Dr Toby Thompson

Dr Toby Thompson is a Principal and Patent Attorney based in Melbourne.

Toby provides a range of patent services for clients, including advising on global IP strategy, portfolio management, and patent drafting and prosecution. He understands complex legal and technical issues, provides pragmatic solutions, and achieves results. Alongside counselling clients on protecting their technology, Toby’s practice includes conducting freedom to operate studies and advising on infringement and patent invalidity. He is also a patent opposition specialist, with considerable experience of opposition practice before the Australian and New Zealand patent offices. 

His technical expertise lies in chemical and biological inventions, in the areas of pharmaceuticals, animal healthcare, agrochemicals, chemical processes, consumer products, and food and beverage technology. Following a degree in chemistry and PhD in synthetic organic chemistry, Toby worked in research for five years for a multinational pharmaceutical company, initially in medicinal chemistry identifying candidate drugs, and subsequently leading a group carrying out process development and synthesising APIs for preclinical studies. 

Toby presents regularly on patenting strategies and issues, teaches patent drafting at the University of Melbourne Law School (a Trans-Tasman IP Attorney Board-accredited course for prospective patent attorneys), and has lectured on IP and entrepreneurship at RMIT in Australia, at UK universities and at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden.  He was also a lecturer in medicinal chemistry whilst working in research.