JUVE Comment

Among all of London’s patent-specialist barristers, none have appeared in such a variety of cases over the course of 2024 than 11 South Square’s KCs and juniors. While historically visible in telecommunications and electronics cases, 2024 saw the set’s barristers highly present in life sciences disputes at the High Court, such as for various generics companies in Bayer’s Xarelto case, but also for BioNTech, CureVac and Moderna over mRNA patents. In such cases, 11 South Square barristers often appear on both the claimant and the defendant side.

Recommended individuals

Piers Acland (“simply the best silk for life sciences cases, there’s nothing he doesn’t understand and he is a genuine pleasure to work with”, competitor), Tom Alkin, Edward Cronan, Anna Edwards-Stuart (“an absoulte dream to work with, very savvy and commercially focused”, “great to work with, one of the best for interim hearings”, competitors), Adam Gamsa (“a very good junior barrister”, competitor), Christopher Hall (“simply a phenomenal barrister”, competitor), Kyra Nezami (“absolutely fantastic in tech disputes, one of the best junior barristers”, competitor), Brian Nicholson (“rare to find a barrister with such in-depth knowledge of tech and electrical patents”, “one of the absolute best KC’s you can ask for on technology-focused patent litigation”, competitors), Kathryn Pickard (“gets into the details but also a very practical approach”, “super to have a young barrister like her amongst the KCs”, competitors), Iain Purvis (“a leader of the IP Bar at the height of his powers”, “outstanding technological understanding in all areas and a high degree of precision”, competitors)

Team

9 KCs, 12 juniors

Clients

Court of Appeal: Lenovo (Kathryn Pickard) against Ericsson over SEP portfolio licence; Avanci (Brian Nicholson, Miruna Bercariu) against Tesla over FRAND rate for a pool licence; Supponor (Brian Nicholson, David Ivison) against AIM Sport over advertising billboards; Optis (Adam Gamsa) against Apple over telecommunications; Lufthansa (Iain Purvis) against Astronics, Safran and Panasonic (joint respondents; Hugo Cuddigan, Mitchell Beebe, Christopher Hall) over damages in dispute regarding aircraft seats. High Court: Lenovo (Kathryn Pickard) against Ericsson over SEP portfolio licence; Avanci (Brian Nicholson, Kathryn Pickard) against Tesla over FRAND rate for a pool licence; Panasonic (Edward Cronan) against Xiaomi and Oppo over SEP portfolio licence; R2 Semiconductor (Brian Nicholson, Adam Gamsa) against Intel (Anna Edwards-Stuart) over computer power supplies; AIM Sport (Piers Acland, Edward Cronan) against Supponor (Brian Nicholson, David Ivison) over sports advertising billboards; Astronics, Safran, Panasonic (Piers Acland) against Lufthansa (Hugo Cuddigan) over liability in case regarding plug sockets for airline seats; Sandoz, Teva and various other generics companies (Adam Gamsa) against Bayer over anticoagulant Xarelto; Celltrion (Iain Purvis, Adam Gamsa) against Novartis and Genentech over asthma drug Xolair; Sandoz and Accord (Anna Edwards-Stuart) against Astellas over prostate cancer drug Xtandi; BioNTech (Tom Alkin) against CureVac (Piers Acland, Adam Gamsa) over mRNA patents; Moderna (Piers Acland) against Pfizer over mRNA patents; Janssen (Kathryn Pickard) against Samsung Bioepis over ulcerative colitis drug Stelara; Dexcom (Iain Purvis, David Ivison, Christopher Hall, Benet Brandreth) against Abbott over glucose-monitoring devices (settled in 2025).