Ursula Baravalle holds a BSc (Hons) in Chemistry and an LLB. Ms Baravalle has extensive expertise in the drafting and prosecution of local and international patent applications filed in the chemical, petrochemical, pharmaceutical, microbiological and biochemical fields.
For the past 15 years, Ursula has been appointed as exclusive patent attorney for South African Leading Petrochemical Company in respect of the drafting and prosecution of their local and international Fischer Tropsch patent portfolios and their local and international oligomerisation, tetramerisation and trimerisation patent portfolios. Ursula advises the Technology Transfer Offices of South Africa’s top Universities in respect of their chemical, petrochemical, pharmaceutical, microbiological and biochemical patent portfolios and is involved in the drafting and prosecution of patent applications within these patent portfolios.
Ursula is also involved in the drafting of patent validity opinions, patent infringement opinions and patentability opinions as well as the validity and infringement of design registrations for local and international clients. Of these local clients, a number of them appear on The Africa Report’s list of top 500 African enterprises.
Ursula has vast experience with the method of treatment claims, Swiss-type claims and second medical use claims and the allowability of these claims in South Africa. Ursula has written articles on the allowability of the aforementioned claims in South Africa and has recently presented a webinar on the topic to the technology transfer offices of South African Universities and local industry leaders.