Pharmaceuticals

As the world faces unprecedented challenges caused by the SARS-Cov-2 virus, we look at the science behind vaccine technology being investigated and how intellectual property (IP) rights may play a part in its protection. This article was first published by BioScience Today and can be found here.   What is a Vaccine? The immune system… Read more »

Access to Intellectual Property (IP) Rights in a Time of Emergency – Patent Pools and Beyond This article was first published in BioScience Today The pharmaceutical and healthcare industry is often accused of misusing IP to extend exclusivity and delay reasonably priced access to life saving technologies. The recent pandemic has focussed attention on the… Read more »

Financial Times names AA Thornton one of Europe’s leading Patent Law Firm’s 2020 We are delighted to have been named by the Financial Times as one of Europe’s Leading Patent Law Firms for 2020. We would like to thank our clients and peers who gave feedback in relation to our inclusion in this list. If you… Read more »

Anti-counterfeiting: A Global Guide 2020 This article first appeared in Anti-counterfeiting: A Global Guide 2020, a supplement to World Trademark Review, published by Law Business Research – IP Division. To view the guide in full, please go to www.WorldTrademarkReview.com. For a further year, Senior Associates Louise Foster, Trade Mark Attorney and  Varuni Parantivatine, Solicitor, have… Read more »

Legal update – UK IPO coronavirus response In recognition of the challenges individuals and businesses are facing amidst the coronavirus outbreak, the UK Intellectual Property Office (UK IPO) has made certain temporary adjustments to its practices, to ensure that parties are not adversely affected in their dealings with the Office. It has also had to… Read more »

Artificial Intelligence – Our March 2020 report According to the European Patent Office, for the first time in more than a decade, digital technologies have taken the lead in patent applications filed. Among the top technical fields digital communication (+19.6%) and computer technology (+10.2%) saw the steepest growth. The report, published on the 12th March… Read more »

This article is written for BioScience Today This article was originally written for BioScience today, you can find Varuni’s article below, or read the full magazine here.   BACKGROUND In 2006 Professor Shanks claimed compensation under s40 of the Patents Act on the basis that an invention he made as an employee was of outstanding benefit… Read more »

Senior Associate Suzanne Power reports on the Summer 2019 trade mark decisions from the UK and EU in the Pharma and Med Dev sectors. 1. Slogans remain difficult to register as EU trade marks – Case T-555/18 of 3 April 2019, Medrobotics Corp. v EUIPO This decision from the EU’s General Court (“GC”) highlights the… Read more »

AA Thornton is ranked as a top tier firm The Legal 500 2020 edition has now been published and we are absolutely delighted to be recommended as a top-tier firm for our trade marks practice, which was described as “strong”, “dedicated” and an “excellent team of knowledgeable and genuinely good people”. We also remain highly recommended for our patents… Read more »

The majority of the world’s biggest selling medicines can be classified as “biologics” or “biopharmaceuticals”. Such medicines contain one or more biologically active product produced from (or containing components of) living organisms as the active ingredients.   Biosimilars are biological products which are highly similar in structure, biological activity, efficacy, safety and immunogenicity profile to… Read more »