our people

Dr. Bernard Dippenaar


practical experience
Dr. Bernard Dippenaar is a Senior Associate in ENSafrica's Intellectual Property practice.
Bernard specialises in assisting clients in protecting their inventions and furthermore advises clients on the commercialisation of same.
His experience includes specification drafting, prosecution and litigation of both patents and registered designs. Having completed his PhD in Inorganic Synthesis and Computational Chemistry, Bernard’s technical areas of expertise include Chemical and Software-related inventions.
In addition, Bernard is also experienced in drafting validity opinions, freedom-to-operate assessments, patent infringement opinions, validity opinions, and infringement of both patent and registered design registrations for local and international clients.
Prior to qualifying as a patent attorney, Bernard completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Cape Town, where he synthesized metal-organic-frameworks (MOFs) and modelled their crystal structures using various computational software suites in order to rationalise their solid-state properties.
Bernard is a member of the South African Institute of Intellectual Property Law (SAIIPL).
qualifications
- LLB (cum laude) (University of South Africa)
- BSc (Stellenbosch University)
- BSc (Honours) (Stellenbosch University)
- MSc (cum laude) (Stellenbosch University)
- PhD (Chemistry) (Stellenbosch University)
- Postdoctoral Fellowship (University of Cape Town)
- Admitted as an attorney of the High Court of South Africa
- Qualified patent attorney