JUVE Comment

With a strong presence, especially in life sciences cases, Hogan Lovells’ Amsterdam patent team remains an important challenger to the two firms at the top of the Dutch litigation market. The arrival of renowned patent litigator Gertjan Kuipers from De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek in early 2023 came at just the right time as to enable the small Dutch team to exploit its potential in national and UPC cases. Kuipers, Ruud van der Velden, and up-and-coming counsel Dirk-Jan Ridderinkhof form a solid team that had little trouble absorbing the long-planned retirement of senior partner Bert Oosting.

In addition to a whole series of Dutch proceedings for clients such as Kindermann concerning presentation systems and Huisman regarding ships for pipelaying systems, the team has been mainly active in life sciences disputes. Medical products have played a major role. The team always conducts such disputes in cooperation with the firm’s teams in other countries, for example for Meril Life Sciences against Edwards Lifesciences, and for Advanced Bionics against MED-EL. Van der Velden’s team received particular praise for its successful work on behalf of Bristol-Myers Squibb regarding drug apixaban. Even though the team’s biggest success in recent years was the PI proceedings against Sandoz, Stada and Teva in 2023, the main proceedings still kept the team busy until 2024.

European set-up

Hogan Lovells’ strong presence in pan-European patent disputes with multinational teams has long been the basis for its reputation as one of the leading patent litigation teams in Europe. Even before the UPC was launched, the team of Dutch, German, French, Italian and London litigators worked on high-profile cases for life sciences clients such as Bristol-Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, Hoffmann La-Roche and Meril Life Sciences. The same applies to the mobile communications sector with regular clients such as Apple, Oppo and Vodafone.

The team has now effortlessly transferred this strength to the UPC, where Hogan Lovells is currently one of the most active law firms on the side of plaintiffs – but even more so on the side of defendants. Highlights include the representation of Xiaomi against Panasonic over SEPs and Meril Life Sciences against Abbott regarding medical devices. In many of the disputes, the German partners have the lead as main representatives, while the Amsterdam partners are part of the international teams behind them. However, they are by no means just a support. The dispute between Advanced Bionics and MED-EL over cochlear implants was initially heard in Dutch courts before reaching the UPC, where the Amsterdam team represents Advanced Bionics together with Kather Augenstein. The dispute between AIKO and Maxeon Solar also developed similarly from Dutch national proceedings to the UPC. Kuipers represents HL Display in a UPC case against Black Sheep Retail Products at the local division The Hague. The Amsterdam team is therefore not lacking in presence at the UPC, even though it was the German team that initially attracted the most attention.

Strengths

Patent disputes regarding mobile communications and for innovator pharmaceutical companies. Integrated European team for cross-border litigation.

Recommended individuals

Gertjan Kuipers (“exactly the partner Hogan Lovells needed for the UPC”, “a pleasure to work with on multi-jurisdictional cases”, competitors), Dirk-Jan Ridderinkhof (“does a really good job on the opposing side”, competitor), Ruud van der Velden (“deeply impressive what he did for Bristol-Myers Squibb in the apixaban case”, competitor)

Partner moves

Bert Oosting (retired)

Team

9 lawyers

Clients

Litigation: Bristol-Myers Squibb against Sandoz, Stada and Teva in PI proceedings regarding apixaban patent for Factor XA inhibitor Eliquis; Meril Life Sciences against Edwards Lifesciences over heart valves; Advanced Bionics against MED-EL in nullity suit over cochlear implant system; AIKO against Maxeon Solar in PI proceedings over Solar panel technology; Oppo against Philips concerning UMTS and LTE standards (settled 2024); Kindermann against Barco regarding presentation systems (ended); Solvay against Ciner over patent relating to soda ash; Organik Kimya against Argon Kimya and Ekkochem regarding abuse of trade secrets over polymeres; Huisman against Royal IHC over ships for pipelaying systems; frequent litigation for Eli Lilly, Fering and Hoffmann-La Roche.