William Barker

Background

About William Barker

Bill became a partner at Martineau in 1992 and was appointed as the firm’s youngest ever senior partner in 2001, before becoming managing partner in 2004. After 10 years as Managing Partner Bill retuned to full time practice and is now head of Intellectual Property and Technology. Bill successfully led legacy Martineau through its first merger with City law firm SGH in December 2011. He is also a former Chairman of Multilaw, an independent network of law firms in 150 commercial centres throughout the world. His specialist area of expertise is intellectual property, and he has been involved in many law making litigation cases. Core practice areas include patents, designs, copyright, trade marks and confidential information. Bill has particular expertise in the field of anti-counterfeiting, and has acted for clients both nationally and internationally. Bill is ideally placed to comment on the issues affecting a large commercial law firm, particularly alternative business structures (ABS), which could enter the legal services marketplace in England and Wales, as of 6th October 2011. Bill was the lead lawyer in high profile cases: Ultraframe (UK) Ltd v Eurocell Building Plastics Ltd Court (Ch D) Chancery Division Judgment August 26, 2005 Reported [2005] EWHC Ultraframe (UK) Ltd v Eurocell Building Plastics Ltd Court (CA (Civ Div)) Court of Appeal (Civil Division) Judgment June 24, 2005 Reported [2005] EWCA Civ 761 Spark-Tec Limited -v- Sarclad International Limited [1991] IPD 14067 Carflow Products (UK) Ltd v. Linwood Securities (Birmingham) Ltd and Others [1996] FSR 424 Carflow Products (UK) Ltd v. Linwood Securities (Birmingham) Ltd and Others (Inquiry as to Damages) FSR 1998 page 691 Bill is a member of the Anti-Counterfeiting Group and has written numerous articles on patents, trademarks, copyright and designs. He has presented at major conferences in Birmingham, Singapore, Sydney, Seattle, Munich, Vienna, Lisbon and Cincinnati.