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BUSINESS LUNCH Peter Elson rolls along to the award-winning Lawns Restaurant with patent lawyer Ross Walker HE high-minded Victorian elegance of The Lawns Restaurant, at Thornton Hall Hotel, perfectly sets the mood for an insight into the intricate world of intellectual property law. As neo-classical figures stare down at us from the dining room frieze of this grand Wirral former mansion, my guide is the affable Ross Walker, managing partner of Forresters, of Birkenhead. Forresters, one of the UK’s top intellectual property law firms, is new to the North West, having bought out patent and trade mark law specialists Potts, Kerr & Co, based in Hamilton Square. With offices spread from London to Munich and Moscow, Forresters’ clients range across the Premier League, Cristal Champagne, The Cavern Club, plus celebrity chefs Gary Rhodes and Gordon Ramsay. While yet to ascend to the national fame of Forresters’ celebrity chef clients, The Lawns’ exemplary executive chef, David Gillmore, has led his team to become the only restaurant on Merseyside to achieve the coveted three AA Rosette status. This is given to “outstanding restaurants” which achieve standards “recognised well beyond their local area,” putting it into the top 10% of venues in the AA Restaurant Guide. We were able to enjoy The Lawns’ lunch menu, available Monday to Saturday, noon to 2.30pm, which offers a choice of two courses at £16.95 or three courses at £18.95. For £7 extra, you can have two glasses of house wine and a coffee. All-in-all, a great deal for this calibre of restaurant. On this occasion, for starters Ross had the borscht of smoked mackerel, beetroot potato and sour cream, which was declared to be both tasty and filling. I chose the Oulton Park rabbit and I’d like to immediately quash any idea that this delicious dish was roadkill from the renowned Cheshire racing circuit. Perhaps it was based on a recipe by the circuit’s former commentator and culinary enthusiast, Stuart Hall? For the main course, I stuck closer to home (or hotel) with a satisfying locally-reared chicken, garlic potatoes, broad beans and bacon cream. Ross reeled in some grilled cod, for his main, accompanied by cep
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(or porcini) mushrooms and shredded duck garbure (a sort of confit), which he described as very enjoyable. Well-filled from two courses, we concluded with delicious milk chocolate mousse, passion fruit and iced yoghurt, plus coffee. Forresters took a controlling share in Potts, Kerr three years ago and gained full control last year. “Potts, Kerr was a good base platform for us, rather than starting from scratch,” said Ross. By chance, Ross had started his career as a trainee lawyer at Potts, Kerr back in 1994, after he left university. His first degree was in bio-chemistry at the University of Kent at Canterbury, followed by a masters in intellectual property law at the University of London. “No day is the same in my job,” said Ross, whose wife, Zoe, is a teacher. Together they have a son, Cameron, and a daughter, Verity. “Intellectual property law is a fascinating blend of science and the law, of using arguments to express science through legal definition. “It also encompasses the work of engineers, researchers and designers. It protects their ingenuity from a commercial perspective, while providing legal recognition of innovations, brand names, or logos and designs. “There is a lot of variety in the scope of inventions which people and companies devise. “We’ve got plenty of local clients wanting protection for their inventions. “This extends to areas which can surprise the public. For example, one of our clients is Ifor Williams Trailers, of Denbighshire, which makes equestrian vehicles. “Overall, Merseyside and the North West represents a huge opportunity for us, with its big pharmaceutical industry, software
The Lawns Restaurant, at Thornton Hall Hotel, in Wirral houses and universities. Liverpool has one of Europe’s biggest biomanufacturing clusters, Cheshire has Daresbury Science & Innovations Campus.” In-bound, Forresters also deals with many US pharmaceutical and medical device firms wanting patent protection across Europe. “Compared to the US, obtaining protection for a medical device here in Europe can prove difficult, especially since you cannot patent methods of medical treatment here in Europe,” said Ross. “With this in mind, the challenge is to link the claimed medical device to the condition being treated by way of reference to a structural feature of the device. “We do a lot of watching services, especially trade marks. It’s amazing what people will do. We had a Wallasey butchers client, Sausages R Us, which received a scathing letter from Toys R Us’s lawyers. “We’ve taken cases to the House of Lords to protect a company from rivals who want to knock out its patents. Sometimes our
Ross Walker
work is the reverse, representing clients who want to knock out patents, for example revoking Viagra, so clients can use something similar that sells in the scope of their patent.” Moving back south in 2001, Ross worked at Forresters’ London office in Piccadilly from 2004, before relocating to the Wirral 15 months ago. Now the family have moved from Harpenden, Hertfordshire, to West Kirby. “It sounds a cliché, but you get a much bigger property up here for the same amount of money,” said Ross, who has also joined Neston Hockey Club. “My commuting time has gone from one and a quarter hours to just 15 minutes. The quality of life is far better up here. “It shows with the extremely low turnover of staff at our Birkenhead office. It’s not unusual for people to have been there for 20 years, but we are in the premier league for protecting trade marks.” Ross’s job entails responsibility for business development, finance, IT, administration and human resources. “I believe a weak patent in strong hands is stronger than a strong patent in weak hands,” said Ross.
“The patent county court makes litigation more accessible and less costly to patentees. The scope of patents is dictated by claims to stop variance which will also stop rip-offs. “I would urge small and medium-sized enterprises to take advantage of new patent legislation which came into force last October. Previously, small firms have struggled with court costs. “Our job is to try and generalise the invention to make sure that when claims are crafted they apply at a general level. “The patent profession is recession-proof. People used to defend what they had, but were initially reluctant to spend on filings. “Then there was a turn-around and people are again fighting for what they have got.”
DETAILS The Lawns Restaurant, Thornton Hall Hotel, Neston Road, Thornton Hough, Wirral, CH63 1JF Tel: 0151 336 3938
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