Moves: INTA announces chief executive

INTA has appointed Etienne Sanz de Acedo as the trade mark association's new chief executive, replacing outgoing CEO Alan Drewsen.He joins from OHIM, where he served as head of communications and was a member of president António Campinos's cabinet. Sanz de Acedo, who speaks Spanish, French, English and Italian, is the first European to be appointed as an INTA executive. INTA says that part of his role will be to cultivate partnerships in new regions and with other IP and industry associations, as well as with non-traditional entities such as trade unions, public administrations and governments. He will take on his new role when Drewsen retires in summer, but will attend INTA's annual meeting in Dallas in May.

Baker & McKenzie in Mexico has recruited Christian Alejandro López-Silva as the head of its pharmaceutical and life sciences practice. López-Silva was previously director of the life sciences practice group at Tsuru Morales & Tsuru (now Tsuru Morales Isla Abogados).

Perkins Coie has added Mike Henson, who will join the firm as an IP partner from Holland & Hart. Henson focuses on patent and trade mark prosecution and litigation for technology companies. Henson was the second partner in the space of a month to join the firm's Denver office from Holland & Hart, after Brian Kinnear.

Peter Reyes, a former senior IP lawyer at Cargill, has joined Barnes & Thornburg's Minneapolis office as a partner. Reyes, who is also the president of the Hispanic National Bar Association, joins the firm's IP department. He focuses on patent preparation and prosecution as well as commercial and IP transactions.

US boutique Maschoff Gilmore & Israelsen has added 11 lawyers from Workman Nydegger and changed its name to Maschoff Brennan Laycock Gilmore Israelsen & Wright. The new hires include shareholders Sterling Brennan, David Wright, Larry Laycock, Charles (CJ) Veverka, Rex Sears and Kirk Harris, and six associates. Following the expansion, the firm now has 25 attorneys in three offices.

Juan Vanrell, a former partner of Bacot & Bacot and ASIPI president, has launched his own firm in Uruguay, taking five attorneys from his old firm. The new firm will be called Vanrell Intellectual Property Law. The team includes Fabiana Mateos, Verónica Vanrell, Claudia Croci, Carlos Benítez and Químico Alvaro Frizzi.

Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati has added a group of IP litigators from Sidley Austin, headed by trial lawyer Edward Poplawski, to its Los Angeles and Palo Alto offices. The majority of the team, which includes five partners, will be based in Wilson Sonsini's new Los Angeles office, which will open in early April. Partners Vera Elson, Paul Tripodi, Olivia Kim and Sandra Fujiyama will be moving with Poplawski.

Oblon Spivak McClelland Maier & Neustadt has added post-grant patent specialist Kevin Laurence as a partner. Laurence was most recently a partner at Stoel Rives, where he founded the patent practice and headed the patent operation in the Salt Lake City office.

Congressman Howard Berman has joined Covington & Burling's global public policy and government affairs practice. The addition of Berman, a Democrat and the former chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, came a week after the firm recruited Senator Jon Kyl, previously the second most senior Republican in the US Senate.

Newly elected Korean President Park Geun-hye has picked Kim Young-min to lead the Korea IP Office. Kim had served as the deputy commissioner of KIPO under former commissioner Kim Ho-won. The new commissioner also previously served as director-general of KIPO's Intellectual Property Policy Bureau, and was director-general of the Trade and Industrial Cooperation Bureau at the Ministry of Knowledge Economy.

David Case has joined Orrick's Tokyo office as a partner. Case joins from White & Case, where he was head of the firm's Japan and Northern Asia IP and commercial litigation practices.

Rouse has opened a Russia office, with one executive moving to Moscow and two lawyers coming from Russian firm Shevyrev & Partners. Executive Stuart Adams, Rouse's global head of dispute resolution, is setting up the office. Yana Tsygankova and Thomas Leger, meanwhile, have been hired from Shevyrev.