JUVE Comment

This French IP boutique is well positioned in litigation. The mixed team acts for its clients in infringement and nullity cases before the French courts as well as in oppositions before the EPO. Companies from a wide array of industries trust in this dual expertise, but practice development has been especially dynamic in the telecoms and automotive sectors. The team demonstrated its know-how in these fields of technology with work for SFR in the multi-party litigation against Intellectual Ventures, and with its activity for Manitou in the dispute against J.C. Bamford. Loyer & Abello also represented the latter in the parallel EPO opposition case. This raised its visibility in these sectors and led to another telecoms provider calling on the team for matters involving employee invention law. Loyer & Abello also operates a prosecution practice which counts such industry giants as Alcatel, Nokia and Valeo among long-time clients, although these have recently been turning to competitors in international firms for their high-stakes litigation cases.

Strengths

Parallel litigation before national courts and in EPO oppositions. Mixed team with broad technical expertise.

European set-up

This independent French boutique maintains contacts at German, Italian and UK firms and has some experience coordinating international patent cases, especially when it also represents clients at the EPO. For Manitou, for instance, the team also coordinated the parallel UK proceedings. This experience and its mixed setup give the firm a solid foundation for the UPC.

Recommended individuals

Michel Abello (“a serious opponent”, “good with unusual strategies”, “very good, smart and a strong opponent”, “I have never seen someone fight so fiercely”, competitors)

Team

8 lawyers, 5 patent attorneys, 1 dual qualified

Specialties

All-round advice and litigation in all IP matters.

Clients

Litigation: SFR (defendant) against Intellectual Ventures over SEPs for DSL; Manitou (defendant) against Bamford over excavators; Cayago (claimant) against Toymaster and E-Clypse over seabobs; PackBenefit (claimant) against Cellulopack over biodegradable packaging; Arka Ouest (claimant) against Visiolab over real estate software; Innovation Packaging/Pivaudran against Technicaps over packaging; telecommunications provider on employee invention rights. Advice: licensing advice for Alcatel, GazTransport Technigaz, Inserm Transfert, Kerlink, Oncodesign, Vicat. Prosecution: patent filing for GazTransport Technigaz, Kerlink, Manitou, Nokia, NopTrack, Dendrogenix (all public knowledge).