JUVE Comment

This well-positioned French boutique around French lawyer and UK-qualified solicitor Denis Schertenleib is one of the challengers to the French market leaders. The team has strong, long-established ties to generics manufacturers Mylan, Sandoz and Zentiva and frequently litigates for these clients in disputes over their most important current and new drugs.

In the past two years, the team has proven that it can shine in SEP cases when it comes to asserting FRAND claims. The case for TCL was wrapped up at the end of 2021, however. Now the team has entered the fray as a possible advisor to new clients on FRAND licensing.

The firm has invested in home-grown talent. One sustainable step now is to develop these lawyers all the way to the partnership, in order to broaden the client base in the long term and to extend the market’s perception away from the name partner to other lawyers.

Strengths

In-depth knowledge of the pharmaceuticals market, in particular generic drugs.

European set-up

Generics manufacturers have relied on the firm for the French part of their pan-European cases for years. Here, the internationally experienced team works flexibly with firms from other jurisdictions, primarily the UK. In the work for TCL, the firm demonstrated its finesse in FRAND cases, too. Here, it worked hand-in-hand with Kirkland & Ellis’s UK team.

Recommended individuals

Denis Schertenleib (“successful litigator”, competitor)

Team

2 partners, 6 associates

Specialties

Specialists for patent litigation in all technical fields.

Clients

Litigation: Mylan (defendant) against Allergan over bimatoprost; Mylan and Sandoz (both defendants) against MSD on an SPC on ezetimibe/simvastatine (Supreme Court); Mylan (defendant) against Novartis on everolimus; Biogen (defendant) against Fresenius over tumor drug and biosimilar adalimumab; Sandoz (defendant) against AstraZeneca over breast cancer drug fulvestrant; Zentiva (defendant) against Novartis over cancer drug everolimus; Amgen (claimant) against Sanofi over an antibody patent (settled in 2021); Sodel (defendant) against Anios over trade secrets; TCL (claimant) against Philips over SEPs for UMTS and LTE (settled in 2021); Filorga and Fillmed (both defendants) against Teoxane on know-how and trade secrets; Bio-Rad (defendant) against patients over diagnostic test for Lyme disease.