Brian Cordery, Author at Kluwer Patent Blog

The Actavis v Eli Lilly UK litigation concerning pemetrexed (sold by Eli Lilly under the brand Alimta(®) has already been widely reported in light of Actavis’ innovative application to the English court for declarations of non-infringement (DNIs) of national designations of a European Patent in addition to the UK designation. The latest instalment concerns the…

Biologics, Inventive step, Novelty, Revocation, United Kingdom

The best things in life are unexpected because there were no expectations (Eli Khamarov)

Brian Cordery (Bristows)/July 2, 2015March 18, 2017

Apart from the enthralling Lyrica saga which began in earnest back in January, and the main trial of which recently began before Arnold J, 2015 has not witnessed many significant pharmaceutical patent decisions from the UK patents courts. Thus, three cases in this field which, rather like London buses, arrived almost simultaneously, have provided welcome…

(Indirect) infringement, Enforcement, Extent of Protection, Injunction, Scope of protection, Second Medical Use, United Kingdom

Swiss Form Claims and Skinny Labelling – the Lyrica Appeal

Brian Cordery (Bristows)/June 4, 2015

On 28 May 2015, the English Court of Appeal issued a ruling in the on-going Lyrica saga which, although almost certainly not representing the last word on the topic, took a markedly different approach to the correct construction of Swiss form claims to the first instance judge, Arnold J. One thing there does appears to…

United Kingdom

Pre-action Disclosure: Transparency is a virtue

Brian Cordery (Bristows)/May 1, 2015

On 28 April 2015, Mr Justice Arnold handed down judgment in relation to an unprecedented application for Pre-Action Disclosure from a patentee. The applicant, The Big Bus Company Limited (“Big Bus”) had applied for disclosure of all licence agreements which the respondent, Ticketogo Limited (“Ticketogo”), had granted under patent UK 2 391 101 (“the Patent”)….

Second Medical Use, United Kingdom

Swiss-Form Claims, Skinny Labelling and the duty of the National Health Service – the Lyrica case continues

Brian Cordery, Claire Phipps-Jones (Bristows)/March 27, 2015November 1, 2017

At the end of January, we reported the Warner-Lambert v Actavis decision of 21 January 2015, in which Arnold J refused to grant Warner-Lambert interim relief in relation to an apprehension of patent infringement by Actavis of Warner-Lambert’s patent comprising Swiss-form claims directed to the use of pregabalin in the preparation of a medicament for…

(Indirect) infringement, Second Medical Use, United Kingdom

Swiss Form Claims and Skinny Labelling – the Lyrica Case

Brian Cordery (Bristows)/January 30, 2015

Most readers will know that so-called Swiss form claims (“Use of drug X in the manufacture of a medicament for the treatment of disease Y”) were first proposed by the Enlarged Board of Appeal of the EPO in the EISAI case back in December 1984 to allow new uses for known drugs to be patented….

Biologics, Inventive step, Second Medical Use, United Kingdom, Validity

Herceptin Round 2: Hospira enjoys the sweet smell of success once more

Brian Cordery, Steven Willis (Bristows)/December 1, 2014November 1, 2017

Regular readers of the Kluwer patent blog may recall that in April 2014, the English Patents Court revoked two patents relating to trastuzumab, the active ingredient in Herceptin, which is marketed outside of the US by Roche. One patent was for a dosage regimen and the other related to a composition of trastuzumab containing certain…

United Kingdom

Gemalto’s UK appeal dismissed

Brian Cordery, Naomi Hazenberg (Bristows)/October 24, 2014November 1, 2017

Appeal (Ref [2014] EWCA Civ 1335) has upheld Birss J’s decision last year in HTC v Gemalto (Ref [2013] EWHC 1876 (Pat)) but has found that he erred on a point of construction. The appeal concerned just one of the patents considered at first instance (EP (UK) 0932865) which relates to using higher level programming…

Inventive step, United Kingdom

Obvious to try attacks remain topical even if they take a different path

Brian Cordery, Gregory Bacon (Bristows)/October 15, 2014November 1, 2017

The English Patents Court (Birss J) recently demonstrated a somewhat unconventional approach to answering the statutory question of obviousness when assessing inventive step*. The judgment also provides some guidance on the role of commercial as opposed to technical considerations, in particular regulatory concerns, when assessing obviousness. Leo Pharma, the defendant in these proceedings, market a…

United Kingdom

If it were done when ‘tis done, then ‘twere well it were done quickly

Brian Cordery, Rachel Mumby (Bristows)/July 28, 2014November 1, 2017

We reported recently that the IPCom Guidelines which set out when the English Court should stay patent actions pending EPO oppositions appear to be “More honour’d in the breach than the observance”. This had been in response to the decision of Arnold J of 10 July 2014 who had refused to grant such a stay…

Kluwer Patent Blog

By Brian Cordery

Salt limitation leads to sweet and sour Court of Appeal judgment

The best things in life are unexpected because there were no expectations (Eli Khamarov)

Swiss Form Claims and Skinny Labelling – the Lyrica Appeal

Pre-action Disclosure: Transparency is a virtue

Swiss-Form Claims, Skinny Labelling and the duty of the National Health Service – the Lyrica case continues

Swiss Form Claims and Skinny Labelling – the Lyrica Case

Herceptin Round 2: Hospira enjoys the sweet smell of success once more

Gemalto’s UK appeal dismissed

Obvious to try attacks remain topical even if they take a different path

If it were done when ‘tis done, then ‘twere well it were done quickly