Overview

The Supreme Court today handed down its judgment in Eli Lilly v HGS overturning the lower courts' finding that HGS's patent lacked industrial applicability. The case is now likely to return to the Court of Appeal to determine the issues of obviousness and insufficiency.

There may well be gene sequence patents in the future which will fail for lack of industrial capability, but they will be few and far between. This case is the first of the bioinformatics gene sequence patents (which were filed in the 1990s gene sequence gold rush) to be litigated in the UK, and as such it sets a strong precedent.

In this briefing, Wragge & Co's IP specialists outline the case's background and wider implications.

Click 'View Briefing' to read on.