Alan has an Honours Degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering and a Masters Degree in Communications, Digital Signal Processing and Control from Strathclyde University. He qualified as a European Patent Attorney in 1997. He has significant experience in electrical, electronic, acoustics, communications and computing technologies.

Alan specialises in drafting and prosecuting patent applications for information technology inventions, both hardware and software, and has detailed knowledge of networking and communications technologies. Alan also has extensive knowledge of sensing devices, such as inductive and capacitive sensors used in the automotive and computer fields.

Alan also has expertise in both opposition and appeal proceedings before the European Patent Office.