A former EPO examiner, Simon joined Elkington and Fife in 2000. Simon has spent a lot of time helping medium sized clients to understand the patents system, and to deal with contentious issues, such as third parties infringing their rights without necessarily requiring recourse to the courts. Simon has a wide-ranging experience of drafting patent applications for clients varying from large multinationals to small and medium sized enterprises and individuals in a variety of fields. These include semiconductor technologies, audio, the more mathematical branches of engineering, optical components and systems, and mechanical devices including gas flow equipment. More recently, Simon has spent a considerable amount of time helping clients to obtain patent protection for computer-implemented systems, including in particular speech processing and telecommunications systems. In addition to patents, Simon also has experience of registered and unregistered designs.