Daniel Alexander QC obtained a first in physics and philosophy at Oxford, winning the Wilde Prize, followed by a LLM at Harvard Law School, as a Kennedy Scholar. He was called to the English and New York Bars in 1988 and became a QC in 2003.
Daniel's practice covers all areas of intellectual property as well as IT and media/entertainment cases. Cases include international and EU-work and often involve multi-jurisdictional issues. He is recommended in the directories as a leading silk in intellectual property, media and entertainment and information technology law. Chambers & Partners 2007 describes Daniel as "prominent swift and convincing", and "very bright and diligent".
Patents - Daniel's patent work involves most areas of technology. Recent cases have involved medical and plant biotechnology, pharmaceuticals (including cyclosporine, paclitaxel, modafinil, minocycline, paroxetine, cetuximab, EGFR-antibody, citalopram, simvastatin, lansoprazole, latanoprost, laevocetirizine and others), chemical process design, medical and analytic equipment, including stents and HPLC instrumentation, electronics, petroleum engineering apparatus, data transmission and systems design, hydraulic equipment, consumer and household products. Daniel's practice involves regular cases before the EPO as well as entitlement/validity disputes before the UK Patent Office. He has extensive experience of SPC cases.
Work in 2007-2008 includes three leading patent cases: Nichia v. Argos (disclosure, CA); GSK v. Genentech (stay pending EPO, CA); Arrow v. Merck (negative declarations and divisionals) as well as acting in the House of Lords entitlement case Yeda v. Imclone and Yissum in the ECJ (SPCs on second medical use patents).
Clients include: Alcatel, Akzo-Nobel, Baker Hughes, Black & Decker, Celltech, Ericsson, GSK, Hewlett-Packard, Imclone, Ivax, Mayne, Miller, Novartis, Roche, Teva, the UK Government and a range of SME and NGOs.
Media and entertainment law, copyright, trade marks and designs - Daniel has a substantial practice in media and entertainment law. He has acted for the Beatles for a number of years, including in their dispute with Apple Computer over the rights to the "Apple" mark. His recent practice includes cases relating to the name for a TV format, a copyright claim for a magazine publisher involving the fair use provisions, an ICC arbitration about a film channel and a Francovich claim relating to public performance rights and the Copyright/Rental Directives.
Daniel has appeared in over 20 cases before the ECJ and CFI which have shaped trade mark law including Canon, BMW/Deenik, Davidoff/Levis, Philips/Remington, Gerolsteiner, Doublemint, Nichols and Celltech. Recent design work includes the leading case on "method or principle of construction" (Landor & Hawa, 2007 CA) and cases relating to display equipment and agricultural machinery. Recent IT work includes: a dispute over financial services software, a dispute relating to payment for fingerprint identification technology (2007) and acting for Ericsson in a series of major 3G patents/standards disputes (2007). Daniel was awarded the Chambers Bar Awards IT Silk of the Year 2007.
Clients include: Apple Corps, the BBC, BSkyB, Channel 4, French Connection, IPC, Marks & Spencer as well as smaller undertakings and creative individuals.
Other information - In 2006 Daniel was appointed to sit as a Deputy High Court Judge. He is also a trustee of the Natural History Museum.