High Court hands down judgment in dispute concerning contractual rights to intellectual property

On 27 January 2025 the High Court dismissed the claim made in Hill v Touchlight Genetics Ltd & Ors [2025] EWHC 107 (Pat), a case concerning contractual rights to intellectual property.

Emily McKechnie (instructed by Bristows and acting with Adrian Speck KC and Henry Ward of 8 New Square) represented the successful defendants, the Touchlight group. The claim had been brought by Touchlight’s former chief scientific officer, Dr Hill, who argued that her innovative ideas had been developed prior to her employment with Touchlight and had not been contractually assigned to the company following the commencement of her employment.

The High Court held that the ideas were conceived by Dr Hill during her employment and were thereby contractually owned by Touchlight, and that in any event the disputed rights were assigned to Touchlight on the true construction of Dr Hill’s employment contract. The court also found that Dr Hill shared a common assumption with Touchlight (or made representations) to the effect that Touchlight was the owner of the disputed rights, that Touchlight was entitled to assume that Dr Hill supported its applications for patent protection based upon those rights, and that Touchlight relied upon Dr Hill to its detriment.

Read the full judgment