Dr. Bernard Dippenaar

Dr. Bernard Dippenaar is an Executive at ENS in the Intellectual Property & Innovation practice. His practice focuses on Patent Law, assisting clients in protecting their inventions and advising on the commercialisation of same.

His experience includes specification drafting, prosecution and litigation of both patents and registered designs. Having completed his MSc in Pharmaceutical Chemistry and PhD in Inorganic Synthesis and Computational Chemistry, Bernard's technical areas of expertise include pharmaceutical, chemical, material science and software-related inventions.

In addition, he is experienced in drafting validity opinions, freedom-to-operate assessments, patent infringement 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 synthesised metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) and modelled their crystal structures using various computational software suites in order to rationalise their solid-state properties.

He holds a BSc, BSc (Honours), MSc (Cum Laude) and PhD in Chemistry from Stellenbosch University, and an LLB (Cum Laude) from the University of South Africa. He is admitted as an attorney of the High Court of South Africa and is a qualified patent attorney. He is a member of the South African Institute of Intellectual Property Law (SAIIPL), and is recognised by Managing IP EMEA Awards as Rising Star of the Year: South Africa 2025 and 2024, and by IAM Patent 1000 in 2025.