Contact details

Alexandra Pygall

T: +44 20 7809 2137 M: +44 7881 314 566 Email Alexandra | vCard Office: London

Awards

Intellectual property

Intellectual property

Life sciences and healthcare

Life sciences and healthcare

Intellectual property

Intellectual property

Alexandra Pygall Partner

Contact details

Alexandra Pygall

T: +44 20 7809 2137 M: +44 7881 314 566 Email Alexandra | vCard Office: London

An intellectual property expert with significant experience of advising on both transactions and disputes. Alexandra believes in providing straightforward and practical advice in context. With degrees in both law and chemistry, many of her clients are in the life sciences sector but she also works with luxury brand clients and clients in other sectors.
  • Profile
  • Services
  • Sectors

Alexandra advises on the complete spectrum of intellectual property issues. Her clients range from life sciences companies, such as BTG plc and Vernalis plc, to luxury brand companies such as Moët Hennessy and Richemont.

Alexandra's transaction experience includes advising clients on licensing, partnering, collaboration and R&D agreements as well as on the IP aspects of mergers, acquisitions, investments (including the taking of security over IP) and commercial contracts such as manufacturing and distribution arrangements.

Her dispute experience includes advising clients in relation to claims regarding IP ownership, infringement and validity and in relation to licensing and other contractual matters. She also advises in relation to anti-counterfeiting strategies and enforcement policies. She has experience of both civil and criminal IP litigation.

Alexandra has been named in The Lawyer's Hot 100 – Dealmaker list 2019 which acknowledges her as "representative of emerging talent in the venerable City player". Described as "bright, charming, witty and solution-driven" by Chambers and Partners, she has also been described as "extremely knowledgeable and an excellent communicator who has a unique ability to demystify complex areas of law. She juggles legal business risk with opportunity and then provides robust but pragmatic advice. On top of that, she’s a huge pleasure to work with" (IAM Patent 1000, 2018). According to WTR 1000, 2019 “her enthusiasm is infectious and she has a rare ability to explain difficult issues plainly and simply for the benefit of clients and to their great advantage”. Alexandra is highly recommended for patent transactions (IAM Patent 1000), for trade mark transactions, enforcement and litigation (WTR 100 2019) and for commercial agreements and litigation concerning copyright, trade marks and life sciences patents (Chambers and Partners). She has also been awarded the Lexology Client Choice Award for healthcare and life sciences UK 2018.

"Alexandra Pygall – delivers a great work product and inspires huge confidence in her team and in her clients. An absolutely brilliant solicitor."
The Legal 500 UK 2023

  • Intellectual property

Brand protection for luxury brands such as Moët Hennessy and Richemont

Alexandra leads our specialist anti-counterfeiting team who effectively tackle counterfeit and copycat products using a strategy involving civil as well as criminal prosecution and an invaluable network of contacts within law enforcement and service providers.

Gap's sole IP counsel in the UK

Advised as part of the team on Gap's IP portfolio and, in particular, its trade mark branding issues (prosecutions, oppositions, infringements) and parallel imports.

BTG plc

Advised on the purchase of the residual financial interest (consisting of patent and related royalty payments) of the originator of the Varithena foam sclerotherapy technology for a one-off cash payment of £23 million.

Vernalis plc, an AIM-listed development stage pharmaceutical company

Advised on the out-licensing of Vernalis' worldwide rights to its proprietary adenosine receptor antagonist technology to a private US company that has raised a large Series A round. Also advised Vernalis on a number of other licensing and collaboration deals.

More: Intellectual property

  • Retail and luxury goods
  • Art and cultural property
  • Life Sciences
  • Consumer

Brand protection for luxury brands such as Moët Hennessy and Richemont

Alexandra leads our specialist anti-counterfeiting team who effectively tackle counterfeit and copycat products using a strategy involving criminal as well as civil prosecution and an invaluable network of contacts within law enforcement and service providers. 

Gap's sole IP counsel in the UK

Advising as part of a team on Gap's IP portfolio and, in particular, its trade mark branding issues (prosecutions, oppositions, infringements) and parallel imports.

One of the world’s leading manufacturers of play materials

Part of the team providing IP advice to one of the world’s leading manufacturers of play materials, including preventing misues of the client's brand and actioning takedowns on various online platforms.

More: Retail and luxury goods

Auction house

Advising in relation to whether a particular category of works for sale was subject to the Artist's Resale Right.

Auction house

Advised in relation to the liability for sale of a Jeff Koons painting alleged to infringe the copyright in an advertising photograph.

Auction house

Advised in relation to the potential liability for use of a third-party trade mark in a catalogue of photographs for sale.

Auction house

Advised in relation to offer for sale of an allegedly counterfeit item.

More: ​Art and cultural property

Alexandra is recognised for negotiating IP-heavy deals and advising on disputes in the life sciences sector.

Examples of Alexandra's work include:

Vernalis plc

Advised this AIM-listed development stage pharmaceutical company on a number of licensing and collaboration deals, including the out-licensing of the worldwide rights to its proprietary adenosine receptor antagonist technology to a private US company that has raised a large Series A round.

UCB

Advised this global biopharma company on a variety of commercial contracts and a significant dispute with a licensing partner.

ARIAD Pharmaceuticals

Advised a specialist oncology company, headquartered in Cambridge (Massachusetts), with commercial, competition, data protection and employment advice related to its entry into the European market.

Cell Medica Ltd

Advised this cellular therapeutics company on its collaboration with Cell Therapy Catapult in relation to Cell Medica's Cytovir cytomegalovirus product and in relation to a manufacturing agreement for Cell Medica's CMD-003 product, which is under development to target malignancies associated with the oncogenic Epstein Barr virus.

More: Life sciences

Alexandra is listed in "World Trademark Review 1000 – The World’s Leading Trademark Professionals" for enforcement/litigation, anti-counterfeiting and transaction matters.

Examples of her work include:

Brand protection for luxury brands such as Moët Hennessy and Richemont

Alexandra leads our specialist anti-counterfeiting team who effectively tackle counterfeit and copycat products using a strategy involving criminal as well as civil prosecution and an invaluable network of contacts within law enforcement and service providers. 

Gap's sole IP counsel in the UK

Advising as part of a team on Gap's IP portfolio and, in particular, its trade mark branding issues (prosecutions, oppositions, infringements) and parallel imports.

More: Consumer

Awards

Intellectual property

Intellectual property

Life sciences and healthcare

Life sciences and healthcare

Intellectual property

Intellectual property

Latest news & insights

24 Nov 2023

From News

Helen Conlan joins Stephenson Harwood as partner

Law firm Stephenson Harwood LLP has strengthened its intellectual property practice with the arrival of partner Helen Conlan, who joins the firm in London.

More

20 Sep 2023

From News

Stephenson Harwood advises BenevolentAI on strategic collaboration with Merck

Law firm Stephenson Harwood LLP has advised BenevolentAI on its recent strategic collaboration with Merck.

More

05 Sep 2023

From News

Success for Stephenson Harwood’s IP team

Members of Stephenson Harwood’s intellectual property (IP) team have been recognised in several leading IP and patent directories, including Managing IP’s ‘IP STARS’, ..

More

15 May 2023

From News

Stephenson Harwood advises Bicycle Therapeutics on radiotherapy deal with Bayer

Law firm Stephenson Harwood LLP has advised Bicycle Therapeutics plc on its recent strategic collaboration agreement with Bayer to discover and develop Bicycle radioco..

More

24 Mar 2023

From Insights

Life sciences podcast

The Stephenson Harwood life sciences podcast provides an overview of key legal developments relating to the sector.

More

13 Mar 2023

From News

Stephenson Harwood's response to recent news regarding Silicon Valley Bank

Having spent the weekend supporting clients reacting to the bank's potential collapse in the UK, Stephenson Harwood is pleased to hear the latest news this morning con..

More

12 Dec 2022

From Insights

Changes to UK R&D SME tax credits

Among the changes announced in the Chancellor's Autumn Statement on 17 November 2022 were significant and largely unfavourable proposed changes to the UK Research and ..

More

02 Nov 2022

From Insights

Under the antitrust spotlight: patent litigation

In this briefing, we explore the latest developments in the European domain of alleged patent litigation abuses.

More

10 Oct 2022

From Insights

Life sciences A to Z - G is for gene-editing: The CRISPR landscape

The revolutionary gene-editing tool CRISPR ("clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats") offers incredible opportunities in a broad range of applicatio..

More

13 Jul 2022

From News

Stephenson Harwood advises Oxford Biomedica on new AstraZeneca agreement

Law firm Stephenson Harwood LLP has advised Oxford Biomedica, the gene and cell therapy company, on its new three year Master Services & Development Agreement with Ast..

More

12 Jul 2022

From News

Success for Stephenson Harwood's IP partners

Stephenson Harwood partners Alexandra Pygall, Rob Jacob and Naomi Leach have been recognised as legal experts in a range of leading intellectual property publications.

More

06 Jun 2022

From News

Kristian Shearsby joins Stephenson Harwood as partner

Law firm Stephenson Harwood LLP has strengthened its corporate finance practice, and life sciences and technology sector capabilities, with the arrival of Kristian She..

More

09 May 2022

From News

Stephenson Harwood deal wins at IFLR awards

A deal on which law firm Stephenson Harwood advised – the partnership of Hipgnosis Song Management (HSM) and Blackstone – has been awarded the 2022 IFLR Europe Awards'..

More

13 Oct 2021

From News

Stephenson Harwood advises Hipgnosis Song Management on strategic US$1 billion partnership with Blackstone

Law firm Stephenson Harwood LLP has advised Hipgnosis Song Management (HSM) in relation to a new partnership with Blackstone, which will initially deliver US$1 billion..

More

30 Sep 2021

From News

Stephenson Harwood advises AM-Pharma on €245 million deal

Law firm Stephenson Harwood LLP has advised AM-Pharma on its €245 million exclusive license agreement deal with Kyowa Kirin, for the development and commercialisation ..

More

05 Jul 2021

From Insights

NFTS: Practicalities, problems and pitfalls

Stephenson Harwood’s art and cultural property team recently hosted a virtual webinar on Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) in the art market.

More

print-footer
logo
© Stephenson Harwood LLP 2016. Any reference to Stephenson Harwood in this document means Stephenson Harwood LLP and/or its affiliated undertakings. Any reference to a partner is used to refer to a member of Stephenson Harwood LLP.