AUSTRALIA: IP firm Griffith Hack is to merge with Mallon & Co, which is based in Perth and specialises in IP and technology. It was set up by Paul Mallon in 2005 and comprises four legal specialists and one support staff member. Following the merger, Griffith Hack will have 30 principals and 61 fee-earners.

CHINA/US: General practice law firm Jun He has made three high-profile hires from US law firms and has opened an office in Silicon Valley. James Zhu and Zoe Wang have both joined from Perkins Coie. Wang was the managing partner of the firm's Shanghai office and has moved to Jun He's Shanghai office. Zhu was a partner of Perkins Coie's Los Angeles office and managing partner of its Beijing office. He will join Jun He's Silicon Valley branch, which opened at the end of May. Steven Cui, formerly of counsel at the Beijing and Silicon Valley offices of Jones Day, will join the Silicon Valley office.

FRANCE: Zeeger Vink has joined the global IP department of Lacoste as senior IP counsel, at the company's corporate headquarters in Paris.

Before joining Lacoste, Vink was IP counsel at L'Oréal, after previously having worked in private practice in the Netherlands and the UK. At Lacoste, Zink will be in charge of the worldwide trade mark and design portfolio of the Lacoste group and will handle IP and licensing matters for some of the group licences. He will also lead some of the firm's anti-counterfeiting activities.

COLOMBIA: Cavalier Abogados has hired Adriana Zapata de Arbeláez as the firm's first female director. Zapata previously served as legal vice-president and general secretary for Banco AV Villas and as vice-president of Avianca Airlines. She is also arbitrator for the Chamber of Commerce of Bogotá and Medellín.

GERMANY: Howrey will open an office in Düsseldorf, the centre of patent litigation in Germany, in September. The firm has hired Christoph Lenz from Bardehle Pagenberg, and he will jointly head the office with Joachim Feldges, the managing partner of Howrey's Munich office and co-chair of its IP practice.

UK: UK firm Reynolds Porter Chamberlain has hired Clive Thorne from Arnold & Porter, taking the number of IP partners at the firm to six. Thorne joined Arnold & Porter as a partner in 2004, after 18 years as a partner at Dentons in London. He also practised in Hong Kong for a number of years.

UK: Denton Wilde Sapte and Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal have agreed to merge to create a trans-Atlantic firm called SNR Denton. The announcement comes just a month after Hogan Hartson and Lovells joined to form Hogan Lovells. SNR Denton will have 1,400 lawyers in 18 countries when it launches on September 30 this year. The largest offices will be in New York and London.

US: Perkins Coie has opened an office in San Diego. Former Paul Hastings partner Thane Bauz and former Fish & Richardson partner John Schnurer will join the office in the patent litigation group and former Fish & Richardson partners Brian Wacter and Bing Ai join the patent prosecution group.

US: Shane Brun has left Morrison & Foerster to join K&L Gates as a partner in the firm's IP litigation practice. Brun represents major technology companies in IP and commercial litigation.

US: Roetzel & Andress has hired five IP attorneys from Holland & Knight. The group will be led by partner Sunwoo Lee, former head of Holland & Knight's patent practice. Jon Crocker also joins as partner. They are joining the firm's Washington DC office.

US: Microsoft has hired Mark Cohen as director of international intellectual property. Cohen, who started work at Microsoft on May 3, was of counsel at Jones Day in Beijing. Before that, he was senior IP attaché at the US Embassy in Beijing.

US: Walter Steimel has joined Loeb & Loeb's Washington, DC office as a partner in the advanced media and technology department. He previously worked with Greenberg Traurig and the Federal Communications Commission and focuses his practice on communications, information technology and high-tech issues.

US: Former Marshall Gerstein & Borun partner Bradford Lyerla has joined Jenner & Block as a partner in the firm's Chicago office. Lyerla concentrates in patent, trade secret and unfair competition litigation.

US: Irah H Donner has joined Stroock & Stroock & Lavan from WimerHale as a partner in the IP practice group in New York. He will focus primarily on patent prosecution for technology companies.

US: DLA Piper has hired former Nixon Peabody attorneys Frank Ryan, Henry Liu, and Nicholas Papastavros as partners in the firm's new global sports, media and entertainment group. Ryan and Papastavros will join the firm's IP and technology practice, while Liu will join the corporate and finance team.

US: Mark Litvack has left Reed Smith to join Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman's IP practice in Los Angeles. He is focused on litigation for copyright and trade mark infringement matters, internet piracy and prosecution, and entertainment law.

US: John Desmarais has left Kirkland & Ellis after 10 years as a partner to form Desmarais LLP. Desmarais argued on behalf of GlaxoSmithKline in the closely watched lawsuit against the USPTO's claims and continuations rule package. He left Kirkland's partnership in December 2009, and went solo in June. He describes his new firm as "a trial boutique specialising in complex, technology-driven disputes". He also founded Round Rock, a patent-holding company that is said to be the second largest non-practising entity.