Dominic Adair

Practice Areas

In the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sector, Dominic has worked on all aspects of the drug life cycle, from freedom to operate analyses and early-stage risk assessment of generic competition to complex end-stage litigation, SPCs and anti-trust issues. A technical background in the life sciences makes Dominic comfortable handling the most complex disputes in this area. His cases have required him to spend years on the scientific concepts underlying some of the most valuable patents in the world, including deprotection reactions in the synthesis of acyl compounds and the regulation of immune checkpoint inhibitors. But his experience of technology is truly varied, including computer hardware, electronic control systems, petrochemical and mechanical engineering and consumer products, including triple-blade razors, bag-in-bottle beer kegs and reduced-harm cigarette filters.

Dominic has handled cases across the range of tribunals in the UK and the EPO and has coordinated litigation across Europe and the world. This coordination work, for both rights holders and defendants, has been a mainstay of Dominic’s practice for 20 years, enabling to develop the broadest possible outlook on strategy and a comprehensive tactical playbook. A natural team player, he has assisted clients in bringing patent cases all across the world, from the constitutional courts of Mexico to the Supreme Court of India.

Representative UK cases include:

- Celltrion v Biogen, Roche & Genentech – revocation action in the Patents Court in relation to biosimilar rituximab product.

- Gillette v Wilkinson Sword – defence of infringement claim in the Patents Court and counterclaim for revocation of Gillette patent relating to connectors for triple-blade razor cartridges.

- Heineken v Anheuser-Busch Inbev – revocation claim in the Patents Court against ABI patents relating to bag-in-bottle dispensing technology and defence of infringement counterclaim.

- Innovia v Frito-Lay – entitlement dispute and breach of confidence action in the Patents Court including jurisdiction challenge involving the Eastern District of Texas.

- Merck Serono v AbbVie – revocation action in the Patents Court in relation to biosimilar adalimumab product.

- Novartis v Actavis – preliminary injunction proceedings and infringement claim in the Patents Court concerning the scope of the SPC for valsartan (Diovan®) in relation to combination products.

- Scientific Drilling v Gyrodata – revocation claim in the Patents Court against Gyrodata patents for methods of measuring tortuosity in oil well boreholes.

- Secretary of State for Health v Servier – defence of £200m damages claim brought by the UK Government for alleged breaches of competition law, including alleged abuse of dominant position by maintaining a patent for perindopril (Coversyl®) that was later held invalid.

- Tehrani v Hamilton – defence of infringement claim in the IPEC and counterclaim for revocation of Tehrani patent relating to electronic control systems for hospital ventilators.

- Truck-Align v Deans Systems – defence of infringement claim in the Patents Court and counterclaim for revocation of Truck-Align patent relating to manually-operated ramp assemblies.

- Whitaker Corp v FCI – defence of infringement claim in the Patents Court and counterclaim for revocation of Whitaker patent relating to impedance-matched backplane connectors for printed circuit boards.

Representative coordination projects include:

- Assisting a large Swiss pharma company coordinate litigation on the patents involved in several projects, including:

- Its top-selling hypertension drug across 128 countries

- Its combination therapy hypertension product across 77 countries

- Its top-3 product for the treatment of blood diseases across 32 countries

- Assisting a medium-sized Swiss pharma company coordinate litigation on the patents surrounding its top-selling anaemia treatment, a non-biological complex drug, across Europe.

- Assisting a large Korean biosimilar maker coordinate defensive litigation during the launch of two antibody products across Europe.

Dominic writes regularly on reported patent cases in the UK, EPO and UPC and is editor of Bristows’ annual review of patent cases. For several years he co-chaired C5’s Pharma and Biotech Patent Litigation Conference in Amsterdam and remains a regular conference attendee and presenter.

Dominic is a member of CIPA, EPLAW and AIPPI and holds office as the Honorary Secretary and Vice-President of AIPPI UK. He also sits on the Membership Committee of AIPPI at the international level.

Career

MA Natural Sciences, University of Cambridge

PhD Zoology, University of Cambridge

Diploma in Intellectual Property Law and Practice, University of Bristol

Qualified 2004

Partner 2014

Admitted in Republic of Ireland 2024

UPC Representative 2024

Publications

Patent Review of the Year