Life sciences and health

Sun 17th Mar 2024

Clare Stephens explains the impact of the Chancellor's Spring Budget on the UK's science and technology industries.

Tue 28th Nov 2023

Emma Berry reflects on an insightful day at the first UK MedTech Innovation Assembly hosted by Halston Group.

Wed 24th May 2023

Virginia Driver contributes to a white paper exploring the emerging innovations and challenges of the new world of MedTech and what the future holds for the industry.

Wed 26th Apr 2023

Virginia Driver named one of the top 250 women in IP in 2023.

Tue 11th Apr 2023

How Patent Box tax relief can help companies holding a qualifying patent reduce their rate of corporation tax.

Tue 11th Apr 2023

Changes to R&D tax relief for costs relating to innovations that are not covered by a granted patent, took effect on 1 April 2023.

Thu 9th Feb 2023

In an article for The Life Sciences Lawyer first published in January 2023, partner Roona Deb discusses the admissibility of post-published evidence for the assessment of an inventive step at the EPO.

Mon 23rd Jan 2023

Congratulations, your patent has been granted! Now what?

Thu 15th Dec 2022

In the second of our IP Guides for Startups, patent attorney Elizabeth Mills explains what is happening at the patent office while you wait to hear if you have been granted a patent.

Tue 15th Nov 2022

A patent is a useful business tool as it can be utilised to stop competitors from copying your invention, to attract investors, for publicity and marketing, and to obtain revenue through licensing. 

Tue 12th Jul 2022

On 17 June 2022, members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) reached an agreement to suspend patent protection for the production and supply of Covid-19 vaccines with the aim of increasing access to Covid-19 vaccines in developing countries.

Fri 8th Jul 2022

Innovate UK are today launching a new series of grants totaling £30 million. The Fast Start: Innovation Grants application process is open for entry to innovative UK small and micro-businesses from 11 to 26 July 2022.

Mon 30th May 2022

A new global sequence listing standard (WIPO Standard ST.26) will be coming into effect on 1 July 2022. New PCT and national/regional applications filed after 1 July 2022 will need to comply with ST.26.

Mon 14th Feb 2022

The question of whether the European Patent Convention confers jurisdiction on the EPO to determine whether a party validly claims to be a successor in title as referred to in Article 87(1)(b) has been referred to the Enlarged Board of Appeal.

Thu 16th Dec 2021

Top of the IP strategy agenda for any patent owners in 2022 should be the Unified Patent Court (UPC) and the unitary patent (UP), according to Olaf Ungerer, a German and European Patent Attorney in Munich.

Fri 26th Nov 2021

Our patent attorneys highlight some of the information that you need to provide to ensure that your assignment sails through at the EPO without delay.

Tue 9th Nov 2021

Patent attorney Roona Deb, specialising in life sciences, explores EPO’s move to address ambiguity over post-published data in proving a patent’s inventive step.

Tue 13th Apr 2021

When the UK left the EU, new intellectual property rights and exclusions were created in the system of protection for designs. These changes mean that companies and designers have some important choices to make about where to disclose designs first; whether to register designs; and if so, where to register their designs first. Oliver Spies and David Roberts highlight the three key lessons for design owners.

Thu 19th Nov 2020

For EU design registrations which are registered and published by the end of 2020, an equivalent “cloned” UK registered design will be automatically created at no cost to the EU registered design rights holder. 

Fri 13th Nov 2020

After the UK leaves the EU at the end of the Brexit transition period on 1 January 2021, new EU registered community designs (RCDs) will no longer provide registered design protection in the UK.

After 1 January 2021, if you wish to obtain both EU and UK registered design protection, it will be necessary to apply for these registered designs separately.

Mon 24th Aug 2020

An audit of your intellectual property will pay dividends as it enables a business to identify new revenue streams, enhance business value, implement best practice, assess and reduce the risk of competition.  It is particularly important for any business with a strong brand or knowledge-based products or services.

Wed 12th Aug 2020

Your logo is an important part of your branding, and the last thing you want is to see another business using an identical or very similar logo that might cause confusion amongst customers and which could devalue your brand.

Fri 17th Jul 2020

By 17 June 2020, according to Center for Disaster Philanthropy (CDP), some $11.4 billion had been donated to help tackle the COVID-19 outbreak.

Large donations have been made by some of the world’s leading companies and foundations, and universities are racing to develop a vaccine.

Mon 1st Jun 2020

In an article for The Times Higher Education (published May 30, 2020), intellectual property strategists Virginia Driver and Tom Woodhouse have urged universities to guard their IP rights to ensure COVID-19 innovations reach the vulnerable in poorer nations.

Wed 8th Apr 2020

We hope that you are keeping well and are settling into this new way of working.

Mon 6th Apr 2020

It seems that some of the Intellectual Property Offices are experiencing issues, but some have arranged extensions of deadlines. Some offices have closed. Problems are occurring in the courts where some hearings are being cancelled.

Fri 27th Mar 2020

The UKIPO issued details of changes to their services on 27 March 2020 as a result of the disruption to applicants’ businesses and the ability to receive and send post during the current coronavirus pandemic.

Fri 27th Mar 2020

The UKIPO announced changes to its services on 27 March 2020 as a result of the business /postal disruption during the coronavirus pandemic.

Wed 11th Mar 2020

Finding and entering new markets is key to the growth of any business, whether this is selling to a new industry sector or into a foreign territory. But this can be time-consuming and labour intensive and difficult to do well if you do not have anyone who speaks the language, understands the sector or is familiar with differences in the cultural or regulatory environment.

Tue 28th Jan 2020

A Supplementary Protection Certificate (SPC) is a form of intellectual property that extends the protection of patented active ingredients present in pharmaceutical or plant protection products. SPCs serve to compensate patent holders for the effective loss in patent term that occurs due to delays in receiving marketing authorisation.

Fri 24th Jan 2020

The European Patent Office (EPO) Board of Appeal has given its decision in case T844/18 regarding the CRISPR gene editing patent owned by the Broad Institute, MIT and Harvard College, declaring the patent invalid over prior art that was only citeable because some of the patent’s priority claims were not valid.

Tue 16th Jul 2019

Page White and Farrer has been acknowledged as one of the leading patent law firms in Europe by the Financial Times in its 2019 survey report.

Mon 21st Jan 2019

Simply, patents protect inventions. Our qualified patent attorneys have put together this collection of frequently asked questions to assist you with securing patent
protections for your intellectual property.

Sat 19th Jan 2019

Your brand comprises many elements, including your company and domain names and as with all your intellectual property assets, it is important to take active steps to protect them.

Sat 5th Jan 2019

A registered trade mark is an asset, which can be sold, licensed, and mortgaged. A trade mark registration gives a monopoly to stop certain use by others of similar marks
on similar goods. It gives you more certainty that a trade mark is available for your use, as it has already been through an opposition stage

Thu 19th Apr 2018

In Activis v Eli Lilly Lord Neuberger referred to certain circumstances where it would be appropriate to consider prosecution history to assist in claim interpretation. Jeff Daniels explains that this does not open the door generally to file wrapper estoppel, and reference to the prosecution history is the exception and not the rule.

Sun 1st Apr 2018

The UK has ratified the Unified Patent Court Agreement, an international treaty which provides for a single judgment on patent disputes across all the states which have signed up to it.

Fri 6th Oct 2017

On 30 August 2017, in a report commissioned by the UK government, Sir John Bell set out an ambitious vision for the UK health and life science sector, with the aim of making the UK a world-leader in this sector over the next 20 years.

Mon 2nd Oct 2017

James Cornish, Chartered Trade Mark Attorney, reviews the EU IPO Appeal Board and General Court pharmaceutical case law, between January and August 2017 in advance of the Pharmaceutical Trade Mark Group “PTMG” Autumn conference, to provide concise guidance on recent legal principles to help win pharmaceutical cases.

Mon 17th Jul 2017

The UK BioIndustry Association is celebrating getting a public commitment from government ministers via a letter to the Financial Times calling for post Brexit co-operation with the EU on medicines regulation.

Sat 1st Jul 2017

From 1 July 2017, the European Patent Office (EPO) will be applying an amended version of Rules 27 and 28 EPC. Most notably Rule 28 EPC has been amended to indicate explicitly that patents will not be granted in respect of plants or animals exclusively obtained by means of an essentially biological process.

Sat 23rd Jan 2016

As the country and the UK government get to grips with the implications of the UK’s vote to leave the European Union, what are the implications for intellectual property?