Edward Oates

Practice Areas

Ranked as a Thought Leader (Lexology Index, 2025) and a “renowned patent attorney… great for EPO oppositions” (JUVE, 2025), Ed’s focus is healthcare, and he has worked on numerous marketed pharmaceuticals across a variety of fields, leading the key patent defences on some of the world’s most valuable medicines of recent times. Complementing Ed’s advocacy before the EPO, Ed is “an original thinker” (Who’s Who Legal: Patents) with exceptional experience in patent lifecycle management, and a “powerful intellect with great SPC knowledge” (Who’s Who Legal: Patents). He delivers “very good advice in SPC cases” (JUVE, 2025), also advising clients on paediatric extensions and related regulatory exclusivities. He has coordinated many complex pan-European SPC portfolios, and has a detailed understanding of law and procedure relating to the Unified Patent Court (UPC).

Career

Ed built his “enviable track record” (IAM Patent 1000) on some of the most difficult and complex cases in the life sciences sphere, including the longest life sciences opposition hearing ever (eight days attacking EP 2 188 302 on behalf of Merck Sharp & Dohme LLC) and some of the most heavily opposed life sciences patents ever (22 opponents on EP 2 478 907 and 15 opponents on its parent EP 2 061 561 on behalf of Janssen Oncology, and 14 opponents on EP 2 292 219 on behalf of Novartis AG).

Ed has worked on some of the seminal European SPC cases of recent years, and consequently has been invited on a number of occasions to address the annual meeting of pan-EU SPC examiners. Along with his “terrific prosecution and SPC experience” (Managing IP), Ed “operates at the forefront of the market” (JUVE) and has acted before the Court of Justice of the European Union, the Court of Appeal of England and Wales, the High Court of England and Wales and the UK Intellectual Property Office, and has managed litigations in many jurisdictions around the world. When not engaged in contentious work or prosecuting cases, Ed uses his “very impressive … breadth of pharmaceuticals knowledge” (IAM Patent 1000), coupled with his experience on big-ticket cases, to provide his clients with practical advice in relation to IP matters. This includes freedom-to-operate advice, transactional support, such as due diligence, and counselling relating to the UPC. Prior to joining Carpmaels & Ransford in 2003, Ed studied chemistry at University of Oxford where he was awarded a scholarship and a number of prizes for his academic performance, graduating with a first-class degree. After becoming a European and UK patent attorney, Ed qualified as a Patent Attorney Litigator, receiving the Hogarth Prize as the highest-ranked patent attorney in his year. Spurred by the advent of the UPC and his dual EU nationality, Ed more recently obtained the Milan European Patent Litigator qualification.