LSIPR 50 2017: Sean Dennehey—Steering the ship

2016 was a tumultuous year. Not only did the UK vote to leave the EU, but the UK Intellectual Property Office (IPO) lost its CEO and two experienced directors.

But with Sean Dennehey at the helm of the IPO, things ran smoothly.

Dennehey took on the role of acting CEO after replacing former chief John Alty, who was appointed director general of trade policy in the Department for International Trade in July last year. In May 2017, Dennehey became deputy CEO after Tim Moss was appointed to lead the office.

In 1978, Dennehey joined the IPO as a patent examiner and in 2004 was appointed director of patents. Three years on, he was appointed deputy CEO. He also acted as CEO for periods in 2009-10 and 2012-13.

“For me, it’s about being a leader: putting talented people in a position where they can deliver and supporting them to do so,” Dennehey says.

The IPO’s strength in depth meant he could move quickly to ensure stability and drive forward the office’s agenda, despite the hiccups of the Brexit vote and Alty stepping down.

As acting CEO, Dennehey led the development and implementation of the office’s strategic direction.

He was responsible for advising government ministers on all IP policy matters, domestic and international, and for managing all aspects of the IPO’s operation.

And it’s no small business—the IPO has a turnover of £84 million ($103 million), employing 1,100 people, and in 2015 it received applications for 54,300 trademarks, 6,500 designs, and 22,800 patents. What challenges did Dennehey face in this position?

“I suppose many people will be expecting me to say exiting the EU,” he says.

“It’s about seizing the opportunities to think boldly and creatively about the IP system to support the commitment made by the UK Prime Minister to ‘building an economy that works for all’.”

This also means ensuring that the IP system remains functional after Brexit, providing businesses with crucial legal certainty by avoiding a “disruptive cliff-edge”.

Following the referendum result, the future of the supplementary protection certificate (SPC) regime, as well as the broader regulatory framework for medicines, will be of particular importance to the life sciences sector, according to Dennehey.

The IPO is currently working with the UK’s regulatory body, the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency, and other colleagues across government to facilitate a smooth transition and ensure that the UK remains an attractive location for the sector.

“We are engaged with the current European Commission’s work looking at the future of the SPC system, and will play a full part until the UK leaves the EU,” explains Dennehey.

There’s also debate on the extent to which plant inventions should be subject to patent rights, with separate discussions within the EU and the European Patent Organisation (EPO).

Dennehey is directly involved in this, as chair of the committee on patent law at the EPO. In this role, he facilitates constructive discussion and agreement between the EPO’s contracting states.

Looking inward

Filing a patent at the IPO can be very attractive for life sciences companies.

For businesses that need it, the office offers accelerated processing in all or part of the patent-granting process, making it possible to get from application to grant in less than a year.

Dennehey is proud of the IPO’s focus on customer service, explaining that its examiners are easily accessible to applicants and willing to discuss cases with them.

“But there is no question that the IPO is taking longer to process life sciences patents than I’d like,” he adds.

For example, while the office issues 90% of search reports within six months in most technologies, for life sciences it is nine months.

In a bid to combat this, the IPO has recruited “aggressively” and increased the overall number of patent examiners by 60% in the last three years which, Dennehey believes, will make a real difference.

In November the UK government said it would ratify the Unified Patent Court (UPC) Agreement. The life sciences section of the central division of the UPC is planned to be in London.

Dennehey says: “We are taking forward the UK government’s preparations to ratify the UPC Agreement, and have secured excellent facilities where this specialist section will operate.”

The life sciences sector is of major importance to the UK. It generates a turnover of £60 billion each year, supports more than 220,000 jobs and provides products which the National Health Service and its patients rely on every day.

“It is critical that over the next two years and into the future the UK continues to capitalise on its world-class science base, supports the growth of innovative businesses and small and medium-sized enterprises, and develops skilled technicians and scientists to underpin that success,” says Dennehey.

Innovation is key for life sciences companies and the UK has an ambitious innovation agenda, which the IPO is strongly committed to supporting.

One way the office is doing this is by raising awareness of the Patent Box scheme, which offers a reduced rate of corporation tax on profits arising from patents.

In its first year (2013/14), 700 companies claimed relief under the scheme, with a total value of over £340 million.

Given the extent of research and development in the life sciences, the scheme is a strong incentive to UK companies within the sector to build their innovative capacity, explains the deputy CEO.

He also expects that the life sciences industrial strategy, which was announced in January this year, will help to set out where the sector may develop over the coming years.

The development of the strategy is sector-led under the leadership of Sir John Bell, Regius professor of medicine at the University of Oxford, and will evolve as the broader cross-government industrial strategy is developed.

Best foot forward

More generally, every year since 2001 UK investment in intangible assets has outstripped investment in tangible assets.

Because having the right skills and knowledge is crucial to making the most of these investments, the IPO has developed a series of tools to help those in research and industry make the best decisions when managing their IP.

From education programmes and model collaboration agreements to IP audits for innovative businesses and forward-thinking commitments in the industrial strategy, the IPO continues to promote IP and its importance to innovation across the UK.

“Personally, I have concentrated on where the CEO can add real value,” says Dennehey.

Dennehey led a senior visit to China to reinforce the UK’s strong cooperation in the field of IP frameworks and enforcement.

He has also focused on the development of the IPO’s overall plan for the coming financial year, to ensure the office is delivering as effectively as possible on wider government objectives including the industrial strategy.

The biggest challenge for Dennehey and the office, he says, is developing digital tools to transform customer experience and the IPO’s efficiency.

The new designs registration service is evidence that the office can do it—customers are now overwhelmingly filing online and demand has roughly doubled, while the IPO has reduced fees and cut turnaround times from months to days.

Dennehey concludes: “Now we need to extend that success to other rights.”