories as well as challenges that the company has faced, Gabriela, took the audience through a trade mark journey at LUSH.

Nick Kounoupias, Chief Legal Counsel and IP Director at Anti-Copying in Design (ACID) gave an entertaining and equally insightful talk on design law, including the latest developments in this field. Advocating for criminal sanctions for design infringement, Nick argued why such an approach will be beneficial for both designers and the law.

Together with these talks on trade marks and designs, the students also had the opportunity to hear from Joel Briscoe, Patent Attorney and IP Adviser from Panoramix Limited. Representing the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys (CIPA), Joel spoke about entry into the profession and the path towards qualifying as a patent attorney, whilst Daniel Hardman-Smart, First Vice-President, Chartered Institute of Trade Mark Attorneys (CITMA) and IA Director at Stobbs, did the same from the perspective of qualifying as a trade mark attorney.

We are grateful to all our speakers who came to Bournemouth and delivered excellent talks.

The PGCert IP course, led by Course Director, Professor Dinusha Mendis, also includes Dr. Suelen Carls, Dr. Lingling Wei, Mr. Scott Roberts, Mr. Aaron Wood and Dr. Dukki Hong as part of the teaching team.