Richard Newell

Richard is a partner in the Life Sciences team at Carpmaels & Ransford, specialising in pharmaceutical patent strategy across the full product lifecycle. He advises on inventions relating to new chemical entities, medical uses, dosage regimens, formulations, combinations, polymorphs and other commercially important aspects of pharmaceutical products.

Richard splits his time between his prosecution practice (including EPO opposition and appeal), and supporting patent litigation. His contentious and diligence work informs the prosecution strategies he develops, helping clients build the right IP portfolio.

Richard has worked with the litigation team at Carpmaels & Ransford since its founding, including as a core member of the patent attorney team supporting FibroGen v Akebia across coordinated EPO, JPO, UK High Court and UK Court of Appeal proceedings (the UK case won MIP UK Impact Case of the Year, 2022). He supported litigation in the UKIPO, in Japan and in several European countries and continues to support pan-European litigation projects, including for Elvanse® (MIP Europe Cross-Border Patent Litigation Team of the Year, 2026) and Entresto®.

Richard is a confident and reliable advocate, having acted as lead or co-lead advocate in a large number of high-value EPO opposition and appeal hearings, including cases defending patents on Evrenzo®/roxadustat, Invokana® and Vokanamet®/canagliflozin, Alunbrig®/brigatinib, Bendeka®/bendamustine and Gocovri®/amantadine. Upon client request, Richard has also used his advocacy skills outside the EPO, appearing in Switzerland at the Federal Patent Court on several occasions and in national patent office hearings in Europe.

Outside of Europe, Richard handles global portfolios of patent applications covering pharmaceutical products, working with attorneys worldwide to coordinate and deploy central prosecution strategies.

He serves clients big and small, ranging from university spin-outs and start-ups to growing biotech companies and major multinational pharmaceutical companies, applying the perspective gained from contentious work to drafting, prosecution, opinion work, FTO analysis, due diligence and SPC strategy.

Richard is passionate about knowledge-sharing and regularly trains and supervises attorneys at all levels. He has given junior tutorials, legal webinars for clients and conference presentations, and has acted as a guest lecturer for CEIPI in Strasbourg on plausibility. Richard often speaks on sufficiency, plausibility and clinical trial-related inventions, and is a member of the European Patent Practice Committee at the epi (Institute of Professional Representatives before the EPO).

Before joining Carpmaels, Richard studied chemistry at the University of Oxford, completing a three-year undergraduate course and a one-year research master’ in organic chemistry. His final-year research was published for helping to establish the benzhydryl ether as a protecting group in carbohydrate chemistry.

Outside of work, Richard enjoys the short trip from Munich to the Alps for hiking with his young family and skiing in winter or, if confined to the indoors, playing music or chess.