Managing IP Americas Awards 2026: shortlists revealed

The Managing IP Americas Awards returns this year to recognise firms and practitioners for their outstanding intellectual property achievements in the last year.

More than 90 categories across all IP practice areas have been listed this year. The shortlists for this year’s awards are published below.

The 2026 Americas event will be held at Guastavino's in New York City on April 9.

Now in its 21st year, the Managing IP Awards are the most comprehensive and widely respected awards for IP law firms and practitioners. Please read the research methodology below.

This year, the Americas event has expanded to include several new categories.

The US ‘Firm of the Year’ category was crafted to recognise overall excellence across IP areas, including patents, trademarks, copyright, and transactions. It is now the broadest honour in the US.

Also new this year is ‘Design Patent Firm of the Year’. The category highlights an area of US patent practice that the awards programme has not previously covered.

Latin America 'Firm to Watch' is our final new category. The award will highlight up-and-coming firms or those that have taken notable steps to elevate their market position.

Restructured categories

In addition to the new categories, we have also restructured and expanded several existing groups.

After a few years' pause, we have reintroduced ‘Plaintiff Firm of the Year’ to recognise US-based firms most active in patent assertion.

Other changes US firms can expect at this year’s awards include changes to regional practitioner awards.

Instead of state-based recognition, practitioner categories have been restructured to focus on US regions, including the Northeast, South, and Midwest.

We have also added regional practitioner categories for prosecution. The US now has 11 litigation categories and eight prosecution categories.

The 2026 awards also include new ‘Practitioner of the Year’ categories for several countries in Latin America, including expanded categories in Argentina and Chile.

Rather than having one overall ‘IP Firm of the Year’, both countries will now have separate categories to recognise the top firms.

This year’s Managing IP Americas Awards programme is about expansion. With firms and practitioners consistently reaching new levels of IP excellence, the awards programme is adding new recognition titles to keep pace.

Americas Awards questions

Our Americas business development manager, George Reeves, will contact all shortlisted law firms, companies and individuals about the ceremony. If you are interested in attending the ceremony, please register your interest here.

Please contact George if you require the official awards logo or if you or your firm/company would like to attend the event.

Congratulations to all the shortlisted firms, companies and individuals.

Impact Cases of the Year

 

The Managing IP Awards programme is the most comprehensive and widely respected IP law firm awards event in the legal industry. Now in its 21st year, the programme covers several IP practice areas and more than 50 jurisdictions. Read about the practice areas and award categories here.

Each year, our research analysts obtain information from thousands of firms, IP practitioners, and their clients through interviews, email, and online surveys. We ask firms and in-house teams to complete their respective research forms here.

Before compiling the shortlists, our researchers evaluated work data supplied by firms and, where applicable, reviewed publicly available information such as court and IP office records. They focused on work done or concluded in the previous year, particularly looking for case studies that were of great significance to clients and/or IP law and practice. Firms, companies, and individuals can also win an award or be shortlisted based on our independent research findings alone.

The research for the IP STARS rankings and the Managing IP Awards programme is rigorous and impartial. There is no fee to pay to participate in our research, but participation does not guarantee recognition. The awards are not influenced by any commercial relationship with Managing IP, and no firm or individual can pay to influence the results. Any firm, regardless of its ranking in IP STARS, can win a Managing IP award.

The Managing IP Awards programme is distinct and separate from any other legal industry awards programmes organised by the Legal Benchmarking Group and promoted on our website.

If you have questions or feedback about the Americas Awards, please contact Chris Adams.

History of the Managing IP Awards

Managing IP launched its awards programme in 2006. The ceremonies attract hundreds of guests, including in-house counsel and prominent public officials in the IP industry. It is widely regarded as the premier IP law firm awards event in the legal industry. Previous winners from the Managing IP Awards can be found here.