Aled Richards-Jones

Aled is an experienced IP litigator with a strong focus on life sciences patent and SPC litigation. 

Aled has acted in several high-profile patent cases in the High Court and Court of Appeal involving pharmaceuticals, biotechnology and medical devices, including in what is now the leading Court of Appeal case on the UK law of insufficiency. Aled has extensive experience managing parallel patent litigation across Europe, the US and further afield, involving both small molecules and biologics and interrelated issues of IP and regulatory law. He was part of the litigation team which litigated the first series of SPC manufacturing waiver cases across several EU member courts. 

Legal 500 (Life Sciences & Healthcare), 2025  noted that ‘Aled Richards-Jones is a rising star who has excellent strategic judgment.’

Aled’s expertise also extends across the wider spectrum of IP law, having acted in several copyright, trade mark and trade secrets cases before the High Court, Court of Appeal, the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court and the UKIPO. He especially enjoys disputes which involve more than one IP right and creative strategies to achieve a client’s commercial objective. 

Areas of Expertise

• UK Patent Litigation
• Pan-European Patent litigation
• Settlement Agreements
• Supplementary Protection Certificates
• SPC Manufacturing Waivers
• Freedom to Operate Advice
• Copyright Litigation
• Trade Mark Litigation
• Trade Secrets Litigation 
  

Key cases

• Samsung Bioepis v Janssen Biotech (High Court patents trial, Stelara/Ustekinumab)
• Revolution Beauty v Evases Europe an or (High Court patent revocation and DNI action, metal packaging/make-up palettes)
• Alcon Eyecare v AMO Development (High Court patents trial, laser-assisted cataract removal systems)
• FibroGen v Akebia Therapeutics (High Court trial and appeal of 7 patents concerning use of an enzyme inhibitor to treat anaemia)
• Cantel Medical v Arc Medical Design (High Court patent, registered design and unregistered design rights trial, medical device for assisting colonoscopies)
• Align Technology v ClearCorrect Holdings (High Court patent infringement claim concerning ‘Invisalign’ dental correction technology)
• Pasternak v Prescott (High Court copyright trial, historical fiction)
• Aesthetic Services & Development v Allergan (High Court trade mark infringement dispute)
• Holland & Barrett v GNIC (High Court and Court of Appeal licensing dispute concerning “GNC” trade marks)
• Jake Fior an or v Walt Disney Company (IPEC trade mark dispute about “Alice Through the Looking Glass”)

Background

Aled is qualified as a barrister in England & Wales and Ireland, and is a UPC Representative. 

Aled graduated from St John’s College, University of Oxford, with a first class degree in chemistry. His final year thesis used specialist electrochemical techniques to study the feasibility of using hydrogenase and oxidase enzymes as catalysts for a biological fuel cell. This work was presented at the 2011 SuperGen Bioenergy Conference as the sole undergraduate presentation. He then studied law at City University of London as a Lord Bowen, Lord Denning and Hardwicke Scholar of Lincoln’s Inn, and obtained an LLM with distinction from the University of Pennsylvania Law School as a Thouron Scholar. He was graded “Outstanding” on the Bar Professional Training Course and obtained a Distinction in the Oxford University Postgraduate Diploma in IP Law and Practice.

Prior to joining Mewburn Ellis in December 2025, Aled qualified at a leading specialist IP barristers’ chambers, and spent nine years at a leading London IP firm.