About Phil…

Phil is a Partner in the Litigation Department who deals with a broad range of commercial disputes.

Commercial Litigation

Phil specialises in resolving business disputes involving partnerships, director and shareholder disputes, unfair prejudice actions and enforcement of restrictive covenants.

He is also regularly instructed by national clients to advise upon, complex and high-value contractual disputes, often involving parties in multiple jurisdictions and professional negligence claims against insurance brokers, surveyors, accountants (Fawley Judge & Easton -v- Porter [2014] EWCA Civ 1580) and solicitors.

Property Litigation

Phil acts for various national private and publicly listed companies and high street names, protecting their interests in connection with their real estate litigation, which includes being instructed in multi-million-pound claims in the Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber) for compensation arising out of the compulsory purchase of property across the country, including for disturbance arising from Crossrail and HS2.

Intellectual Property

Phil’s practice also includes contentious intellectual property disputes including advising clients in the retail and technology sectors in relation to claims for patent infringement and infringement of trade marks, passing off, copyright and registered and unregistered design rights and database rights.

Notably cases include acting for Air-Weigh (Europe) Limited in the successful defence of a claim in the Intellectual Property and Enterprise Court for infringement of a European patent concerning an on-board system for indicating the state of loading of a vehicle. The patent was held invalid for lack of inventive step over a prior US patent disclosing a system for detecting the loading of a vehicle using an accelerometer. VPG Systems UK Limited -v- Air-Weigh (Europe) Limited [2015] EWHC 1862 (IPEC) [Link to judgment].

Client Testimonial:

“Phil Osborne was excellent, and I would highly recommend him. His individual strengths is his knowledge of company law and the processes required for each individual case. However, what impressed me most was his integrity in handling every aspect of the case.”

Legal 500 quote:

Phil Osborne is “genuinely excellent”.

Qualifications & Awards:

• LL.B., Law, The University of Hull

• The Lewenstein Prize for Regulating Corporate Power

• The Timothy Durkin Award for Medicine, Ethics and the Law

• LL.M., International Business Law, The University of Hull

• The Josephine Ono Memorial Award for International Law

• Sir Clive Schmitthoff PACE Institute Certificate of Merit from the PACE University, New York, for his post graduate dissertation titled, ‘Unification or Harmonization: A Critical Analysis of the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods 1980’. The dissertation forms part of PACE’s database of legal materials and has been cited in numerous academic papers and in proceedings in the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL).

Phil qualified as a solicitor in 2009.