Dr Gregory Bacon > Bristows LLP > London, England > Lawyer Profile

Dr Gregory Bacon

020 7400 8000 gregory.bacon@bristows.com View profile View profile View profile

Work Department

Patent Litigation, Life Sciences Regulatory

Position

Greg is an experienced IP lawyer with a particular focus on patent litigation in the life sciences sector.

Greg’s extensive scientific background gives him a valuable understanding of technical issues that can underlie IP matters, particularly in the life sciences field. He has advised and represented clients on small molecule pharmaceuticals, biologics (originators and biosimilars), medical devices (hardware and software), as well as in the cosmetics, chemicals, technology, shipping and online publishing sectors.

Greg has represented clients in many cases before both the English High Court (including Patents Court) and Court of Appeal. In addition, Greg has extensive experience of strategic multinational litigation in multiple jurisdictions, including at the EPO, through global pharmaceutical product coordination projects for many clients.

He has also spent time on secondment to the IP litigation department of a leading IP law firm in the Netherlands as well as the UK legal department of a global healthcare IT company, working on non-contentious IP/IT, regulatory and commercial matters.

Greg is a regular contributor to the monthly EPO reports which Bristows produce for the CIPA Journal and writes on UK cases for a number of IP blogs. He is also the editor of our On the Pulse life sciences microsite and one of the editors of our Biotech Review publication which explores key issues and developments in the biotech space, and co-authored the UK chapter of the AIPLA’s International Patent Litigation guide.

Example cases:

• Novartis v Focus, Actavis & Teva – Patents Court and Court of Appeal patent litigation concerning transdermal dosage regime patent for rivastigmine (Exelon®), including global coordination of parallel litigation and EPO opposition
• Parainen Pearl Shipping v Kristian Gerhard Jebsen Skipsrederi – case on exhaustion of patent rights in a pneumatic cement discharge system for a ship, including a pan-European jurisdiction challenge
• Orion v SS for Health and Social Care & Ever Neuro – judicial review challenge to decision of MHRA to grant generic marketing authorisation for dexmedetomidine hydrochloride, involving question of whether pre-accession Czech MA was compatible with Directive 2001/83/EC and thus the first MA for the purposes of calculating the term of data exclusivity.
• Celltrion v Biogen, Roche & Genentech – clearing the way revocation action in the Patents Court in relation to biosimilar rituximab product (MabThera®)
• Merck Serono v AbbVie – clearing the way revocation action in the Patents Court in relation to biosimilar adalimumab product (Humira®)
• ConvaTec v Smith & Nephew – long-running case in the Patents Court and Court of Appeal concerning patents and claims to misuse of confidential information in relation to gel-forming wound dressings (Durafiber®), and subsequent damages claim under a cross-undertaking
• Allergan v Ipsen – patent litigation in the Patents Court on second medical use patents to botulinum toxin (Dysport®)
• Servier v National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) – successful judicial review of NICE decision not to recommend a client’s osteoporosis treatment (Protelos®).

Career

Ex-scientist (neuroscience); trained at Bristows; qualified in 2007; partner since 2017

Languages

French, Italian, Greek

Education

University of Cambridge – BA Natural Sciences (Neuroscience); University of Oxford – DPhil (Neuroscience); University of Oxford – Diploma in Intellectual Property Law and Practice.

Leisure

Opera, Europe