Mike Knapper is an intellectual property and technology lawyer based in our London office. He is Head of Intellectual Property, Europe, Middle East and Asia.

Mike specialises in commercial arrangements involving intellectual property, data and technology, including rights acquisitions and disposals, portfolio structuring, licensing, collaboration, technology transfer, procurement and a broad range of related commercial agreements, with a particular focus on the life sciences, energy and technology sectors.

He regularly advises on intellectual property, IT and data protection aspects of mergers and acquisitions, joint venture transactions and IPOs, and on business separation and carve-out transactions.

Mike also advises on strategies for the protection and exploitation of brands and innovation (including in relation to trade marks, copyright, patents and trade secrets), on sponsorship arrangements, marketing and advertising law and on data protection compliance strategies.

Mike joined the firm in 1998 and was made a partner in 2006, after a period working in-house at The Thomson Corporation (now Thomson Reuters), where he was assistant European Counsel.

Mike is described in Legal 500 as an “excellent, adaptable and effective” lawyer who “thinks of real solutions that will work” and as someone who is “excellent at thinking around stalemate situations”.  

Mike has a degree in Chemistry from Bristol University, where he was awarded the 1995 ICI prize. He is a member of the Licensing Executive Society, INTA, the Society for Computers and Law and represents us on IPLA and the City of London Law Society IP sub-committee.