JUVE Patent

Dr Penny Gilbert is a Partner, and founder, of Powell Gilbert.

Penny is a UK solicitor advocate, an Irish solicitor and a UPC representative. She has a technical background, with an MA in Biochemistry and a DPhil in Molecular Biology from the University of Oxford. She specialises in patent litigation, particularly in the life sciences, and also represents clients in patent licence disputes before the UK courts and in arbitration. She is a qualified mediator.

Penny is well-known as a leading patent litigator in pharma and biotech matters, having acted in many of the most complex cases in the UK courts including in Regeneron v Kymab (Supreme Court – sufficiency); HGS v Eli Lily (Supreme Court – industrial application); Biogen v Abbvie (Humira – Arrow declarations), Moderna/ CureVac v BioNTech (mRNA vaccine technologies), Otsuka v GW Pharma (jurisdiction), Glenmark v AstraZeneca (plausibility/ preliminary injunctions). She has acted in referrals to the CJEU and EFTA court on interpretation of the SPC regulation, including C-493/12 Eli Lilly v Human Genome Sciences, E-16/14 Pharmaq v Intervet; C 650/17 Royalty Pharma.

Penny has a wealth of experience in devising European litigation strategies and co-ordinating multi-jurisdictional patent litigation, including representing clients before the Unified Patents Court (UPC), where she currently represents clients in a number of cases involving biotechnology patents. She has also represented clients in European Patent Office opposition and appeal proceedings

As a former President of EPLAW (the European Patent Lawyers’ Association), and a current member of its advisory board, she has been involved with its aims of harmonising European Patent law, including involvement in the training of judges for the UPC. She is a frequent lecturer on aspects of IP law affecting the life sciences sector and has been a tutor on the Oxford University Diploma in Intellectual Property Law and Practice course, teaching patent litigation.