United Kingdom (England)

Boult is a top-tier European firm specialising in IP advice and solutions for both domestic and international clients. Our focus is on delivering a quality work product, understanding our client’s markets, and making sound judgements – values we have upheld since our establishment in 1894. With experts located in the UK, Germany, and Spain, we collaborate seamlessly to provide IP expertise and commercial knowledge, enabling our clients to achieve their business goals. We foster cross-team and cross-border collaboration, encouraging the exchange of ideas and information amongst our staff. What keeps our team together is our dedication to delivering excellent service to clients through a practical problem-solving approach. We excel at what we do, with many of our professionals being leaders in their respective fields. We possess a genuine passion for guiding clients through every aspect of their IP journey, from exploitation and protection to commercial use, infringement, or disputes. We offer creative yet pragmatic advice, a high degree of professional excellence, and unwavering commitment to our clients.

Services

• Trade marks – Our highly skilled experts are experienced negotiators and have particular expertise in the management of large portfolios; searching and watching; domain name recovery; and trading standards and customs work.
• Patents – Our European, UK and German experts advise on the creation, exploitation and enforcement of IP rights across a wide range of sectors. They provide creative IP solutions and outstanding client service.
• Designs – The team can advise clients across a wide range of industries on matters of design law and practice. They combine their commercial knowledge with legal expertise to provide high quality advice that is always pragmatic.
• Global plant breeders’ rights and national listings – The team supports horticultural and biopharma clients, has significant experience in UK plant breeders’ rights, can assist clients in obtaining rights across Europe and offers advice on infringement risks associated with rights held by third parties.
  Responsible business

Boult is proud to call itself a responsible business. It’s a facet of our business that we take very seriously, making commercial decisions which do not solely boost our bottom line, but deliver real benefits to our people. Our internal culture and our wellbeing is really important to us, but we are equally focussed upon improving the wider community at home and abroad. We strive to create a diverse and inclusive workplace, promote sustainable practices, and have a clear sense of purpose. We are committed to making a positive impact in our industry, on society and the environment.

To find out more about how Boult can help your business, contact us, or sign up to our mailing list, visit our website (www.boult.com).

Kilburn & Strode is Europe’s market leader in premium intellectual property work. Clients seek us out to solve their most challenging issues by handling their most complex, business-critical, legal and commercial matters.

For more than 100 years, we have been trusted to provide strategic IP advice and navigate the complex world of IP for an impressive roster of clients of all sizes, including some of the world’s most impressive innovators and leading brands.

Organisations look to us when IP is critical to their business goals and, ultimately, their success. Experts in strategy, enforcement, risk, and global portfolio management, our focus on high-profile, high-pressure, high-stakes work makes us first-choice partners for when the IP really matters.

From ensuring new medical technologies come to market that save millions of lives to helping carbon mitigating technologies succeed – we make a positive impact. Outside of the world of science and technology, we champion diversity and social responsibility and give back through our Innovation for All Foundation which donates 1% of profits annually to charity.

Kilburn & Strode is the only European IP firm ranked in the top tier for both trade mark and patent prosecution in all five of the major legal directories.

With offices in London (HQ), Eindhoven, Rotterdam, Munich, and liaison offices in San Francisco and Boston, we’re the only firm to connect these centres for European IP with the pulse of Silicon Valley and the heartbeat of America’s hub for life sciences. 

We’re Europe’s leading premium IP firm, the firm companies hire when business success depends on IP success.

Learn how we can help: www.kilburnstrode.com  

Potter Clarkson helps companies, organisations and individuals across all sectors of business to understand, create, protect and defend the commercial value of their innovations anywhere in the world through intellectual property rights.

As a full-service intellectual property law firm with expertise in patents, trade marks, designs, litigation, licensing and consultancy, Potter Clarkson provides specialist support in all areas of IP including:

• -Identifying what can be protected.
• Securing IP rights.
• Realising the full value of clients’ assets with smart commercial arrangements.
• Helping clients develop the value of their innovations by enforcing their rights against competitors.
• Putting in place a managed IP strategy so that clients can maximise commercial opportunities.

Potter Clarkson is recognised for its wide-ranging technical and legal expertise, progressive thinking, business knowledge, deep commercial insight and approachability.

The firm’s experts make it their business to understand the practical challenges facing their clients, as well as their commercial ambitions for the future. Providing the very highest quality of client service, strategic advice and ‘right first time’ delivery, Potter Clarkson ultimately measures its own success by the success of its clients.

What makes the firm different?

As a firm, Potter Clarkson has one clearly defined purpose: Creating value from innovation.

This provides the context and meaning for the work their attorneys and solicitors do every day. They are committed to using their expertise to solve the IP challenges their clients face so that their innovations achieve commercial success.

Through the firm’s integrated service lines, deep sector knowledge and genuine interest in innovative ideas, the firm offers a complete IP solution to every challenge and opportunity their clients face.

Built for success

The firm is recognised as a top-tier firm in Europe, with offices in multiple EU-member states, having received accreditations from the IP profession’s leading benchmarking organisations and programmes.

With the infrastructure to match its credentials as a leading European firm, there is a commitment to continuous improvement in the quality of its services by investing in its people and systems. The 200-strong specialist team operates from dedicated offices in the UK, Sweden, Denmark and Germany, supported by an established network of overseas attorneys to provide expert advice, wherever clients want to take their product or brand.

Having been in business for more than 130 years, the firm takes great pride in its heritage, but is firmly focussed on the future. That’s why Potter Clarkson invests heavily in shaping its services and products around the needs of innovative businesses.

Gill Jennings & Every LLP (GJE) is a leading firm of European patent and trade mark attorneys which combines a relentless focus on high-quality IP services with an innovative approach to providing strategic and consulting advice to clients and investors. We act throughout the EU – and will continue to do so through both our London and Munich offices.

Our world-wide corporate and foreign attorney clients value the efficiency of the service we provide in acquiring and maintaining their and their clients’ IP rights as effectively as possible. We ensure the right combination of quality advice, fast processes, and technology to give clients the right support for their needs. Our ability to manage large portfolios and keep clients informed of their IP rights is highly regarded, whether using our own technology such as our well-regarded Client Portal, or updating our clients’ databases directly. Our own service standards and processes combine with individual Service Level Agreements to ensure we provide the types and levels of services our clients expect.

We are widely recognised for our commercial acumen and regularly work with leading corporate lawyers and accountants in handling strategic IP issues, and have developed new IP services designed to ‘future proof’ our client businesses. Marketed as ConsultIP™, those services put IP at the centre of business strategy rather than in its traditional place as an ancillary concern. Through ConsultIP™, we provide a full range of support for patent, trade mark and designs portfolios, including an objective review of the value of those portfolios, to help clients exploit their investment, and attract further funding for their ventures.

Our strong reputation in Oppositions, whether defending our clients’ rights or attacking our opponents’ claims, is built on a record of wins which is second to none. Since conception, GJE’s opposition’s group have handled over 1300 oppositions (close to 450 defending, and 850 attacking). The firm’s opposition practice has significantly increased over the last 5 years through handling over 400 oppositions in this time period. Our expertise is spread across the firm with over 70 new oppositions being taken on in 2021.

Our client bank includes global corporations, foreign attorneys, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), early-stage/spin-out companies, universities, and individual inventors.

Our attorneys offer a broad range of technology-agnostic skills, in addition to our core specialist expertise in engineering, physics, IT/software, electronics, life sciences, medical technologies and chemistry.

Mewburn Ellis is the forward-looking European IP firm. We are a business that puts our clients, our people and our values at the heart of everything we do. It is what we believe makes us unique in the IP space.

With more than 150 years' experience in the IP profession, our focus is on providing clear, honest, strategic advice to maximise the potential of IP as an asset and so increase the value of our clients’ business. The result is a firm with a stellar national and international client list that builds strong and long-standing client relationships – over a third of our clients have worked with us for over 20 years. Our approach is always personal and client-focused. We work hard to ensure our clients benefit from “joined up” thinking when it comes to their IP strategy working alongside them as trusted partners in order to support their business ambitions and growth plans. We work at all stages of the IP lifecycle, from protecting IP to commercialisation, as well as dealing with disputes should they arise.

We have an international IP practice and work with some of the most innovative companies across the globe to advise on and positively influence their filing and prosecution strategies working hard to achieve a deep understanding of their commercial goals and long term vision. From household brands to dynamic start-ups across all industries and our clients are as diverse as the technical areas we cover.

With expertise spanning over 50 specialist technical areas we work across the entire chemistry, materials, engineering, ICT and life sciences sectors. We also have specialist expertise in SPC's and other Patent Term Extensions as well as Plant Variety Inventions.

Many of our patent attorneys have PhDs, and our clients always feel confident they are dealing with someone with a real technical understanding. Our qualified patent paralegals possess an in-depth understanding of the complexities of all aspects of the patent administrative process and provide exceptional client service.

We are committed to our ‘Forward Community Programme’ and being a good corporate citizen. We want to have a positive impact on our people, communities, and the planet in which we live. Our community programme has now been running for four years and has made tremendous change, and we have now given over £1 Million to good causes. You can see more about our community programme here: https://www.mewburn.com/community-giving. As a firm, we focus on Inclusion and Diversity, and it has become part of our culture. We started from the top with each member of our management board signing up to the IP Inclusive Senior Leader’s Pledge, as well as many of our people being recognised as diversity influentials and trailblazers. In addition, we actively support charities that are in line with our strategic I&D priorities. Sustainability is also an important focus for us. We work with many green clients who share the same values as us, as we continue to build on our own green credentials. We are proud to have been awarded the prestigious EcoVadis Platinum Medal in 2024. We are the world’s first Intellectual Property firm to receive this medal, which is the highest rating you can earn in sustainable business practices.

We are recognised for the quality of our people and we devote considerable energy and resources into developing them. We foster a continuous learning environment that is accessible to all and integrated into our day-to-day life. Our open learning culture is all inclusive, regardless of the stage that people are at in their career we strive to ensure that innovation and success is perpetuated and shared. Investment in our people is key for us and it’s our commitment to sharing knowledge, insights and best practice that makes a Mewburn-trained attorney an excellent attorney.

Maucher Jenkins is an Anglo-German Intellectual Property firm with offices in the UK, Germany, Switzerland and China, staffed by local partners and attorneys with a genuinely international perspective.

Our attorneys advise on all aspects of intellectual property in the various legal systems in which we operate. We are also able to advise our clients on the business cultures and economic and cultural distinctions between the UK and Germany for both national and European filings. Our UK-based attorneys practice out of both our London and Munich offices ensuring a close working relationship with our German colleagues. This enables us to offer our clients swift, responsive and fully tailored IP legal services in two of the most important jurisdictions in Europe. Our presence in China is a further advantage and allows us to advise clients on safely navigating the legal and cultural features of the largest economy in the world.

Our patents team files and prosecutes patent applications and carries out patent portfolio and freedom to operate reviews in fast moving areas of technology, along with validity and infringement analysis. We have specialist patent litigators in the UK and Germany. All of our patent attorneys have scientific or engineering backgrounds with significant industry or academic experience. The team’s technical understanding is essential to successfully representing the interests of our clients.

The patents team boasts extraordinarily wide sector specialisms. James Cross leads on IT, satellites, software, fintech and electronics. Hugh Dunlop is in charge of teams specialising in wireless telecoms, green energy, and the Internet-of-Things. Reuben Jacob heads up the Life Sciences team, along with Fiona Kellas. Their team serves a range of clients in medtech, medical devices, pharma, biotech, chemistry and agro-chem. Ad hoc expert teams are formed for nanotech and AI, according to applications. Holly Whitlock and Phil Treeby together lead on engineering, physics and mathematics patenting. Stuart Rowlands has a background in engineering and is an expert on rechargeable batteries and green-tech.

Our trade marks team works with clients of all sizes, advising on the registrability of new brand names and logos, conducting searches to locate any potentially conflicting third-party rights, filing and prosecuting trade mark applications and acting on behalf of clients in relation to any disputes.

We have a strong litigation team experienced in representing clients in IP matters before the English High Court, the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court and the German courts.

We are experts in advising clients on domain name registration, copyright law and protecting against cybersquatting. Our attorneys obtain design protection for new and innovative product shapes and advise on effective action against copyright infringement, including seizure and detention of infringing goods.

The trade marks team is experienced in a wide range of industries and is particularly known for their expertise in the following sectors: media and entertainment, pharmaceuticals and medical devices, cosmetics, food and beverages, financial services and fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG). The trade marks and brand protection team is headed up by Angela Fox, Katie Cameron and Tanya Buckley.

Maucher Jenkins is the joint trading name of RGC Jenkins & Co in the UK (regulated by IPReg) and Maucher Jenkins Patentanwälte & Rechtsanwälte in Germany.

Withers & Rogers is one of Europe’s largest dedicated intellectual property law firms, with offices across the UK, Paris and Munich. Established more than 130 years ago, we remain as passionate as ever about making intellectual property work to our clients’ best advantage. Today, our clients include many renowned, innovative organisations from across Europe, North America and Asia.

Withers & Rogers has a breadth and depth of experience and expertise that we believe is second to none. In addition to our practice groups, we have a number of specialist groups, enabling us to pool our industry knowledge and bring added value for our clients.

We offer a comprehensive service that extends to both securing IP rights – such as patents, trade mark and design registrations for the UK, Europe and further afield – and advising on their exploitation and enforcement. Alongside, we provide proactive support functions that help our clients keep track of their IP, stay on top of its maintenance, and stay in control of cost.

Recognition of the long-term, strategic importance of IP is growing apace, and to help our clients make the most of their creativity, we can build strategies that embrace critical areas like innovation culture, due diligence, freedom to operate, invention management, and patent mapping, to name but a few.

All of our patent and trade mark attorneys are selected on the basis of excellent academic achievement and industry knowledge. This ensures our clients receive a service that delivers both technical excellence and commercial insight.

Appleyard Lees is a leading intellectual property law firm, with approximately 80 patent and trademark attorneys and litigators.

Who we are, and what we do – but also, how we do it – makes us distinctive. 

Our commercially intelligent approach to client service incorporates flexibility and adaptability. We strive to be agile, to respond to specific client requirements in a way that suits them.

We help a broad range of IP owners and creators, including in-house teams, R&D specialists, owner-managers and branding professionals, protect and monetise their intellectual property. We also support clients manage post-grant challenges, should they arise. 

Our clients include some of the world’s most exciting innovators, largest companies and household names, with a number of clients obtaining Fortune 500, Fortune Global 2000, FTSE 100, FTSE 250 and Forbes Global 2000 status. Our clients operate across a diverse collection of industries, including chemicals, retail, consumer goods, electronics, software, bio and life sciences, pharmaceuticals, metals and heavy industry, higher education and hospitality, leisure and tourism.

In addition to our catalogue of multinational and multimillion-pound clients, Appleyard Lees is equally proud of the role we have played in the growth of start-up businesses. 

The firm recruits the very best professionals who have a passion for their individual areas of specialism, and supports staff throughout their career development. Providing expert training, we ensure our staff can deliver outstanding service.

With offices in UK innovation hotspots, we are positioned to give clients expert strategic IP advice in the UK and worldwide. 

Areas of specialism
EIP is a leading IP law firm advising on high-value and complex patent matters. Our multidisciplinary team combines patent attorneys, litigators and commercial IP lawyers. EIP is located in key strategic markets – Germany, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States.

The benefit of combining attorneys and litigators is well illustrated by EIP’s successful representation of clients in high-stakes patent litigation before the UK High Court, the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court, and before the German district and federal courts.

Aside from the more mainstream drafting and prosecution practices, EIP’s patent attorneys work closely with the litigation team in the United Kingdom and Germany, providing additional technical expertise on large-scale international patent litigation matters. We also have a dedicated, experienced and technically skilled team supporting clients before the new Unified Patent Court (UPC). EIP brings together highly recognised litigation lawyers and European patent attorneys that are experienced in English and German across all technical fields and since the UPC opened its doors also has experience from a number of cases before different venues of the new court.

EIP is increasingly involved in advisory and strategic project work in relation to the enforcement of patent rights, including portfolio analyses, infringement and validity analyses and claim charting, as well as strategic IP advice such as due diligence related to acquisitions and joint ventures. Team members often counsel clients on strategic patent portfolio management and development matters, and EIP has been retained to assist in developing high-level IP strategies for some of the world’s largest companies. Recently, after strategic hire, the team can also advise on China related matters.

To complement the high-value patent advice we already provide to our clients, we give commercial advice on the exploitation and use of IP rights and ancillary issues arising in relation to data protection and rights of privacy.

EIP has represented clients in hundreds of oppositions before the EPO over the past two decades and represent clients in person at hearings at the EPO in Munich, The Hague and Berlin, as well as via videoconference hearings.

The firm’s integrated team of patent attorneys, litigators and paralegals can act in national court litigation alongside EPO opposition proceedings for a seamless, consistent and effective service.

Clients
EIP has a diverse international client base, advising blue-chip companies through to small and mid-sized enterprises. Clients include Nokia, VISA, Airbus, AP Moller-Maersk, Pulpex, Sonos, Broadcom and Optis.

Clients choose EIP for its commercial outlook, in-house experience, honest opinions and pioneering approach to dealing with patents. Our attorneys and lawyers have considerable technical knowledge in the areas of high tech, advanced engineering, chemistry, life sciences, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, healthcare, medical technology and energy.

Firm overview
EIP was established in 2000 and has rapidly grown to be a leading IP firm with 36 partners and more than 180 staff practising from its four UK offices in Bath, Cardiff, Leeds and London, its German office in Düsseldorf, its Sweden office in Stockholm and its US office in Denver, Colorado.

In 2024 EIP was named “European Patent Disputes Firm of the Year” at Managing Intellectual Property EMEA awards for the third time. EIP is a Legal 500, Chambers & Partners, IAM Patent 1000, IP Stars and JUVE-recommended firm, as well as being one of four firms achieving gold rankings all six categories in the Financial Times' Europe's Leading Patent Law Firms award list: Biotechnology, Food & Healthcare, Chemistry & Pharmacy, Electrical Engineering & Physics, IT & Software, Materials & Nanotechnology, and Mechanical Engineering.

Notable cases
EIP has built an enviable reputation in patent litigation and has won the following high-profile cases for clients:

• EIP secured a landmark victory in the UK Supreme Court for its clients Unwired Planet and Conversant Wireless, in Unwired Planet v Huawei and Conversant Wireless v Huawei & ZTE – the most eagerly anticipated telecoms cases in years. The Supreme Court’s combined ruling defines the licensing of patented technology considered essential to the international standards for previous and future generations of wireless telecommunications technology.
• EIP secured a significant victory for client Conversant Wireless in Germany. EIP successfully asserted a standard essential patent (SEP) for Conversant against Stuttgart carmaker Daimler in a dispute that will have repercussions across the sector.
• EIP obtained a victory in the Düsseldorf District Court for its client Conversant Wireless in two patent infringement decisions against Huawei and ZTE. The court affirmed infringement of two 3G-related SEPs by Huawei and ZTE products. Subject to enforcement, the ruling awarded, among other things, an injunction against both companies, confirming a previous but non-accepted licence offer by Conversant as fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory.

Built on solid foundations dating back to 1891, today Barker Brettell is a modern and vibrant intellectual property (IP) practice, the cornerstone of which continues to be patents, trade marks and designs and copyright and, ultimately, putting IP on its clients’ board room agenda through IP strategy and management, and additional services such as IP audits and valuations.

The firm’s clients benefit from over 60 attorneys and trainee attorneys with a variety of academic backgrounds, as well as a large and highly regarded support network of paralegals and administrators.  It’s UK practice, based in Birmingham and Southampton, is also supported by a team of attorneys in Sweden, which means the firm can offer a seamless and consistent service for clients in Europe and, in respect of trade marks, before the EUIPO.

Barker Brettell’s UK-based and international client portfolio spans independent inventors, start-ups, SMEs, universities, university tech transfer and spin-out organisations and other research institutions and government agencies as well as large, multi-national, global corporations.

When it comes to patents, Barker Brettell operates and has strength and depth in all of the major (and EPO recognised) technical fields (including Biotechnology, Computer implemented technology, Electronics & Semiconductors, Engineering & Manufacturing, Fintech, Life Sciences & Chemistry, Medical devices, Pharmaceuticals and Physics & Materials) and practice-wide, the firm overlays its technical expertise with a sector-focused approach that spans the Aerospace, Automotive, Computing & Software, Cosmetics, Energy, Food & Drink, Medical and Universities sectors.

Types of work undertaken:

Patents: Our patent team continues to acquire and support the procurement and management of over 1,700 new patent applications annually, with particular experience in managing intricate patent portfolios. One service that helps us stand out in the IP market is our ‘IP Valuation’ package: designed for clients considering M&A, investment, or floatation; optimizing tax-efficiency, or calculating royalties.

The firm's patent specialisms include pre-filing advice and patentability searches, invention mining and the drafting of applications for new inventions, the filing and prosecution of patent applications, advice on contentious issues, EPO opposition work, freedom-to-operate opinions, landscape searching, transactional work relating to licensing and IP-related due diligence and recently added IP valuations and audits.

The firm has a strong secondment program seconding patent attorneys to internal in-house patent departments.

Trade marks: We routinely handle filing and prosecuting of 2,700 trade marks annually, which we are confident exceeds many of our competitors. We tailor filing and enforcement strategies for clients, handling oppositions, revocations, cancellations, cease and desist letters, internet takedowns, company name and domain name complaints and customs actions. We are also experts in the negotiation of settlements.

From advising to enforcement, our trade mark practitioners have extensive experience in all trade mark aspects. Our team acts directly before the UK Intellectual Property Office (UKIPO) and the World Intellectual Property Office (WIPO); we continually rank among the top filers of UK trade marks (and formerly EU trade marks, until this work transferred to our Sweden office).

The firm's trade mark specialisms include IP strategy, the searching, filing and prosecution of applications, oppositions, cancellations, enforcement programmes, the negotiation of settlement agreements, renewals, assignments and licensing, domain name issues, internet takedown actions, customs and excise actions, due diligence exercises, portfolio management and counterfeiting issues.

Designs & Copyright:  Designs continues to be a real specialism within Barker Brettell's practice, and the firm is routinely ranked as one of the highest filers of UK and EU designs of any UK firm.  With much interplay between designs and other IP rights, its designs team comprises patent and trade mark attorneys who provide robust and cost-effective strategies for design protection. Over the years the firm has built a strong reputation for designs advice and strategy.

In addition to its core services, the firm has a strong oppositions and appeals record and offers additional services including IP audits and IP valuations.

Murgitroyd is a rapidly growing firm with innovation at its heart.

For over 50 years we’ve built a reputation as one of the world’s leading strategic IP firms. Trusted by global innovators and businesses to realise and protect the true value of their intellectual assets. History we may have, but we instead face forward. Our success lies in the positive relationships we build and our unrivalled breadth of expertise – from an unmatched technical knowledge to a proven commercial awareness.

We’re more than legal experts – we’re a strategic IP solutions firm with an unrivalled breadth of expertise. Our UK and European patent, trade mark and design attorneys bring together solid legal foundations, unmatched technical knowledge, and a commercial awareness that can drive growth and accelerate success.

We build relationships – globally. Our job is to protect and unlock the full potential of your innovations and ideas – not just in your country, but around the world. Our global team of specialists have an unrivalled knowledge in local laws and practices that provide a benchmark for advice and expertise wherever it’s needed to help you grow your business in markets you never thought possible, in ways you never imagined.

Our global office network spans Europe, North America and Asia. With over 440 employees (including over 350 attorneys) worldwide, our people have leading IP expertise across many industries including automotive, engineering & energy; consumer brands & services; chemistry & materials; life sciences & healthcare; and technology, media & telecoms.

Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner, LLP is one of the world’s largest full-service IP firms. With offices in the United States, Asia and Europe, the firm practices European, German, UK, and US IP law. In addition to all aspects of patent, trademark, and copyright law, including counseling, prosecution, licensing, and litigation, Finnegan provides counseling and litigation services in advertising, privacy, and a wide spectrum of additional IP-adjacent commercial matters, including trade secrets, international trade, the Internet, e-commerce, government contracts, antitrust, and unfair competition. A comprehensive approach to clients’ IP needs and Finnegan’s mega-boutique size underpins its year-to-year, decade-to-decade preeminence in IP litigation and trials across all industries and tribunals.

With Finnegan’s practice centered on intellectual property, the firm can create economies of scale and focus all resources on providing the best tools and teams for clients. Approximately 300 of Finnegan’s legal professionals hold degrees in scientific disciplines (75+ hold PhDs), and the majority are also registered to practise before the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), European Patent Office (EPO), the German Patent and Trade Mark Office (DPMA), the UK Intellectual Property Office (UKIPO), or the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO).

With more than 60 years’ IP experience, Finnegan’s global IP enforcement, litigation, and trials practice is comprised of over 250 litigators, including career trial attorneys. The firm handles hundreds of cases and proceedings across all forms of US IP litigation, German patent litigation, and European patent, trademark, copyright, and trade secret litigation in courts, including US district courts, the US International Trade Commission (ITC), the USPTO’s Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB), US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, the US Supreme Court, German regional civil courts, UK courts, and the Unified Patent Court. As one of the first firms to file a petition and subsequently argue a post-grant review of a covered business method case following the implementation of the America Invents Act, Finnegan is one of the busiest law firms representing petitioners and patent owners in patent office invalidity proceedings in the U.S. and Europe, including ex parte reexaminations, inter partes and post-grant reviews, nullity proceedings, oppositions, and third-party observations. The firm files approximately 2,500 US and 1,000 foreign patent applications annually.

Finnegan’s trademark practice, renowned for its experience, sophistication, creativity and depth, is comprehensive and follows the life of a mark from selection, clearance, prosecution and maintenance to portfolio management, trademark audits, licensing, watch disputes and litigation. The firm’s trademark clients include start-ups, small and medium-sized companies, as well as Fortune 100 companies. The range of industries represented includes sports and fitness, food and beverage, consumer products, mechanical, manufacturing, clean energy and renewables, entertainment, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology, financial services, publishing, the Internet, software, computers and telecommunications, and automotive.

Surveys conducted by legal and business publications consistently rank Finnegan as one of the leading IP law practices in the world. The firm is ranked in the United States for litigation and non-contentious patent and trademark work by publications including Managing Intellectual Property and The Legal 500, which have ranked Finnegan as a top-tier firm in nearly every significant IP category for nearly two decades. The publications cite the firm’s winning record, technical expertise and deep bench of talent in all aspects of IP litigation, including trials, appeals and proceedings at global patent offices, and ITC investigations.

Representative engagements

•    Obtained a $240 million jury verdict for client Promptu in a patent infringement lawsuit against Comcast. The jury found that Comcast willfully infringed Promptu’s patents covering voice recognition technology for TV. 

•    Secured a significant victory for client US Synthetic Corporation (USS) with a precedential decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) overturning an unfavorable 35 U.S.C. § 101 eligibility ruling from the International Trade Commission (ITC).

•    Finnegan represents Subaru in multiple ongoing TTAB proceedings, including cancellations and oppositions.

•    Represented Sarepta Therapeutics, Inc. and its licensor The University of Western Australia in patent litigation relating to nucleic acid therapies for treatment of Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). A federal jury in the District of Delaware awarded Sarepta Therapeutics over $115 million in its patent infringement case against Nippon Shinyaku Co. Ltd. This substantial verdict upholds the validity of Sarepta’s groundbreaking exon-skipping treatment, and the underlying work at the University of Western Australia.

•    Oversees the comprehensive trademark and copyright portfolio for the EMMY and EMMY Award Statuettes on behalf of The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, handling all aspects of prosecution and enforcement. This work includes negotiating and drafting license agreements with authorized statuette manufacturers and sponsors, collaborating with Customs and Border Protection to prevent unauthorized imports, conducting due diligence on potential international partners, and managing U.S. and foreign trademark applications, prosecution, and oppositions.

•    Managing the global prosecution of AstraZeneca’s portfolio for Beyfortus® (nirsevimab), the recently FDA-approved extended half-life monoclonal antibody (mAb) aiming to protect all infants entering their first RSV season, when they are at highest risk for severe RSV disease.

Over the last century we’ve been lucky enough to have played a part in protecting some of the world’s most ground-breaking inventions and high profile brands. You can trust us to know IP law inside out, to be curious, and to connect the dots to reach solutions others don’t.

We will provide you with a team, rich in real-world experience, comprising experts who have worked at the forefront of pioneering technologies. A substantial number of our lawyers hold qualifications in scientific or technical fields, meaning we are often called upon for our specialist knowledge and insight on large international mandates. We are respected for our creative and original solutions.

We offer both litigation and transactional support in relation to all IP rights, from small innovative projects to the largest, most complex and ground-breaking transactions and disputes.

Our approach has always been centred on client service, collaborating and innovating with our clients to create bespoke solutions that make their lives easier. This includes: our 'twobirds Pattern' product, a proprietary, in-house patent valuation and analysis tool, that allows us to landscape, analyse, and value patent portfolios in an automated and sophisticated way; and our innovative and dynamic Brand Protection Reporting Portal, which uses dynamic charts that give clients an up-to-date overview of their risk profile at any given time.

Talk to us to find out how our tools, experience and our genuine passion for IP can help you devise a strategy that will help to maintain your competitive edge, whilst protecting and optimising your IP in the best way possible.

Internationally Bird & Bird has over 400 IP lawyers, attorneys and legal professionals across our 29 offices, many of whom have known each other and worked together for years, meaning we're all on the same page and offer consistency and quality that runs through all levels of seniority. We are therefore ideally placed to devise and coordinate multi-jurisdictional litigation strategies and,in the future, to represent clients before the Unified Patent Court.

Office Locations: Australia, Belgium, China, Czech Republic & Slovakia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates and United States of America

Global Reach with Local Insight. With the combined talent of 2,800 lawyers spanning five continents, we bring a world of relevant experience to every matter. We create clarity from complexity, and forge deep, committed client relationships in the process.

The Simmons & Simmons international IP team offers the specialist expertise of a boutique IP practice complemented by the full service offering of a major international firm. We are well known in the market for our high-calibre clients and involvement in many of the leading IP cases and transactions, both in the UK and internationally.

Our IP practice, comprising litigation, prosecution and transactional expertise, for both brands/trade mark and patents matters, is one of the only international firms that provide the full suite of IP services from one trusted source – a significant differentiator in the legal market.

We boast an extremely deep and strong bench. Consisting of over 100 fee earners internationally, our IP team has a presence across EMEA (in Belgium, China, Dubai, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, The Netherlands), the UK and Asia.

Known for our expertise in the life sciences, fintech and technology sectors, we leverage our in-depth industry knowledge developed over our 120+ year history to provide the best advice to the most sophisticated clients. The majority of our patent litigators, attorneys and transactional IP lawyers have technical backgrounds, including advanced degrees and scientific research experience, giving our clients the advantage of market leading legal advisors who also understand their complex and cutting-edge inventions.

A&O Shearman is one of the pre-eminent legal practices in the UK, advising domestic and international corporates, financial institutions, investment funds and government bodies on their most complex and strategic matters.

Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer (HSF Kramer) was formed in June 2025 through the transformational combination of Herbert Smith Freehills and Kramer Levin, creating a world-leading global law firm. With over 6,000 people including c.2700 lawyers and spanning 26 offices, HSF Kramer provides comprehensive legal services across every major region of the world. Uniquely positioned to help clients achieve ambitious objectives, HSF Kramer delivers exceptional results in complex transactions and high-stakes disputes.

Our lawyers help the world's foremost companies unlock the value of their IP to protect their investments, secure and maintain competitive advantage and obtain commercial outcomes. Our teams are internationally recognised as market leaders and have acted on some of the most complex disputes and transactions for our clients.

For more information visit www.hsfkramer.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/hsfkramer/

Marks & Clerk is one of the UK’s largest, and longest established, intellectual property firms. Our expert teams of patent and trade mark attorneys and lawyers are wired directly into the UK’s innovation economies via our offices in London, Birmingham, Manchester, Oxford, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen. Alongside our presence in the UK, we also have offices in nine international locations covering the EU, Canada and Asia, meaning we can tap into local expertise, globally. 

Our team provides a full-service IP offering, from the initial filing of IP, through to litigation and commercial exploitation. Having seen the benefits that our clients derive from our full-service model, a number of patent attorney firms have since sought to follow a similar approach by adding solicitors to their teams. However, our well-established and highly regarded litigation and commercial transactions practices continue to set us apart from other firms.

We are experts not only in intellectual property law, but also in the science and technology that underpins our clients’ businesses. Our ability to draw upon this specialist technical expertise, not just in the context of patent prosecution but also in the context of litigation and commercial transactions, enables us to provide clients with a level of service and reach unmatched by other firms.

Powell Gilbert is one of the most highly regarded European IP law firms, with unrivalled patent litigation experience and a blue-chip brands practice.  In addition to extensive patent litigation experience before the national courts, the firm has rapidly established itself as one of the leading firms for patent litigation before the Unified Patent Court.  PG also has unrivalled experience in advising clients on European IP strategy and coordinating European IP litigation. PG is frequently involved in devising European patent litigation strategies, acting as co-ordinating counsel and working alongside local teams to put those strategies into effect and ensure consistency of approach.  The firm has played a central role in cases before many courts, including in the UK, continental Europe and Scandinavia, the UPC, the United States (district court and ITC proceedings), Australia, China, Korea and Japan.

In UK litigation, the team routinely represents clients before the patent courts at all levels, including on appeal before the UK Supreme Court, where it has appeared in a number of precedent-setting cases in recent years.

In UPC litigation, PG’s success since the Court opened its doors in June 2023 was recognised when PG won JUVE Patent’s inaugural “UPC Firm of the Year” Award and MIP’s (UK) UPC Firm of the Year Award. PG is uniquely well placed to advise on the opportunities and risks which result from the addition of the UPC to the existing European patent litigation landscape. The PG team has been involved in UPC cases before a variety of Local, Regional, and Central Divisions and also the Court of Appeal – including appearing as advocates.

The firm includes some of Europe’s leading patent litigators. Almost all lawyers have technical backgrounds, including many with PhDs or master’s degrees in relevant scientific disciplines.  The firm also advises on complex technology contract disputes and provides IP portfolio assessments and FTO analyses.

The firm advises across the full spectrum of IP rights. Its experience in patent litigation ranges across all technical fields, from acting in the earliest biotechnology patent cases to involvement in the smartphone wars and leading cases on FRAND licensing disputes. It has appeared in many of Europe’s most technically and legally complex cases, including representing clients in referrals to the CJEU and the EFTA Court on SPCs. The firm also represents clients in EPO oppositions and other registry proceedings, including before the UK IPO.

Although focused on litigation, the firm is experienced in alternative dispute resolution, including mediation and arbitration.