Andrew Rankine

Principal
Spruson & Ferguson Lawyers: Litigation
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Overview

Andrew is a specialist in intellectual property disputes. His practice focuses on the life sciences.

Andrew has particular expertise in handling complex patent disputes for global leaders in the pharmaceuticals, biotechnology and medical device industries. He has acted in a number of Australia’s leading cases in this area, for clients including Sanofi, Wyeth, Zoetis, Samsung Bioepis, Novozymes, Smith & Nephew, ResMed, and Cochlear.  Andrew’s cases typically relate to products with annual revenues in the 10s to 100s of millions of dollars. He recently acted for Sun Pharma in its successful action against Mylan relating to patents covering cholesterol-lowering medications.

A majority of Andrew’s cases represent the Australian limb of multi-national disputes.  He is accustomed to working closely with overseas legal teams, including in the United States, UK and Europe, to develop effective multi-jurisdictional strategies and ensure seamless integration.

When acting for clients in the life sciences sector, Andrew draws on his expertise as a qualified medical practitioner and biomedical scientist. He advises on the operation of Australia’s regulatory regime for therapeutic goods and the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. Andrew regularly handles applications for urgent injunctive relief, as well as applications for pre-action discovery.

In addition to his life sciences practice, Andrew acts on complex IP disputes for multi-nationals in the electronics, ICT, engineering and resources sectors, including Samsung, Siemens, and BASF. He currently acts for Hytera in the Australian limb of its global dispute with Motorola relating to communications technology.

Andrew is listed as a Leading Contentious Intellectual Property Lawyer in the 2022 edition of Doyle’s Guide.


Andrew Rankine's Insights
The 2023 IP year in review, and predictions for 2024
In Australia, February signals a return from the beach, children back to school after a long summer break and of course the usual traffic woes! At Spruson & Ferguson Lawyers,...
In Australia, February signals a return from the beach, children back to school after a long summer break and...
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What the High Court Decision in Aristocrat means for patent owners
The High Court of Australia issued a split decision in Aristocrat Technologies Australia Pty Ltd v Commissioner of Patents on 17 August 2022. As reported in our previous article,...
The High Court of Australia issued a split decision in Aristocrat Technologies Australia Pty Ltd v Commissioner of Patents...
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