Upstream without a paddle

The Court of Appeal has found in Eli Lilly and Company v Human Genome Sciences Inc (HGS) that HGS' patent for a protein called by HGS "Neutrokine-a", antibodies to it and the polynucleotide sequence encoding for it was invalid for lack of industrial application. He therefore dismissed HGS' appeal. This finding was made despite the Technical Board of Appeal of the European Patent Office having allowed HGS' appeal based on some more restricted claims just a few months earlier. Our experts have prepared an expert analysis of this judgment.