Education1985 Bachelor of laws degree, University of Nottingham (1st class Honours)

Professional

1988 Admission as a Solicitor of the High Court in England
1994 Partner at Herbert Smith, Solicitors

Professional Appointments/Memberships

Solicitor Advocate with rights of audience in all civil proceedings.
Associate Member of the Chartered Institute of Patent Agents.
Member of the National Computing Centre Legal Group

General

Nick Gardner is Head of Intellectual Property at international law firm Herbert Smith LLP.  He advises on all areas of intellectual property with a focus on matters concerning the Internet, electronics, and computer hardware and software. Over the past 20 years he has litigated intellectual property cases in many areas. These have included patents relating to a range of technologies including automobile engineering, computer graphics, computer hardware, satellite television, mobile telephony, telecommunications and microprocessors. He has handled copyright cases involving computer software, maps, online file sharing and copy protection circumvention technology.

Nick has also dealt with a wide range of trade mark cases and regularly advises on data privacy matters. He has been involved in domain name disputes for over 10 years, and acted on behalf of Harrods in one of the very first domain name cases to come before the courts.

Nick is a solicitor advocate with rights of audience in all civil proceedings and a World Intellectual Property Organisation and Nominet appointed expert for the determination of domain name disputes. He is a member of the Intellectual Property Lawyers Association, the International Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property, the American Intellectual Property Lawyers Association and an associate member of the Chartered Institute of Patent Agents.