Emily Hayes

handles patent work at Mewburn Ellis in the life sciences field with a focus on the biotechnology and pharmaceutical sectors. Her expertise extends to: protein, nucleic acid and antibody-based therapeutics and diagnostics; genomics and post-genomics research; gene manipulation; microbiology; vaccines; diagnostic and prognostic markers. Her practice focuses on drafting and prosecuting patent applications in these and related fields, as well as handling oppositions and appeals at the EPO. She also has a special interest in US patent law, having spent time on a secondment to a US firm in 2010.

Recent Articles by Emily Hayes

Patentees Need to Act Fast as the EPO Opposition Timeline Tightens

In early 2019, we undertook a comprehensive research project to develop a forensic understanding of European Patent Office (EPO) oppositions, particularly in the life sciences sector, analyzing EPO opposition data in far greater depth than in any publicly available report. We examined more than 5,000 opposition cases filed at the EPO over the last 10 years and studied the timelines for hundreds of life sciences oppositions. The resulting report, entitled EPO Opposition Trends in the Life Sciences Sector, offers a granular understanding of the EPO opposition procedure and its various nuances. Introduced in July 2016, the EPO’s streamlining initiative was designed to simplify opposition proceedings and deliver decisions more quickly, thus providing “early certainty”. The EPO’s target pendency is 15 months by 2020 (opposition pendency here being measured from expiry of the nine-months-from-grant period for filing an opposition to the Opposition Division issuing its decision). Our research revealed that the streamlining initiative is on track to meet its target in the life sciences sector. The mean opposition pendency has been reduced from just over 22 months in 2015 (pre-streamlining) to 17 months in 2018 (post-streamlining).

December 5, 2019

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