Laura Orlando
Laura heads our Milan office, is a joint global head of the intellectual property (IP) practice and co-heads the European Life Sciences sector team.
Specialising in contentious and non-contentious intellectual property, Laura has a focus on patent and regulatory law in the life sciences sector. She has acted in some of the highest profile multi-jurisdictional patent cases, including in the context of the SPC Regulation, and has assisted major pharmaceutical companies in connection with patent expiry of top selling drugs. She also advises on a range of regulatory issues including product life cycle management, routes for obtaining marketing authorisations, data exclusivity provisions, supplementary protection certificates, orphan designations, good manufacturing practice compliance certificates, pricing and reimbursement.
In addition to life sciences, Laura has experience in a broad cross-section of industries, notably food, chemicals, consumer products, TMT and electronics, fashion and industrial design.
She is the Executive Secretary of the Life Sciences Committee at the American Chamber of Commerce in Italy.
Accolades
Italian winner of the International Client Choice Award (Life Sciences), 2022
"Lawyer of the Year for Thought Leadership and Life Sciences" at the Italian IP Legal Community Awards 2022
Italian winner of the International Client Choice Award (Intellectual Property: Patents), 2021
"Life Sciences Lawyer of the Year (Pharmaceuticals)" at the Italian TopLegal Industry Awards 2021
"IP Lawyer of the Year (medical devices)" at the LMG European Life Sciences Awards 2020
"Life Sciences Lawyer of the Year" at the Italian IP LegalCommunity Awards 2020
"Life Sciences Lawyer of the Year (Biomedical)" at the Italian TopLegal Industry Awards 2020
Ranked as one of Italy's 50 top lawyers in LegalCommunity's Lawyers of the Year 2018 – 2022
"IP Lawyer of the Year" at the Italian IP LegalCommunity Awards 2019
"Food Lawyer of the Year" at the Italian TopLegal Industry Awards 2019
"IP Star" in Patent litigation and Patent Strategy & Counselling (Managing Intellectual Property – IP Stars)
Recognised as one of the 300 World's Leading IP Strategists by IAM Strategy 300 (2021, 2019)
Italian winner of the International Client Choice Award (Intellectual Property: Patents), 2018
"Life Sciences Lawyer of the Year" at the Italian IP LegalCommunity Awards 2018
"Life Sciences Lawyer of the Year (Biomedical)" at the Italian TopLegal Industry Awards 2018
Winner of the ILO International Client Choice Awards (Healthcare & Life Sciences) 2015
Ranked in Chambers & Partners for Intellectual Property and Life Sciences
Ranked in Legal500 as a Leading Individual in Healthcare and Life Sciences
Ranked in Legal500 as a leading individual in Intellectual Property and Healthcare & Life Sciences
Recommended as a leading IP lawyer by international and Italian directories including MIP's Expert Guide to the World's Leading Patent Law Practitioners, IAM Patent 1000, WTR 1000, Who's Who Legal
"Laura Orlando is an extremely helpful and punctual managing partner in defining legal solutions suitable for the business context." (Legal 500 EMEA, 2022)
"Incredibly smart and formidable," and one adds: "She is also very hands-on and a very pleasant person." (Chambers Europe, 2022)
“Has a skill for cutting through the details, does not get bogged down in the minutiae and comes up with sensible solutions. She is great at protecting assets that are under development and makes sure that getting proper protections in place does not put the brakes on important commercial collaborations” (WTR 1000, 2022)
"She has knowledge of IP, but also of the related regulatory issues, and is capable of handling the most complex litigation" (Chambers Europe, 2021)
“Outstanding litigator” - “She is extremely knowledgeable, understands the technical issues and defends the rights of clients to the end – Laura is one of the best lawyers to assign a life sciences lawsuit to.” (IAM Patent 1000, 2021)
Background
Laura graduated with honours from the University of Pavia and the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen and holds a doctorate in Contentious Law from the University of Bologna.
She is admitted to the Italian Supreme Court (Corte di Cassazione).
Experience & expertise
Selected matters
- assisting Gilead on the Europe-wide dispute concerning the SPC for the HIV drug Truvada including the implementation of the CJEU decision on combination SPC
- assisting Eli Lilly on a number of patent and regulatory matters, including most recently advising on a major patent dispute concerning a leading anti-psoriasis product.
- assisting leading Italian vaccine-developer AchilleS Vaccines on IP and regulatory aspects relating to a new platform for streamlining the research and development of new vaccines and a research project for the development of human monoclonal antibodies against COVID-19
- assisting the US Government, Millennium (Takeda) and Janssen (Johnson&Johnson) in a patent validity and infringement lawsuit at the Court of Milan against a German manufacturer in relation to a leading anti-cancer pharmaceutical product
- assisting JC Bamford Excavators Limited on a multi-jurisdictional patent validity and infringement case concerning telescopic handlers
- advising Lundbeck on a variety of patent and regulatory law matters in relation to medicinal products for the central nervous system
Sectors
Services
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