Richard Meade QC read Law at University College, Oxford, and was called to the Bar in 1991 and took silk in 2008. He was awarded the Scarman Scholarship for the top performance in the Bar Vocational Course in his year, as well as the Wilfred Parker Prize for Evidence and Procedure.

Before being called to the Bar he worked for two years for Andersen Consulting (now called Accenture), a major management consultancy which specialises in information technology.

Richard practises in all areas of intellectual property, information technology and media and entertainment, but has particular experience of technically complex patent disputes, trade marks, and cases involving the music business. The cases in which he is instructed, and especially patent cases, often have multi-jurisdictional aspects to them. He appears mainly in the High Court and Court of Appeal, and also has substantial experience in the Trade Marks Registry, the UK Patent Office, and the European Patent Office.

Richard is recommended in the top sections of the Chambers & Partners and Legal 500 directories for intellectual property, and is also highly rated for information technology and media and entertainment. Recent comments from solicitors in the directories include "excellent, outstanding and impressive" and "reads the judges well and is a tremendous advocate". In 2005 he was named IP Junior of the Year at Chambers and Partners' annual awards.

Richard is one of the editors of Kerly's Law of Trade Marks and Trade Names, now in its 14th edition.

Richard is an accredited CEDR mediator and particularly enjoys participating in mediations, whether as mediator or representing one of the parties.

Recent interesting cases illustrating the breadth of Richard's practice include:

- Apple Corps v. Apple Computer [2006] EWHC 996, acting for the Beatles' record company in its dispute with Apple Computer over the use of apple marks on iTunes.

- Ranbaxy v. Warner-Lambert [2006] FSR 14 and [2006] EWCA Civ 876, a patent action concerning Warner-Lambert's (now part of Pfizer) patents for Lipitor, a cholesterol-inhibiting drug which is the world's best-selling prescription medicine.

- Special Effects v. L'Oreal [2006] RPC 33 concerning whether trade mark opposition proceedings create an estoppel.

- Kirin-Amgen v. Hoechst Marion Roussel [2005] RPC 9, which is now the leading English authority on the law of patent infringement.

- 19TV v. Fremantle, Cowell and Simco (2005) acting for Simon Cowell and his company Simco in a copyright infringement action brought by Simon Fuller's company, 19TV, alleging that the television programme "The X Factor" infringed the copyright in "Pop Idol". The case settled during the trial.

A full list of Richard's recent cases is included in his detailed CV accessible via the link below.