JUVE Patent

Szleper Henry Naumann – France 2024

JUVE Comment

This national IP boutique operates a busy patent litigation practice spanning a broad range of industries and bolstered this further with a partner hire. The firm traditionally has a specialty in life sciences, where such pharma heavyweights as Hoffmann-La Roche feature on the client list. Alongside these, midsized clients from the mechanical engineering, consumer goods and medical devices sectors deliver a steady stream of litigation work. This is rooted in the team’s traditionally excellent contacts among midsized companies as well as law firms and patent attorney firms in Germany, which lead to regular referrals. A new partner who joined the firm last year brought along established contacts among companies in Asia and the US. This puts the firm in a stronger position to appear in future international lawsuits than similar French IP boutiques like Cousin & Associés or Armengaud Guerlain.

Strengths

Patent litigation focusing on pharma, mechanics and electronics.

European set-up

Its established relationships with German clients and law firms, as well as new contacts among US and Asian companies, increase the firm’s potential to ramp up activity in cross-border cases. The firm litigated for US ceramics manufacturer CoorsTek Bioceramics in the French component of a dispute running simultaneously in Germany and the US. The other partners also have some experience in cross-border litigation from work in pan-European proceedings, such as for Ever Pharma or Lameco. With regards to the UPC however, the team is still too small, despite the recent hire, to be able to handle bigger cases, especially in view of the new court’s strict deadlines. The firm has therefore not been seen in any UPC cases so far. Further growth of the team and close cooperation, or even a merger with similarly positioned small IP firms in key UPC jurisdictions, such as Germany and the Netherlands, could make the firm more attractive to clients looking to bring their patent disputes before the new court.

Recommended individuals

Dariusz Szleper, Guillaume Henry (“highly skilled litigator and strategist”, competitor)

Team

5 lawyers

Specialties

Exclusive activity in IP with a strong focus on patent litigation, trademarks and unfair competition.

Clients

Litigation: Hoffmann-La Roche (defendant) against Celltrion over a biosimilar; Legi (claimant) against SETP over building material; Iagua (defendant) against Cayago over seabobs; Atelier Robert (defendant) against Emily over agricultural machine; Symbioken (defendant) against Eria Systèms over centrifugation and agitation device; CoorsTek Bioceramics (defendant) against CeramTec over colour of ceramic material; Lameco (claimant) against Georg Martin over aviation equipment; MAF Agrobotic (defendant) against Unitec SpA over sorting machine for fruit and vegetables; Kindermann (defendant) against Barco over wireless technology.

Location

Paris