Medical Devices & Digital Healthcare
Our medical devices and digital healthcare team offers the strong cross-disciplinary skills necessary to support clients in this unique sector.
Medical devices are typically high-technology, high-value, products. Even apparently simple devices such as stents are likely to be formed from high cost, advanced materials that must go through strict regulatory processes before being approved for use. These technical challenges make intellectual property rights essential in supporting the considerable investment necessary to bring these life changing products to patients and healthcare practitioners.
Digital healthcare is transforming the pharmaceutical sector. Artificial intelligence, bioinformatics and digital platforms are already essential to everything from drug discovery to personalised medicines. With an understanding of both the heavily regulated pharmaceutical sector and the fast moving tech sector our team can support healthcare companies in deciding how and why they should protect and utilise their intellectual property.
Our multi-disciplinary team has a wealth of experience in handling the IP challenges of the medical device and digital healthcare sectors. Working at the intersection of different technologies, regulations and patent law, we support multi-nationals to manage and defend their IP portfolio as well as helping smaller companies navigate the IP landscape and protect their innovations.
Medical Devices & Digital Healthcare team
Our clients
Our clients include:
- a UK orthotics manufacturer;
- a developer of vials, pre-filled syringes and auto-injectors;
- a worldwide manufacturer and provider of medical technologies for the health care industry;
- a global leader in surgical equipment for neurosurgery and gynaecology;
- UK based unicorns developing neural network technologies and AI for use in drug discovery and development;
- a US based digital diagnostics company; and
- a UK start-up using AI to identify anomalies in radiograms.
Our experience
We advise on global protection strategies, taking into account the different approaches taken by patent offices around the world. From the patentability of software inventions to inventions relating to the treatment of diseases, the respective national laws can differ considerably. Our team understands these complexities and will adjust their strategy to achieve the maximum protection for clients in the desired territories.
Medical devices and digital healthcare are potentially “game changing” technologies existing at the intersection of a number of scientific disciplines. As a consequence, our patent attorneys engaged in this sector have an understanding of multiple disciplines including biology, chemistry, material science, engineering, software and electronics.
The investment required to produce a successful medical device product means that companies defend their rights vigorously and several high profile patent trials in recent years have involved medical devices. To help identify IP risks at an early stage our team is experienced in preparing focussed freedom to operate searches and providing opinions based on both the legal and commercial threat of third party IP.
In digital healthcare, the critical role of IP is a relatively new phenomenon but our team has been supporting clients in this sector from the beginning. We understand the challenges facing the life science sector as it transitions into digital medicine and combine it with decades of experience supporting some of the world’s largest tech companies with their IP strategies.
