JUVE Comment

Dentons’ small Dutch patent team established itself in the market faster than many competitors expected. The firm only launched one year ago, after bringing on board former De Brauw senior associateTjibbe Douma in Amsterdam as a partner. Although he is still a young litigator, he has already become visible in the market for his work in patent litigation and trade secret issues. With a mix of clients brought from his previous firm – e.g. litigation for Ferring in a long-running pharma case – and new clients like Zuru concerning children’s toys, he has raised his market visibility further. With this development, Dentons made important strides in building its European patent team – an expansion that is occurring somewhat under the radar of other international practices, but still remains promising.Tjibbe Douma litigates within a broad technical spectrum, but has yet to develop a profile of his own for specific technologies. This would be a consistent next step to raise the visibility of the European practice

European strategy

Dentons is not yet one of the heavyweights in the European patent market, but the hire of Tjibbe Douma in Amsterdam is a significant step. The firm has well-positioned teams in Milan, London and Paris. In Germany Dentons has offices in Düsseldorf, Frankfurt and Munich but no visible patent litigation team. However, a team of 16 patent attorneys led by London partner Justin Hill works in Munich. With the recent hire of a patent attorney from Vossius & Partner, the firm is getting set to raise its visibility in Germany, too. But this is as yet still too low to compete with the large, integrated patent teams like Bird & Bird or Hogan Lovells. To move closer to the top of the European market Dentons still lacks a notable European patent litigator – especially in Germany and the UK. From the very beginning, the team has consistently pursued a mixed approach with a small team of technical experts based in London and Munich, thus following the trend of other large European practices.

Recommended individuals

Tjibbe Douma (“excellent networker, who knows how to build a business”, competitor)

Team

1 partner, 3 associates

Partner moves

Tjibbe Douma (2019 from De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek)

Specialties

Patent litigation with a broad technical background, including EPO cases. Patent prosecution, trade secret cases and advice as well as transactions. IP and technology advice for technology start-ups.

Clients

Litigation: Ferring Pharmaceuticals (claimant) against Allergan and Serenity Pharma in patent and entitlement claims over desmopressin (co-counsel with De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek); Zuru (claimant) against Koopman over filling technology for water ballons in infringement and EPO cases; Assia (claimant) against KPN and Nokia in an appeal over DSL technology (co-counsel with Simmons & Simmons).