Kempner & Partners

Stuart is a Chartered Chemist with a First Class Honours degree in Chemistry from Imperial College and Masters degree from Oxford.

Prior to qualifying as a solicitor he spent 17 years as a scientist and project manager in the health care industry, where he was responsible for developing new products, principally in the field of wound healing. He is the named inventor on a number of patents.

Stuart now specialises in intellectual property law, especially patent law, in areas involving a high technical or scientific content, and undertakes both litigation, and licensing and other non-contentious work. His clients include universities, plcs and major multinational corporations. Chambers lists Stuart as a Leader in Intellectual Property nationally, and quotes the opinion of his clients that  he “does a great job, particularly on the science side of IP”.  Stuart’s recent cases include:

• acting for Asda in defence of a malicious falsehood action brought by Ajinomoto after the packaging for Asda’s own brand range Good For You referred to the absence of aspartame as part of its “No Nasties” campaign. The case included the Court of Appeal deciding for the first time that the “single meaning” rule does not apply in malicious falsehood;
• acting for BASF AG against SmithKline Beecham plc in revoking the major part of the patent for the major antidepressant, paroxetine, sold by GlaxoSmithKline under the names Paxil and Seroxat; and
• defending Teva Pharmaceuticals in a patent infringement action relating to a formulation of the anti-cancer drug, paclitaxel, which included avoiding an interim injunction, and revoking the patent, owned by Mayne Pharma.