Spotlight on

BioProcessing & Industrial BioTech

Making bioproducts is far from easy, often requiring an in-depth understanding of cellular culture dynamics, cell biology & metabolism, fluid dynamics, process engineering, bioreactor design, biochemical and dynamic aspects of purification processes, process control, and data driven modelling. This work is absolutely crucial, without bioprocessing there is no product!  Conversely, improvements in any aspect of bioprocessing can have enormous value as even small productivity or quality improvements to such high value products are impactful, and improvements can often apply to multiple products.  

Our advanced bioprocessing team has extensive experience obtaining and defending IP in this complex field, both in relation to upstream and downstream processes innovation. We have a multidisciplinary team that mirrors the complexity and diversity of technical expertise of our clients working in this field, including experts in cell biology and biochemistry and their specific implications to bioprocessing, traditional bioprocessing including running and optimising fermentation processes, data & AI driven analysis of bioprocesses including for monitoring, prediction and optimisation of bioprocesses, dynamical modelling of bioprocesses, process engineering, and bioreactor design. 

We work together across different technical fields to make sure that all aspects are properly considered, so that the value of your IP is maximised. We understand intimately the complex technical, practical and commercial realities of working in this high value, highly regulated industry. We have successfully defended high value patent portfolios in this field, as well as helped our clients navigate freedom to operate. We are experts in drafting for success in all aspects of upstream and downstream processes. 

Read our Blogs

UPC Weekly - Three darts all miss – PI based on three patents refused due to validity concerns and insufficient proof of infringement

UPC Weekly - Three darts all miss – PI based on three patents refused due to validity concerns and insufficient proof of infringement

by Eliot Ward

2026 Week 5 For good or bad, it is now clear that inter partes preliminary injunction (PI) proceedings at the UPC end up being mini-trials of the substantive issues. In Guardant Health v. Sophia ...

Round up of recent EPO Board of Appeal decisions relating to antibodies

Round up of recent EPO Board of Appeal decisions relating to antibodies

by Joanna Cripps

We have carried out our annual review of EPO Board of Appeal decisions published up to the end of 2025 where the claimed subject matter relates to antibodies. We have selected those decisions that ...

Most opposed patents of 2025

Most opposed patents of 2025

by Katherine Green

Writing this year’s overview prompted déjà vu and a quick check of 2024’s most opposed patents confirmed that the same innovators feature at the top of the list: patents in the name of Novartis (for ...

UPC Weekly -  Limits on jurisdiction outside the UPC when invalidity looms

UPC Weekly -  Limits on jurisdiction outside the UPC when invalidity looms

by Matthew Naylor

2026 Week 4 The extent of the jurisdiction asserted by the UPC is a hot topic at the moment. On 22 January 2026, the UPC Court of Appeal (CoA) held the oral hearing in the appeal against the ...

UPC Weekly -  Purpose-based interpretation avoids infringement of medical device claim but defendant still on the hook for costs

UPC Weekly -  Purpose-based interpretation avoids infringement of medical device claim but defendant still on the hook for costs

by Matthew Naylor

2026 Week 3 Being sued for patent infringement at the UPC is a full-on experience. The front-loading of the procedure and the urgent time limits mean that far-reaching strategic decisions need to be ...

Front loading and pointers to the solution – the view from the UPC Court of Appeal

Front loading and pointers to the solution – the view from the UPC Court of Appeal

by Matthew Naylor

2026 Week 2 After the Edwards and Amgen decisions in late November 2025, we now have a further UPC Court of Appeal (CoA) decision, reviewing the outcome of first instance revocation proceedings at ...

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Bioprocessing & Industrial Biotechnology - Protecting Innovation

With the development of increasingly advanced therapeutics and other products - from vaccines and cell therapies to food products and biofuels - bioprocessing and industrial biotechnology are becoming more important than ever.

Developing and scaling up biotechnological processes can be technically challenging and require significant investment in research and development.

Patent protection enables to secure these advancements and creates a competitive advantage for the innovators in this field.  It  is no surprise that patents covering platform technologies in biotech manufacturing are highly valuable and often challenged  by third parties.

Our team has significant  experience in drafting and defending bioprocessing patents.  We have successfully defended patents protecting antibody manufacturing and processing methods, including in multi-opponent EPO opposition proceedings.

We understand the challenges associated with developing bioprocessing and manufacturing methods.  Inventions in this field often lie on great technical stories that involve creative solutions to technical problems that only arise, or become particularly acute during large scale industrial processes.  For example, the recognition of a previously unnoticed problem during early-stage development, such as the discovery that certain cell culture components are the cause for problematic visual characteristics in the bioproduct, or that surprising loss of intact antibody yield during scaled-up manufacture is due to specific redox reactions in the cell culture fluid following fermentation, or that purification methods successfully used at laboratory scale introduce undesirable impurities into product that needs to be overcome when purification is scaled-up.  The research leading to the recognition of these problems and the steps taken to solve them in an imaginative way may form the basis of a strong inventive story which is worthy of patent protection, but one where an understanding of bioprocessing is needed to properly draft the strong patent applications.

Forward Magazines Overlapping 8

Mewburn Ellis

FORWARD MAGAZINE

Mewburn Ellis Forward is a biannual publication that celebrates the best of innovation and exploration. Through its pages we hope to inform and entertain, but also to encourage discussion about the most compelling developments taking place in the scientific and entrepreneurial world. Along the way, we’ll engage with the IP challenges that international organisations face every day.