Patent Contentious Firm of the Year and Impact Case of the Year
Carpmaels & Ransford was awarded Patent Contentious Firm of the Year at the Managing IP EMEA Awards held last night in London.
The Managing IP awards celebrate the in-house teams, firms, and individuals responsible for the most complex and innovative intellectual property work of the past 12 months.
The firm also took home the award for Impact Case of the Year for FibroGen v Akebia Therapeutics (England & Wales Court of Appeal). Carpmaels & Ransford represented FibroGen before the Court of Appeal, who reversed the first instance decision on sufficiency and held that two FibroGen patents concerning the treatment of anaemia were both valid and would be infringed. This case is an important victory for Carpmaels’ client, and for patentees more broadly, bringing the UK law on sufficiency into line with that in Germany and the EPO.
Shortly after the UK appeal decision was handed down, Carpmaels also successfully defended FibroGen’s patents in parallel opposition proceedings in the EPO, so the patents held valid and infringed by the UK Courts have also been maintained across Europe.
Hugh Goodfellow, Managing Partner at Carpmaels & Ransford, comments:
“We are really pleased to be awarded Patent Contentious Firm of the Year and to be recognised for our work in FibroGen v Akebia Therapeutics, a case which has important implications for innovators in the pharmaceutical sector.”
The firm was nominated for additional awards including EPO Proceedings Firm of the Year and Patent Prosecution Firm of the Year. Partner Daniel Wise was also nominated for Practitioner of the Year.
Just a few weeks ago, Carpmaels & Ransford was awarded SPC Litigation Firm of the Year at the LMG Life Sciences Awards EMEA, with Partner Jennifer Antcliff taking home SPC Litigator of the Year.
The full list of winners is available here.
