James Horgan

Assistant Managing Counsel at Merck Sharp & Dohme (UK) Ltd.

James Horgan is Assistant Managing Counsel at Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp., a subsidiary of Merck & Co., Inc., Kenilworth, NJ, USA. He heads the European Patent Department based in the United Kingdom. He has a degree in chemistry and has practiced extensively in the pharmaceutical, vaccine and biotechnological fields for 20 years. He has supported research sites in England and Italy. He has wide experience of prosecuting applications before the EPO where he regularly appears in ex parte and inter partes Oral Proceedings. He has filed and prosecuted a large number of SPCs. He has been involved in major multi-jurisdictional litigation for Merck in cases in the UK, Sweden, Belgium Germany, The Netherlands, Spain, France and Malaysia relating to Vioxx, Fosamax, Cosopt and Propecia, as well as in the parallel import case Merck Canada Inc. and Merck Sharp & Dohme Ltd. v Sigma Pharmaceuticals plc which went to the CJEU. He has completed an LLM in Intellectual Property Litigation through Nottingham Trent University. He is also involved in IP policy issues via the IP Federation, EFPIA, IFPMA and Business Europe. He sits on the Board Sponsored Committee for Innovation of EFPIA and is a Vice President of the IP Federation. He was included in the 2016 IAM list of the World’s 300 Leading IP Strategists.