Ground-breaking declaratory relief from English High Court clears the route to market for Humira biosimilar

On Friday morning, a judgment was handed down in the hard-fought litigation between Japan’s Fujifilm Kyowa Kirin Biologics (FKB) and the USA’s AbbVie (NYSE: ABBV).

For the first time, a UK court has granted declaratory relief to a company trying to launch a product in the face of a myriad of patent applications in order to protect it against later infringement claims. FKB’s claim was led by Gowling WLG Partners.

While the Patents Act 1977 provides no mechanism for challenging the validity of patent applications in the UK courts, the High Court has today found an answer.