Steven Baldwin

Steven Baldwin is a partner in Kirkland’s IP litigation team in London. His practice spans:

• SEP/FRAND disputes;
• strategic life sciences patent litigation and product lifecycle management;
• life sciences regulatory;
• trade secrets; and
• coordinating global IP enforcement/defence campaigns.

Mr Baldwin has extensive experience litigating complex global SEP/FRAND disputes and conducting FRAND licensing negotiations. Key recent cases include Sisvel and Mitsubishi v Xiaomi, Philips v TCL and Conversant v Huawei/ZTE. Each of those cases has involved novel aspects of SEP/FRAND law and consequently Mr Baldwin has been part of the first ever teams to:

• challenge the jurisdiction of the English Court to grant global FRAND licences (Conversant v Huawei/ZTE);
• apply to the Paris High Court for determination of FRAND pursuant to the French law-governed ETSI Undertakings (TCL v Philips); and
• defend a global FRAND determination in the United Kingdom made by a patent pool administrator on behalf of its pool members (Sisvel v Xiaomi).

Each of these cases is extremely high profile and, in particular, Sisvel v Xiaomi is listed in The Lawyer’s Top 20 cases to watch for 2020.

Mr Baldwin also regularly advises life sciences clients on complex global patent and supplementary protection certificate (SPC) disputes relating to blockbuster biologic, biosimilar and small molecule products including Boehringer Ingelheim’s SPIRIVA, Novartis’ LUCENTIS and Pfizer’s PCSK9 antibody inhibitor. Mr Baldwin’s previous case experience covers a broad range of technical fields including antibody biologics and platform technology, biosimilars, oncology, immunology, small molecules, formulations and respiratory products. He has spent time on secondment in-house at GlaxoSmithKline and is also a recognised expert and thought leader on EU SPCs. As global coordinating counsel in most cases he advises on, Mr Baldwin is charged with creating and driving forward the client’s litigation strategy across the world.

Mr Baldwin was named a Rising Star in IP by Managing Intellectual Property in 2018/2019 and a Recommended Individual in Juve Patent 2020. The Legal 500 describes him as “superb, with particular expertise in SPC matters”.