Nick Beckett

Nick is the Managing Partner of the Beijing Office and the Asia-Pacific head of Lifesciences. Nick has extensive experience in advising on all aspects of intellectual property and commercial matters affecting Lifesciences clients internationally and his practice spans both contentious and non-contentious issues.

Nick has substantial experience in coordinating complex multi-jurisdictional matters, regularly working with colleagues throughout CMS and elsewhere. In particular his work in the areas of parallel trade, anti-counterfeiting, due diligence and trade mark and patent opinions and litigation span international borders.

Nick is recommended as a prominent practitioner in his field in the PLC Lifesciences Handbook, Super Lawyers London 2013 and the Guide to the World’s Leading Trade Mark Law Practitioners, and is described as providing “heavyweight IP, parallel trade and patent litigation capability for an impressive roster of clients” in Legal 500.  Nick led the team on Takeda’s €9.6 billion acquisition of Swiss drug company, Nycomed A/S.

Nick is also an Honorary Lecturer at the China Pharmaceutical University in Nanjing, China

Nick speaks English and French.

Relevant experience includes advising:

– Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited on its €9.6 billion (debt-free cash free) acquisition of Swiss drug company, Nycomed A/S.

– A leading international agrochemical company for the client’s Crop Protection Business on patent infringement, anticounterfeiting, customs and regulatory dispute work, including coordinating with other CMS offices around Europe and bringing together a network to service the client’s needs.

– A Japanese pharmaceutical company in a very significant ICC arbitration, with damages of up to $1 billion, concerning a dispute under a worldwide patent licence agreement in the pharmaceutical sector as a result of the wrongful withdrawal of a licensed pharmaceutical product from the market without consent.

– Otsuka on all legal and regulatory issues associated with Otsuka’s atypical antipsychotic product. This entails acting as a central point of contact for the clients, managing the relationship and coordinating the provision of advice from our CMS European Network.

– A global pharmaceutical company in a high profile dispute concerning a blockbuster pharmaceutical product. The dispute entailed coordinating litigation in Japan and the UK and jurisdictional issues. Complex pharmaceutical litigation, as well as complicated questions of contract law arose.

– Budejovicky Metansky Pivovar in trade mark litigation with Anheuser- Busch relating to use of the term BUDWEISER.

– Eli Lilly in the leading pharmaceutical parallel trade repackaging case before the CJEU.