Biography • Life Sciences - IP

Gerry is a partner in the intellectual property group in Bird & Bird's London office and specialises in contentious IP, regulatory, commercial and competition matters for innovative life sciences companies.

Gerry's expertise includes working for innovative pharmaceutical and biotechnology clients and, in particular, advising them on commercial, IP and regulatory issues and representing them in patent disputes. His clients range from listed pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to start-up companies and founders.

He has authored numerous articles and presentations on IP matters affecting the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry. He is also co-author of Patents on Biotechnological Inventions: The EC Directive (Sweet & Maxwell, 2002) and of Competition Law and Intellectual Property Strategy in the Pharmaceuticals Sector (Pharmaventures/Bird & Bird, 2008) and a contributor to a chapter on biotechnological inventions in Concise European Patent Law (Kluwer 2008).

He is an elected member of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry IP Committee (2002-2005 and 2009 to present) and a member of the BioIndustry Association Intellectual Property Advisory Committee (1990 to present), the UK Intellectual Property Office European Patent Focus Group (2008 to present) and a Clinical Trials Research Ethics Committee (2009 to present).

Gerry has over 27 years of experience of litigation in the English courts; he has been involved in some of the major patent litigation cases to go to court, covering for the most part pharmaceutical and biotechnology patents as well as patents for medical devices and mobile telephony technology. He has also been engaged in contentious competition law matters.

Gerry's non-contentious work includes drafting and advising upon all types of agreements, covering the use of and transfer of intellectual property and technology, carrying out intellectual property due diligence in connection with transactions and giving pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical device and clinical trials regulatory advice.

His BA in psychology and physiology from Oxford University and his PhD in physiology from Leicester University aid Gerry's insight into the life sciences sector.