Marks & Clerk

Intellectual property

Mike is an IP lawyer who advises clients in a wide variety of business sectors on issues including litigation and dispute resolution, IP strategy and risk limitation, due diligence projects and commercial and licensing transactions involving IP. His primary focus and expertise, however, lies in life sciences patent litigation where he is considered to be one of the UK’s leading practitioners.

He has represented some of the world’s leading biopharmaceutical corporations in complex patent and technical disputes including Genentech, Roche, AstraZeneca, MedImmune, Daiichi Sankyo, Pfizer, AbbVie and Chugai to name but a few. He regularly advises those clients on SPC and paediatric extension matters, a field in which he is considered to be a particular expert. He has been responsible for some of the most important life sciences patent cases with a special focus on biotech and antibody and large molecule cases.  He regularly advises on data and marketing exclusivity matters and orphan drug designations.

Within patent litigation, Mike has acted for and advised clients in actions in the Patents Court of the High Court, the Court of Appeal and on several petitions to the Supreme Court. He has also acted for SME client in their disputes in IPEC. Mike has significant experience of acting for clients involved in multi-jurisdictional technical disputes working as part of and coordinating integrated teams of IP specialists spanning many countries. He is actively involved in defending patent, SPC and data and marketing exclusivity rights around Europe for his clients.

Mike is well known for his strategic and creative vision and is consistently recommended in the IAM Patent 1000 guide, which describes him as “always at the top of the pile, especially for pharmaceutical matters”: “personable, approachable and user-friendly, he is a tenacious litigator able to take an objective view of a case at all times.” He is listed as a ‘patent leader’ by World IP Review and as an ‘IP Star' by Managing Intellectual Property. Mike is also listed by Legal 500, and recognised as an expert by Who’s Who Legal, which describe him as an “outstanding patent litigator” and say that his “glittering biotechnology practice wins him a position in the gold tier”. He is also recognised as the number one European thought leader by Who’s Who Life Sciences 2018, who describe Mike as follows:- “the “outstanding” Mike Gilbert ranks among the very elite of practitioners in our research, and is widely considered the “go-to practitioner for SPC matters in the life sciences sector".

Example Cases

Aontec v Smartrac

Affymetrix v Illumina

Tercica v Insmed

MSD v Wyeth

MSD v Pfizer

GSK v Wyeth

Regeneron and Teva v Rinat

MedImmune v Celltech

MedImmune v Novartis

Genentech v Hospira

Lilly v Genentech

Regenernon and Bayer v Genentech

Takeda v Roche

UCB v Chugai

Astex v AstraZeneca

Whitserve v CPA

Jeyes v Henkel

Daiichi Sankyo v KRKA and TAD Pharma

Novamedix v Fox & Gardner

Mike became a partner of the firm in 2001.

Français (French)EnglishNederlands (Dutch)

Diploma in Intellectual Property Law, Bristol University (1995)

Qualified as a Solicitor in England & Wales (1993)

Diploma in Law, Cambridge University (1990)

BA (Hons) Natural Sciences, Cambridge University (1989)

Mike's interests include skiing, windsurfing, music and his family.