Robert Hirons, B.Sc (hons.)

Bob was awarded an Honours Degree in chemistry by the University of Birmingham, England in 1961, and started in the patent profession in England, in 1963. He moved to Canada in 1965 to join the in-house patent department of a petrochemicals company in Sarnia, Ontario, where, in 1968, he obtained his qualification as a Registered :Patent Agent of Canada and the United States.

In late 1968, he moved into private practice with a specialist patent law firm in Toronto, concentrating his practice in chemical, polymer and pharmaceutical inventions, conducting both patent agency and patent litigation support. He qualified as a Trade-mark Agent of Canada in 1972. He established his own Patent and Trade-mark agency in 1974, in Toronto, gradually developing and expanding that until 1986 when the practice was merged into one of Canada’s largest, full-service law firms, with Bob as its chief Patent Agent. In 1992, Bob struck out on his own again, as a patent agent consultant to a Toronto/Ottawa boutique intellectual property law firm. Bob has always maintained a keen interest in teaching, having taught many employee-trainees, and participated in numerous patent agent training courses in Canada and the Far East. He continues to practice with GASTLES, specializing in biotechnology inventions.