Nick Hayden

Nick Hayden

Director, Patents

Nick Hayden has nearly twenty years’ experience working in private practice. During this time he’s gained extensive experience in all aspects of patent management, including drafting, prosecution (before the UKIPO and EPO), validity/infringement advice and opposition and appeal proceedings. He also has experience in the fields of copyright and design.

Nick has an honours degree in Physics with Electronics from the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST). This was followed by a Masters in the Management of Intellectual Property from Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of London. During this time, Nick got a thorough grounding in the full range of intellectual property laws.

He has looked after the patent interests of multinational companies and individual inventors, long-established companies and start-ups. That’s entailed the management of sizable patent portfolios covering a large number of jurisdictions. He places specific importance on considering a client’s needs from a commercial, as well as a legal, perspective.

With wide and varied technical specialisms, Nick is equally comfortable across electronic engineering, software and mechanical engineering. He has experience of drafting and prosecuting patents in technologies including lithography and metrology, mobile telephony, business methods, IC design and supercomputer systems.

He’s also worked extensively with optical devices, CMOS design, MPEG encoding technologies, electro-active lens design and chemical micro reactors. And he’s gained significant experience in offshore installations and engineering, welding technologies, remotely-operated vehicles and industrial automation systems.

Nick’s employment and educational experience also includes text processing and instrumentation, business methods, powerline communication and computer modelling systems for offshore oil and gas surveying.

Nick is based in the Glasgow Office.

Core Expertise: Electronics (analogue and digital), engineering, software, mobile telephony, IC design (including imaging and audio ICs, power supplies, charge pumps, switching regulation and current sense circuits), photolithography systems for IC manufacture (hardware and software, including EUV, DUV and immersion scanner systems, sources – laser produced plasma and laser, alignment systems, optical systems, stage systems and control systems), metrology systems for IC manufacture (hardware and software, including darkfield and brightfield scatterometry, e-beam/SEM metrology, HHG sources, optical systems, stage systems, data processing), artificial intelligence and machine learning, computer modelling systems (e.g., in offshore oil and gas surveying and IC manufacture process control), engine management systems, antenna design, data centres, supercomputer systems, optical devices, CMOS design, ophthalmic and electro-active lens design, powerline and WIFI communication networks, chemical micro reactors, offshore installations, offshore engineering, welding technologies, Remotely Operated Vehicles, industrial automation systems, text processing, display technologies including touchscreens, image processing, MPEG encoding technologies, seismic imaging, Lidar, SPADs and computer peripherals.


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Sector expertise

  • Electronics (analogue and digital)
  • Engineering
  • Software
  • Mobile telephony
  • HHG sources
  • Optical devices
  • Optical systems
  • Data processing
  • Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning
  • Computer modelling systems
  • Engine management systems
  • Antenna design
  • Data centres
  • Supercomputer systems
  • CMOS design
  • Semiconductors

Key contributor to the team recognised as Highly Recommended by WIPR

WIPR UK Patent Rankings 2025

Key contributor to the team recognised in the Top Patent Law Firm Rankings

The Patent Lawyer Magazine - 2024 & 2025

Key Member of the Patent Prosecution Team awarded Tier 1

Managing IP, IP Stars Firm ranking 2024 & 2025 - Patent Prosecution Scotland

Key contributor to our Technology, Media & Telecoms Team awarded Gold by the Financial Times

Financial Times European Leading Patent Law Firms - 2019, 2020, 2022, 2023, 2024 & 2025

Much appreciate all your help on this Nick, really happy with how you captured the inventions.

Entrepreneur and Angel Investor

Thanks for the excellent draft

Inventor - Semiconductor Company

Thanks for drafting the document. I am impressed by the quality of the description of the invention based on only the short description that I had written

Semiconductor company

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