Milly Wickson
Solicitor
Milly is an associate in the Patent Litigation team at Bristows. She advises on a wide range of issues across the life sciences and technology sectors, but has a particular interest in pharmaceuticals. Recent experience includes UK litigation in the small molecule and biologics spaces, supporting oppositions at the European Patent Office and giving freedom to operate advice on medical and consumer devices.
Milly has also assisted with multi-jurisdiction coordination projects and gained commercial experience working at a leading pharmaceuticals company.
Practice Area
Panel
- Contributing Author
Qualified Year
- 2021
Qualification
- Training Contract (2021)
Education
- University of York: History BA (2015)
- BPP University: GDL and LPC (2017 and 2019)
- Oxford University: Post-Graduate Diploma in Intellectual Property Law (2022)
2 Contributions by Milly Wickson
PRACTICE NOTES
Second Medical Use Patents: Novelty, claim formats (EPC 2000 and Swiss-type), UK enforcement, SPCs and skinny labelling
Background to medical use claims
Second (and later) medical use patent claims (called ‘second medical use claims’ below) are unique to the pharmaceutical/biotechnology sectors and serve to delineate an invention’s ambit by specifying a medical use. For a primer on these and other categories of patent claim, see Practice Note: Major types of patent claims. There are two distinct forms of second medical use claim, outlined in greater detail below. Making the medical use an explicit feature of a claim affects both its patentability and the breadth of protection. To place second medical use claims in context, it should be recognised that they originated under the earlier 1973 version of the European Patent Convention (EPC 1973), which has since been superseded by the EPC 2000. The earliest second medical use claims allowed by the European Patent Office (EPO) from the mid-1980s to 2010 adopted the wording ‘the use of a product [X] in the manufacture of a medicament for a therapeutic use [Y]’, and are known as ‘Swiss-type’ claims. Consequently, they were process claims devised to circumvent two fundamental issues concerning patentability...
Life Sciences
PRACTICE NOTES
UK patent research exemptions: experimental use and Bolar-type, plus the SPC manufacturing waiver - post-Brexit position and practical points
Practice Note
Patent regimes are designed to encourage innovation rather than obstruct it. Consequently, the patent laws of numerous jurisdictions provide carve-outs from infringement for experimental use of patented inventions.
This Practice Note reviews the two principal UK research exemptions to patent infringement, namely:
the general experimental use exemption
the specific Bolar-type exemption
It considers how these provisions have evolved in recent years and how they may develop in the coming period. The Note also addresses the supplementary protection certificate (SPC) manufacturing waiver, which creates an exception to infringement of SPCs (SPCs extend patent protection for certain medicinal products).
Following Brexit, EU-derived legislation has been preserved and converted into UK domestic law with effect from IP completion day (11 pm on 31 December 2020). Relevant Assimilated EU law and Brexit SIs are considered in the sections on the Bolar-type exemption and the SPC manufacturing waiver. ‘Assimilated law’ is the term used for retained EU law (REUL) that remains in force after the end of 2023...
Life Sciences
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