Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Moderna v Pfizer/BioNTech: England and Wales Court of Appeal rejects obviousness attack; EP(UK) 3,590,949 mRNA patent upheld

Published on: 08 August 2025

Published by a Law360 reporter

Legal News

Article summary

Justice Richard Arnold concluded that, at the material time, specialists would not have regarded it obvious to modify mRNA in the manner described in Moderna’s patent claims. He rejected arguments that the Moderna patent conferred protection on nothing beyond what was already common knowledge. Considering the issues as a whole, he stated that Pfizer/BioNTech’s obviousness attack fails—and it is not a close call—in a unanimous ruling. The dispute dates to 2022, when Moderna issued patent infringement proceedings against Pfizer and BioNTech in the US and Germany, alleging that the rivals infringed two patents safeguarding its mRNA technology. Pfizer subsequently challenged the validity of the corresponding UK patents in the High Court. That court ultimately set aside one of the patents while leaving the other intact, with Arnold J explicitly recording these findings in the written judgment...

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