Paul Kaufman

Partner

Paul is a Partner in the Life Sciences team, specialising in small molecule pharmaceuticals. He coordinates filing and prosecution strategies for patent applications at all stages of the product lifecycle and has extensive experience representing clients in multi-party EPO opposition and appeal proceedings. Paul was shortlisted for MIP’s Rising Star of the Year award in 2024.

A significant area of Paul’s practice is in Supplementary Protection Certificates (SPCs) and other patent term extensions. He is experienced in planning and implementing complex pan-European SPC filing strategies and coordinating worldwide patent term extension portfolios. Given Paul’s expertise in this area, he often works in concert with the Dispute Resolution team at Carpmaels to defend SPCs for some of the world’s largest selling drugs from generic challenge in UK and European tribunals.

Before joining the firm in 2012 as a trainee patent attorney, Paul graduated from Merton College, University of Oxford with a degree in chemistry. During his training, Paul obtained the Certificate in IP Law from Queen Mary University of London, receiving the Bill Caro Prize for achieving the top mark in the final exams.

Qualifications

  • MChem (University of Oxford)
  • Chartered Patent Attorney
  • European Patent Attorney
  • UPC Representative (European Patent Litigator)

Key Cases

  • Patent and SPC counsel for Gilead for their HIV (e.g. Biktarvy®, Genvoya®, Stribild®) and HBV (e.g. Vemlidy®) portfolios – patent defence in multi-party EPO opposition and appeal proceedings (T2200/17, T1214/18, T2716/19, T1442/19, T355/23; new chemical entities, salt forms, combinations, dosing regimens, processes, etc.); pan-EU SPC coordination and strategy, including advice relating to the CJEU referral in C‑121/17 (Truvada®).
  • Patent and SPC counsel for Novartis for one of their biggest-selling products Entresto® (T345/17, T741/23, T1098/22; medical uses, clinical trial inventions, co-crystals).
  • Patent counsel for Astrazeneca for Lokelma® – patent defence during EPO opposition appeal proceedings (T1053/21; formulation)
  • Patent and SPC counsel for Fibrogen for Evrenzo® (T104/22, T72/23; crystal forms, formulations).