Spotlight on

BioProcessing & Industrial BioTech

Making bioproducts is far from easy, often requiring an in-depth understanding of cellular culture dynamics, cell biology & metabolism, fluid dynamics, process engineering, bioreactor design, biochemical and dynamic aspects of purification processes, process control, and data driven modelling. This work is absolutely crucial, without bioprocessing there is no product!  Conversely, improvements in any aspect of bioprocessing can have enormous value as even small productivity or quality improvements to such high value products are impactful, and improvements can often apply to multiple products.  

Our advanced bioprocessing team has extensive experience obtaining and defending IP in this complex field, both in relation to upstream and downstream processes innovation. We have a multidisciplinary team that mirrors the complexity and diversity of technical expertise of our clients working in this field, including experts in cell biology and biochemistry and their specific implications to bioprocessing, traditional bioprocessing including running and optimising fermentation processes, data & AI driven analysis of bioprocesses including for monitoring, prediction and optimisation of bioprocesses, dynamical modelling of bioprocesses, process engineering, and bioreactor design. 

We work together across different technical fields to make sure that all aspects are properly considered, so that the value of your IP is maximised. We understand intimately the complex technical, practical and commercial realities of working in this high value, highly regulated industry. We have successfully defended high value patent portfolios in this field, as well as helped our clients navigate freedom to operate. We are experts in drafting for success in all aspects of upstream and downstream processes. 

Read our Blogs

UPC Weekly - The 9 second rule at the UPC

UPC Weekly - The 9 second rule at the UPC

by Matthew Naylor

2024 Week 50 Does it matter who gets to the doors of the UPC first? Does it matter if you get there too early? The UPC Central Division Milan has been exploring these basic questions in Pfizer v ...

UPC Weekly - Very appealing – preliminary injunction overturned

UPC Weekly - Very appealing – preliminary injunction overturned

by Matthew Naylor

2024 Week 49 SharkNinja have managed to persuade the UPC Court of Appeal to overturn a preliminary injunction awarded to Dyson. We investigate what made the difference in the appeal and consider what ...

UPC Weekly - Front-loading and obviousness at the UPC

UPC Weekly - Front-loading and obviousness at the UPC

by Matthew Naylor

2024 Week 48 In NJOY v VMR, the UPC Central Division Paris revoked VMR’s patent EP 3456214 B2 on 27 November 2024. The patent was held to be obvious, despite being maintained in amended form by the ...

UPC Weekly - UPC finds infringement using a doctrine of equivalents

UPC Weekly - UPC finds infringement using a doctrine of equivalents

by Matthew Naylor

2024 Week 47 Back in June 2024 (UPC Weekly 2024 week 23), we set out a few “known unknowns” – important developments in UPC case law that we expected to come in due course. New UPC decision Plant-e v ...

Resistance is futile – how new tech tackles AMR

Resistance is futile – how new tech tackles AMR

by Emily Lythell

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) refers to the ability of microorganisms—bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites—to evolve and resist the effects of drugs that once effectively killed or inhibited ...

UPC Weekly - UPC dials up the advantages for patentees

UPC Weekly - UPC dials up the advantages for patentees

by Matthew Naylor

2024 Week 46 We report this week on two new UPC decisions that make the UPC an even more attractive choice for patent holders seeking to enforce their European patents. The headlines are that: (i) ...

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Bioprocessing & Industrial Biotechnology - Protecting Innovation

With the development of increasingly advanced therapeutics and other products - from vaccines and cell therapies to food products and biofuels - bioprocessing and industrial biotechnology are becoming more important than ever.

Developing and scaling up biotechnological processes can be technically challenging and require significant investment in research and development.

Patent protection enables to secure these advancements and creates a competitive advantage for the innovators in this field.  It  is no surprise that patents covering platform technologies in biotech manufacturing are highly valuable and often challenged  by third parties.

Our team has significant  experience in drafting and defending bioprocessing patents.  We have successfully defended patents protecting antibody manufacturing and processing methods, including in multi-opponent EPO opposition proceedings.

We understand the challenges associated with developing bioprocessing and manufacturing methods.  Inventions in this field often lie on great technical stories that involve creative solutions to technical problems that only arise, or become particularly acute during large scale industrial processes.  For example, the recognition of a previously unnoticed problem during early-stage development, such as the discovery that certain cell culture components are the cause for problematic visual characteristics in the bioproduct, or that surprising loss of intact antibody yield during scaled-up manufacture is due to specific redox reactions in the cell culture fluid following fermentation, or that purification methods successfully used at laboratory scale introduce undesirable impurities into product that needs to be overcome when purification is scaled-up.  The research leading to the recognition of these problems and the steps taken to solve them in an imaginative way may form the basis of a strong inventive story which is worthy of patent protection, but one where an understanding of bioprocessing is needed to properly draft the strong patent applications.

Forward Magazines Overlapping 8

Mewburn Ellis

FORWARD MAGAZINE

Mewburn Ellis Forward is a biannual publication that celebrates the best of innovation and exploration. Through its pages we hope to inform and entertain, but also to encourage discussion about the most compelling developments taking place in the scientific and entrepreneurial world. Along the way, we’ll engage with the IP challenges that international organisations face every day.