We provide support for litigation and other contentious proceedings, including EPO oppositions and appeals.
A granted European patent can be revoked centrally at the EPO in every designated state at once, but only for nine months following grant. Our experienced attorneys act on both sides, clearing patents that stand between you and your market, and defending the patents that are important to your business.
Offensive oppositions
You may need to clear a competitor’s patent from your path to market, or to narrow its scope before launch. We assess quickly whether an opposition is likely to succeed, and how it compares with alternative options including designing around or taking a licence. Where an opposition is the right route, we search for prior art and public prior use, examine entitlement to priority, and craft the novelty, inventive step, sufficiency and added matter attacks strategically to secure the best outcome for your business.
Defensive oppositions
Your own patent may be opposed by a competitor seeking to clear its path to market. We defend it with your commercial position in view, since the claims that survive must continue to cover the product as marketed and its approved label. We build auxiliary request sets around the commercially important claims, advise on experimental and comparative data in support of inventive step, and can advise on strategy for divisional applications.
Freedom to operate
Oppositions usually begin as a freedom-to-operate issue, for example finding a third-party application that would cover your candidate if it grants as filed. We can carry out the freedom-to-operate analysis that identifies these patent applications in the first place so that the families that matter to your pipeline can be monitored, grants that call for a decision are flagged, and further action can be taken whilst there is still time to clear the path.
Third-party observations
Anyone may submit arguments and prior art before the examining division while a patent application is still pending and this can be done anonymously. Used well, observations can be an effective way to narrow a competitor’s claims before grant and can remove the need for an opposition entirely. We advise on whether observations strengthen your position, and how to frame them if they do.
Contact us
Whether you are deciding how to deal with a competitor’s newly granted patent, or looking to defend one of your own patents, contact us today to discuss how our experienced attorneys can support you.