Wragge & Co’s Intellectual Property (IP) team has secured a winning High Court judgment for new client, global pharmaceutical company H. Lundbeck A/S in a patent dispute with Infosint.

 

In a judgment delivered within three weeks of the hearing, Mr Justice Floyd found Infosint’s patent for a chemical production process used by Lundbeck to be invalid in the UK. Lundbeck is now free to continue manufacturing its antidepressant drugs citalopram and escitalopram using materials made by this process.

 

Partner Paul Inman led the case with support from associate Simon Spink. The team worked closely with Lundbeck’s divisional director of corporate patents and trade marks John Meidahl and senior advisor of intellectual property rights Chris Hayes.

 

Paul Inman said: “This is a very significant result for Lundbeck, which could have faced a damages claim of many millions of pounds had the patent been found valid. Our life sciences sector expertise enabled us to gain a thorough understanding of the technical matters involved and steer the case to this crucial outcome for our client. We hope that this decision will be influential in defending Lundbeck’s position across Europe.”

 

John Meidahl said: “We are extremely pleased with this result and the speed with which the decision was made. Wragge & Co has provided consistently high-quality advice at every stage of this complex case. The firm’s attention to detail and ability to immerse itself in the technical complexities of our case have ensured that it was presented in the most effective way possible. This is a commercially important decision for Lundbeck, which maintains our freedom to operate.”

 

Although the patent was granted to Infosint in 2002, Lundbeck has used the production process concerned since 1986. The case is therefore one of the UK’s first to consider the issue of prior use rights substantively. Wragge & Co worked with Lundbeck and its expert chemists to demonstrate that the chemical process was an obvious use of existing production processes. Mr Justice Floyd agreed in his ruling that the patent did not meet the statutory requirements of inventiveness, it was obvious and therefore invalid.

 

Lundbeck is a global pharmaceutical company with more than 50 years’ experience in research, development and production of pharmaceuticals for the treatment of diseases of the central nervous system. Employing more than 5,900 people, the group operates across 56 countries. Infosint is not a trading company but manages patent litigation across jurisdictions. It was advised by Cumberland Ellis.

 

Wragge & Co’s 42-lawyer IP team includes experts with technical backgrounds in chemistry, biochemistry, physics, engineering and microbiology. Advising some of the world’s largest companies including British Airways, Birds Eye, Kingspan and Microsoft, it has specialist sub-teams in advertising and marketing, brands, high-tech and life sciences.

 

Highlights in the last three months include securing a successful Supreme Court result for Contour Aerospace in its long-running IP battle with Virgin Atlantic. The team also triumphed in the High Court for global toy company Hasbro, in a case concerning its Play-Doh trade mark. Only weeks later it won a High Court case for building solutions manufacturer Kingspan, in a trade mark and advertising dispute with Rockwool Limited.