Emma Demetriades, Annabel Strawson, and Natalia Wegner join the partnership on 1st July 2023
Carpmaels & Ransford is delighted to announce the promotion of Emma Demetriades, Annabel Strawson, and Natalia Wegner to the partnership, effective from 1st July 2023. This marks an exciting expansion of the Life Sciences team. All three are European Patent Attorneys qualified to represent clients before the UPC as European Patent Litigators and have developed impressive practices in pharmaceuticals and biotechnology since joining the firm as trainees over a decade ago.
Emma Demetriades manages patent portfolios spanning a diverse range of pharmaceutical subject-matter, including new chemical entities, medical uses, manufacturing methods, and new formulations. During her time at the firm, Emma has assisted many of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies in building and defending patent portfolios protecting their most valuable commercial products.
Emma advises clients on all aspects of the patent life cycle, but much of her time is spent supporting clients in defending their most important patents in post-grant opposition and appeal proceedings at the EPO. Emma’s considerable experience of large oppositions and appeals, which frequently involve more than 10 opponents is invaluable, and a key area in which she will continue to focus her practice as a Partner. In addition to her EPO cases, Emma has worked closely with the firm’s in-house Dispute Resolution team on several litigation projects, co-ordinating with local counsel across Europe to ensure a consistent approach across the various jurisdictions.
Annabel Strawson handles high-value cases and award-winning technologies with a particular focus on diagnostic and drug development platform technologies, including nucleic acid diagnostics, stem cells and organoids. Annabel has contributed to consultations and panel discussions regarding the development of stem cell practice at the EPO and continues to stay closely involved in developments in this field. Her practice also includes a wide range of biological therapeutic products in both human and veterinary fields.
Most of Annabel’s time is spent leading teams in opposition proceedings at the EPO, where she is an experienced advocate in both offensive and defensive opposition and appeal hearings. Her experience in contentious proceedings across Europe, and further afield, sets her up well for representing and advising clients in the new UPC forum. According to one client: “Annabel combines in-depth scientific understanding of the subject matter of the IP, intellectual creativity and broad knowledge on patent prosecution to create very successful patent portfolios”.
Natalia Wegner provides strategic, product-focussed advice, integrating patent prosecution, contentious proceedings, SPCs and regulatory exclusivities. Her clients include established global healthcare companies as well as ambitious biotechs, and she regularly visits them, particularly on the US East Coast, in Germany, and in Switzerland. Her work spans antibody-based therapeutics, cell and gene therapies, engineered proteins and nucleic acid drugs, and she has been entrusted with some of the most complex patent and SPC matters, covering EPO advocacy, national litigation, and driving cases at the CJEU. Natalia was identified as a rising star, most recently in the 2022 MIP Guide. Natalia is PhD-qualified in Immunology and speaks German and English.
Hugh Goodfellow, Managing Partner at Carpmaels & Ransford, comments:
“It is a great pleasure to welcome Emma, Annabel and Natalia to the partnership. They all joined Carpmaels as trainees and it is incredibly gratifying to recognise our home-grown talent and the unique expertise they bring to the firm.
Their promotions demonstrate the depth of knowledge and expertise Carpmaels & Ransford holds in the Life Sciences field and provides further representation of our truly integrated approach which enables us to best support our clients.”
Additionally, Carpmaels & Ransford has recently been awarded the UK Patent Prosecution Firm of the Year by Managing IP which distinguishes the firms and individuals behind the most innovative and challenging intellectual property work of the past year.
