Alan Boyd
I have a strong academic background in computer science and I’ve brought this knowledge into my legal career. I enjoy tailoring arguments and in-depth expertise to turn a challenging or contentious case into a winning one.
Before I joined the patent law profession, I was a software engineer researcher and research assistant. I’ve written several papers on embedded systems in the field of wireless sensor networks and I enjoy presenting my research at national and international conferences. For my PhD, I focused on different routing protocols to extend the diversity of received data in a wireless sensor network for as long as possible.
My main areas of expertise include computer architectures, embedded systems, digital electronics, telecommunications and networks. I’m a partner in D Young & Co's electronics, engineering & IT team, and I have a great deal of experience in drafting and prosecuting patents for a range of clients.
I’m also an examiner for the legal paper in the European Qualifying Exams – the professional European exams for patent attorneys.
Awards
Ranked as a 'notable practitioner' by IPSTARS 2021.
Qualifications
- BSc in Computer Science, University of Edinburgh.
- PhD in Computer Science (Node reliance: an approach to extending the lifetime of wireless sensor networks), University of St Andrews.
- Certificate in Intellectual Property Law, Queen Mary, University of London.
- Certificate in IP litigation.
- Chartered Patent Attorney 2014.
- European Patent Attorney 2014.
- Registered representative before the Unified Patent Court (UPC) 2023.
Memberships
- Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys (CIPA).
- European Patent Institute (epi).
Publications
- Alan W. F. Boyd, Dharini Balasubramaniam and Alan Dearle. "A collaborative wireless sensor network routing scheme for reducing energy wastage". In IEEE International Conference on Communications Workshop on Energy Efficiency in Wireless Networks & Wireless Networks for Energy Efficiency, Cape Town, South Africa, 2010.
- Alan W. F. Boyd, Dharini Balasubramaniam, Alan Dearle and Ron Morrison. "On the selection of connectivity-based metrics for wsns using a classification of application behaviour". In IEEE International Conference on Sensor Networks, Ubiquitous, and Trustworthy Computing, Newport Beach, California, USA (accepted for publication), 2010.
- Alan W. F. Boyd, Dharini Balasubramaniam, Alan Dearle, and Ron Morrison. "An approach to extending the lifetime of wireless sensor networks". In The 9th Annual PostGraduate Symposium on The Convergence of Telecommunications, Networking and Broadcasting, pages 123–128, Liverpool, UK, 2008.