Pharmaceuticals

Pharmaceuticals is one of our core disciplines and our attorneys have considerable expertise in dealing with all aspects of intellectual property in the pharmaceutical industry. We have been successfully advising innovator and generic pharmaceutical companies for many years and have gained a reputation for providing a high quality, client-focussed service. Our pharmaceutical clients particularly value our patent and trade mark services because we understand the technologies that underpin their business, the regulatory requirements, and the commercial importance that a well managed patent and trade mark portfolio has in this litigious industry.

Our attorneys draft pharmaceutical patent applications and prosecute them all over the world. We also draft and prosecute evergreening patent applications, creating intricate webs of patent protection.

We also have attorneys who advise on trade mark issues and who register trade marks worldwide, as well as providing trade mark watching services to ensure that early action is taken against potentially conflicting marks.

Our patent attorneys have an enviable track record of success when representing our pharmaceutical clients at opposition and appeal hearings before the European Patent Office. For example, we have successfully applied for revocation of a number of patents covering blockbuster drugs, including AstraZeneca’s European patents covering their Symbicort product.

Our attorneys also have considerable expertise in infringement and validity issues and are regularly involved in infringement and revocation litigation. For example, we have been involved in litigation in the UK, France and Germany relating to patents covering levocitirizine granted to our client Sepracor Inc., in UK litigation on behalf of our client Niche Generics Limited involving patents covering citalopram granted to Lundbeck A/S, and in UK litigation involving patents covering terfenadine carboxylate granted to our client Sepracor Inc.

Venner Shipley believes that a proper and full understanding of patents in the pharmaceutical industry is very important and our attorneys lecture on patent drafting and prosecution, and on infringement and validity at the Patent Academy organised by GenericsWeb® for personnel of generic and innovator pharmaceutical companies.

Our patent attorneys have at least one degree and often also a PhD in a relevant subject, typically chemistry, pharmacology, biochemistry, genetics, genetic engineering, biology, molecular biology and immunology.