We now have confirmation of a new referral to the EBA on claim interpretation (G1/26). As previously hinted, The Board of Appeal in T 0873/24 has decided to refer questions on the application of G1/24 to the assessment of added matter.
Whenever we write about AI, responses have started to move away from talk about hallucination, confidentiality or quality. The new concern is one of economics, i.e. will the whole AI thing just become too expensive and are we putting ourselves at risk by outsourcing to AI.
Drug combination inventions are increasingly difficult to protect. File too early for a drug-combination invention and the application may lack the data to support the non-obvious effect of the combination. Wait for the trial read-out, and a competitor, or your own published protocol, may have already placed the invention in the public domain.
In many patent firms, permission to use AI tools is currently restricted to the most senior individuals. Whilst almost every firm seems to have a dedicated “AI task-force” these days to trial new software, this group is usually restricted to partners or senior associates, whilst trainees and more junior associates are denied access to AI…
In a remarkable departure from what we might have expected it to do following Amgen v Sanofi, the US Court of Appeals of the Federal Circuit in Teva v Eli Lilly upheld a jury verdict finding that a method of treatment claim for a broad genus of antibody satisfied both the written description and enablement…
It is difficult to find a field of patent law in pharma and biotech at the moment that is more complicated and fast-moving than the field of lipid nanoparticles (LNPs). IP strategy for LNPs involves sophisticated science, multiple and overlapping technology platforms, trade secret and ownership disputes and global patent cross-litigation.
We are delighted to welcome Alice Walford to the Evolve team.
Alice joins us with over 15 years of combined private practice and in-house experience in the life sciences sector. Alice brings a wealth of experience, including time at Novartis, Gyroscope Therapeutics and Abzena, working on gene therapies, small molecule and antibody assets. Her specialist…
Patenting medical devices in Europe is challenging. First, there is the problem that medical use claims are not permitted for medical devices, whilst simultaneously methods of treatment or surgery using a device are excluded from patentability.
On 22 June 2026, China’s National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) approved satricabtagene autoleucel, or satri-cel, making it the world’s first CAR-T cell therapy cleared for a solid tumour. Developed by Shanghai-based CARsgen Therapeutics, the therapy is approved in China for patients with Claudin18.2-positive, HER2-negative advanced gastric and gastro-oesophageal junction (GEJ) cancer who have already failed…
As the recent furore over claim interpretation and description amendments illustrates, patent attorneys love nothing more than to argue about the meaning of words. As we know, words are contextual things, and can shift their meaning depending on the words around them and the perspective of the reader. Definitions are particularly unstable in biological sciences,…
