Jones Day's first victory destroys botox patent

The London IP practice of Jones Day has won its first big patent case in the High Court since its relaunch in April last year.

Partner Alastair McCulloch and his team managed to get the botox patent belonging to Allergan revoked for their client Merz Pharma.

“Frankly, the judgment systematically destroys the botox patent,” commented a patents specialist, who did not work on the case.

McCulloch and senior associate Neil Coulsen, who also worked on the case, joined Jones Day from Bristows last April to relaunch Jones Day’s IP team as a hard IP practice following the departure of former head of IP Charters Macdonald-Brown and partner Simon Chalkley, who launched an independent boutique named Redd.

Jones Day instructed Anthony Watson of 3 New Square and Andrew Lykiardopoulos of 8 New Square, who also used to practise at Bristows.

Bird & Bird’s head of IP Morag MacDonald instructed Simon Thorley of 3 New Square and Piers Acland of 11 South Square for Allergan.

The judgment, one of Mr Justice Kitchin’s first, is a blow to Allergan, which owns a patent portfolio for botox, which is under attack in a number of jurisdictions.

The patent was revoked due to added matter, lack of novelty and obviousness.

McCulloch declined to comment. MacDonald was unavailable for comment.