HLK at LSPN North America Spring 2024

1st May 2024 •

We’re looking forward to the upcoming LSPN North America Spring 2024 conference, that’s taking place in Massachusetts this month.

Now in its 6th year, the theme for this year’s conference is ‘leveraging and protecting innovation in the life sciences’. The programme will deliver an overview of the latest rulings and legislative developments, as well as providing a platform for professionals to share their solutions to everyday IP challenges.

We’re proud to sponsor this event and help bring together in-house patent counsel from leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.

Date: 8 – 9 May 2024
Location: Boston, Massachusetts, USA

On the conference agenda

Roundtable: Essential considerations for avoiding priority pitfalls

We’re hosting a roundtable on Day 2 of the conference, talking about the importance of the four pillars for a successful claim to a priority document from Article 4 of the Paris Convention, especially when preparing a global patent portfolio.

Time: 11:30-13:05 (EDT)
Date: Thursday 9 May 2024

Meet the HLK team attending LSPN North America Spring 2024

At HLK, we enjoy developing long-standing, collaborative relationships, and aim to understand our client’s business needs. Our team has a wealth of experience across the IP lifecycle in the pharma and life sciences field.

Meet our experts who’ll be at the conference and the gala dinner the evening before.

Joseph Lenthall

Partner | UK and European Patent Attorney | UPC Representative

Joe is a leading Chemistry & Life Sciences EPO Opposition and Appeal specialist. He is particularly adept at handling complex multi-party Oppositions and Appeals. Recent highlights include defending EP patents covering small molecule splicing modulator therapies, CRISPR gene-editing therapies, protein kinase inhibitors, companion diagnostics, ADCs, thin film drug delivery technology, and foods incorporating recombinant proteins.

Joe’s opposition practice feeds back into the team’s drafting and prosecution practice to ensure robust patent protection for commercially significant products. Joe has particular expertise in the fields of therapeutics (including secondary protection through formulations, drug delivery, dosage regimes and patient stratification), diagnostics, biocatalysis and microbial fermentation.

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David Hammond

Partner | UK and European Patent Attorney

David is a partner in the Chemistry and Life Sciences team. With degrees in both chemistry and DNA technology, David is many of our clients’ go-to attorney for innovations in the medical area. He advises our clients on a range of healthcare technologies including diagnostics and biomarkers, gene therapy, small molecule pharma, antibodies and peptides, microfluidics and medical devices.

David’s academic calibre, deep knowledge of patent systems in many countries and commercial approach allow him to draft and prosecute applications that secure protection across the world for his clients. David is also a key member of HLK’s Oppositions and Appeals team, helping his clients defend their patents when challenged, and attack their competitors’ patents when required.

David has a deep understanding of the in-house environment through several long-term secondments and his clients value his strategic and business-focussed approach, and appreciate the clear, commercially-focussed advice he gives.

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Lisa Williams

Partner | UK and European Patent Attorney

Lisa is a partner in our cross-disciplinary Life Sciences & Healthcare team who is notable for the strong relationships she establishes with the clients and inventors she works with.

Lisa’s practice covers a range of technologies, with particular focus in the areas of healthcare and medical devices. This includes drafting and prosecuting patent applications relating to medical devices, diagnostics, drug delivery systems, patient monitoring, and the management of healthcare and medical data. Lisa also handles patent applications relating to software, AI, and machine learning in the healthcare and medical device field.

Most of Lisa’s time is spent working with large multinational European companies and clients in the US, which means that she has an appreciation for the differing laws and practices. She also has particular experience working with high-tech start-ups, through her associations with incubators, and gained valuable in-house experience having completed a secondment at a leading audio electronics company.

Get in touch

Learn more about our wider life sciences and healthcare team.

Insights from our team

Read the most recent insights from our team.

On-demand webinar: Changes to patenting life sciences and medical innovation in Europe

Our Life Sciences and Healthcare team have delved into the recent valuable changes and updates relevant to patenting life sciences, healthcare and medical innovations in Europe.

Watch recording

EPO reconsiders meaning of “substance or composition” for medical use claims

In this article, we explore the evolving definition of ‘substance or composition’ in European patent law, with a focus on medical use claims, and the recent EPO decision T 1252/20, challenging established norms and its implications for patenting materials in biomedical innovation.

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EPO’s Enlarged Board of Appeal issues decision in G1/22 (priority claims)

In a landmark decision this week, G1/22 , the EPO conveyed that a patentee-friendly approach to claiming priority will be the new norm. The approach they will now take is that there a rebuttable presumption that a priority claim is valid.

Read more

Pharmaceutical clinical trials and patentability at the EPO

From protecting active pharmaceutical ingredients to novel dosage regimes and patient sub-populations, this article delves into European Patent Office case law on patentability during clinical trials.

Read more

The UPC Court of Appeal’s first decision: What does it mean for the assessment of inventive step at the UPC?

A deep dive article on the Unified Patent Court of Appeal’s decision on 10X Genomics’ application for a preliminary injunction.

Read the article.

Transatlantic Toolkit

Our collection of quick tips and suggestions for patenting across the pond, dedicated to helping US patent attorneys navigate UK and European patents.

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Open box with letters of the alphabet emerging

Unified Patent Court

With expert European Patent Attorneys in every major technical discipline and an in-house litigation team including Patent Attorney Litigators able to represent clients at the UPC, we’re uniquely placed to help our clients to navigate the complexities of the new system which came into effect on 1 June 2023.

Find out more

Artificial Intelligence

The rapid rise in the use of AI tools in businesses is an exciting development but it brings with it uncertainty and risk. Our AI law and regulation team help businesses to manage these risks from both a legal and regulatory perspective.

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Trade Marks

With expertise in protection strategies as well as contentious proceedings, we can support all of the stages of the life span of your trade marks, calling on the support of our legal team when necessary.

Meet the team