Prosecution is where the value of a patent application is decided. At Evolve, we manage pharma and biotech patent families worldwide. We prosecute directly before the EPO and work with trusted local attorneys in the US, Japan, China and other key markets, always with the commercial product in view.
Global prosecution strategy
For international families, we coordinate prosecution with trusted local attorneys in the US, Japan, China and other key markets. We keep claim scope aligned across territories where possible, and make sure that arguments made in one office do not undermine your position in another.
European prosecution
We respond to EPO search opinions and examination reports, attend oral proceedings and manage divisional applications. We know how the EPO assesses inventive step, sufficiency, plausibility and added matter in pharma and biotech, and we frame arguments and amendments to secure the broadest claims your application can support.
Prosecution with the product in mind
The claims that grant must continue to cover the product as it is developed, approved and marketed. We keep track of your development programme, including formulation, dosing and indication, and use divisional strategy to pursue the claims that will matter at launch and against generic and biosimilar competitors.
Third-party observations
Prosecution is not only about your own applications. We can monitor competitors’ applications and file third-party observations to narrow their claims before grant, which can remove the need for later oppositions.
Fractional IP counsel
Our fractional IP counsel model places a named senior patent attorney inside your team as your head of IP, setting prosecution priorities across families and territories, keeping claim strategy aligned with your development plan and managing outside counsel worldwide.
Why fractional IP counsel for patent prosecution? Prosecution decisions shape the value of a family for years, and they are easier to get right when made by someone who knows the product and the business. Our patent directors have managed global prosecution in-house, so they bring the real-world industry experience that you only get working in-house to every response. With Popper, Gilbert and our team behind them, they can manage a global docket that would overwhelm a lone consultant, with a continuity a traditional IP firm rarely offers, and keep each family aligned through a global strategic approach.
Contact us today to discuss your patent portfolio.
Evolve AI
Popper: Global patent prosecution
Popper puts the office action, the file history, your strategy and the relevant case law in front of the attorney on the day it arrives.
The arguments that persuade the EPO are not the ones that work at the USPTO or the JPO. Popper carries a knowledge bank we wrote ourselves on the evidence needed for clinical-use inventions, sequence claims for biologics, comparative data, and the habits of each office. When an office action comes in, Popper prepares:
- A translation and a summary, for triage and for your report
- The cited sequences or compounds, extracted
- The objections set against the prosecution history and your strategy
- A first pass at the rebuttal and amendments, on current case law, for the attorney to work from
The attorney then decides whether to push on or slow down, narrow or broaden, and how to keep the family consistent across countries. The name comes from Sir Karl Popper, who insisted that a scientific theory must be falsifiable. It seemed a good fit for an agent whose job is science-backed rebuttals.
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