Litigation
Pragmatic, commercial solutions
Determined, tenacious, observant and committed; our Dispute Resolution team has years of experience. The Disputes team includes litigation lawyers and patent and trade mark attorney litigators and prosecutors. It offers clients a fully integrated approach that is unique within the UK intellectual property services market. Efficiency, with a holistic, high-quality approach to dispute management and resolution is the objective.
Representing clients at all levels of the EPO, we are also expert in conducting enforcement and revocation litigation before the UK courts and IP offices, the Court of Justice of the European Union, and in matters that cross European borders and have international components.
“A Rolls-Royce firm with incredibly knowledgeable people and UPC litigation experience.”
Chambers UK, 2025
Our Disputes team works closely with all of our technical specialists so that disputes are spotted early and, if possible, avoided by way of pragmatic, commercial solutions. Where that is not possible or desirable, cases are prepared early and efficiently. If litigation becomes a reality, the Carpmaels & Ransford team will be fully informed and ahead of the opposition.
This combination of technical and strategic expertise makes us a team that you want on your side. We will be knowledgeable about your case and your business. We will be prepared. We will work as a team. Whatever the task, whether it is to litigate or to achieve a commercial result, we will succeed.
Our Dispute Resolution team has long established relationships with the best IP firms and advisors in Europe and the rest of the world and the cross-border nature of our clients’ projects mean that we regularly team with such firms.
“The Carpmaels team has strong industry knowledge and does a great job integrating litigators with the patent attorney team.”
The Legal 500, 2025
The four pillars of our Dispute Resolution team’s work are:
UK Litigation
Our team is expert in enforcement and revocation litigation before the UK courts and UKIP offices. We have handled cases before the Supreme Court, Court of Appeal, High Court, Patents Court and the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court (IPEC). Over the past 5 years, the team has been involved in over 40 UK litigations covering a range of technical subject matter, but we have particular experience in the healthcare sector, where we represent some of the world’s leading life sciences and MedTech innovators.
EPO Oppositions
Alongside our UK and co-ordination work, our disputes team works closely with Carpmaels & Ransford attorneys on oppositions at the European Patent Office. Our EPO opposition practice is one of the very best in Europe and covers all fields of technology, from blockbuster pharmaceuticals to memory devices, polymers to digital broadcast systems, detergents to medical devices. Our integrated team of patent attorneys and litigators work collaborative to ensure efficiency and continuity for our clients.
For more information about our EPO oppositions work, please see here.
European & Global Co-ordination
Very few of our clients’ projects involve a single jurisdiction; they are much more likely to cross European and international borders. Our integrated team of litigators and patent attorneys control, co-ordinate and manage IP projects active in multiple countries and tribunals: we team with local counsel in the preparation of strategies, arguments and evidence for court and IP office proceedings. Our integrated offering means we can use the same team to coordinate national actions across Europe, while also handling parallel disputes in the EPO, UPC and UK courts.
Unified Patent Court
We are one of the few firms that can use an integrated team to handle parallel disputes in the EPO and the UPC. We are currently representing clients in multiple cases before this recently opened court. Although a new court, the UPC is an amalgamation of the laws and procedural practices of the main European patent litigating countries, most notably those of the UK (whose lawyers contributed to the development of the court and its rules), Germany, and France. While its legal judges come from many backgrounds, the UPC Technical Judges are typically European patent attorneys who approach patentability with a strong EPO flavour. This means that our European patent attorneys have been able to leverage their extensive EPO oral and written advocacy experience at the UPC. English has become the dominant language of proceedings for the UPC, and so our teams have been able to present seamlessly in a wide range of UPC settings. Indeed, our teams have led at hearings before the Munich and Düsseldorf Local Divisions, Central Division and Court of Appeal. The firm has more than 90 qualified UPC representatives, and 20 litigators with experience of national and UPC litigation. We are a collaborative firm, and we regularly work together with other advisors to provide clients with the best service for UPC matters.
For more information about our UPC offering, please see here.
