Intellectual property, Pharma & Life Sciences
Alistair Payne
Acuatus
Payne runs a boutique law firm specialising in intellectual property. Following six years as a solicitor in Australia, Payne spent 12 years as head of intellectual property at Matheson, before departing in 2016 to found Acuatus, the specialist firm that sticks strictly to dealing with matters of IP law. As head of Acuatus, Payne advises multinational and SME clients on intellectual property protection and enforcement — for both contentious and non-contentious matters — in Europe and globally. Payne represented Uefa in its football live-streaming services injunction action against Eir, Sky, Virgin Media and Vodafone in the High Court, as well as Viatris, the pharma firm, in patent litigation in the Commercial Court in relation to infringement claims by pharma firm MSD.
Ann Henry
Bird & Bird
Specialising in intellectual property disputes in the pharmaceutical, technology, retail and financial services sectors, Henry’s clients value her for her sharp focus on strategy as well as her determination in ensuring she delivers a favourable outcome. A former head of IP as a partner at Pinsent Masons, following spells at Phillip Lee and William Fry, Henry moved to Bird & Bird at the beginning of 2024, becoming the firm’s second Dublin-based patent-specialist partner. She acted for several individuals affected by the Independent News & Media data breach, which was the subject of an investigation by the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement (ODCE) and the Data Protection Commission (DPC) from 2020 to 2023.
laura scott
william fry
After 12 years with McCann FitzGerald, Scott joined William Fry in 2013 as intellectual property partner. She represented Skyscanner in Commercial Court proceedings taken by Ryanair, as well as in a competition law counterclaim by the budget airline. She advised biopharma firm GSK in its vaccine patent infringement proceedings against Pfizer and in defence of a counterclaim by the pharma giant. As head of the firm’s life sciences division, Scott has particular expertise in regulatory, commercial and IP matters within the pharmaceutical, biotech and medical device sectors, while also holding extensive experience in regulatory issues in telecommunications, broadcast media and advertising and marketing.
Shane O’Brien
McCann FitzGerald
A Cambridge graduate with a masters in commercial law, O’Brien was taken on by last year’s Irish patent litigation firm of the year as a trainee in 2007, before making partner ten years later.
Advising on commercial litigation, in particular IP disputes, O’Brien’s main brief relates to life sciences and tech – he advised pharma giants Bristol-Myers Squibb and Ono Pharmaceuticals in Commercial Court patent litigation against MSD, Hewlett Packard in its proceedings against printing company Memjet Technology, and Vodafone in its action against US private equity firm Intellectual Ventures in relation to DSL broadband technology.
Gerard Kelly
Mason Hayes & Curran
Kelly is head of Mason Hayes & Curran’s IP team, and advises clients on a range of intellectual property matters including substantial patent, passing off, trademark, copyright and design litigation. His experience includes acting for Novartis Pharma AG in dealing with High Court litigation against Eli Lilly in a European patent dispute. He also advised NYSE-listed Biohaven Pharmaceuticals on the Irish, IP and tax law aspects of the sale of the Biohaven group companies that own and commercialise its Nurtec and Vysera products to Pfizer for more than $11.8 billion. Kelly joined MHC in 2014 and before that he was an IP lawyer at Matheson.
Maureen Daly
Pinsent Masons
After 18 years at Beauchamps, Daly was hired by Pinsent Masons to head up its Dublin intellectual property team at the end of last year.
A biochemistry graduate from UCD, Daly is an Irish and European registered trademark attorney, and former chair of the Irish Law Society’s IP and data protection committee.
In 2019, in the first application of its kind in an Irish court, Daly advised a client seeking a High Court injunction effectively allowing for illegal live streams of a sporting event to be blocked in real time, which she successfully had extended for the 2019/20 and 2020/21 seasons.
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