JUVE Comment

The market-leading Dutch patent litigation team of IP boutique Hoyng ROKH Monegier continues to impress its competitors with its retention of high-profile clients across a broad technical spectrum. It also boasts a strong patent attorney team, which runs an impressive patent prosecution practice. But more often it is recommended for its litigation work alongside Hoyng ROKH’s litigation partners. Orbisk for example is a long-standing prosecution client. A mixed Hoyng ROKH team has now filed a case against a competitor at the UPC over a technology to reduce food waste.

But the Amsterdam litigation team is now focusing more on life sciences disputes than in previous years because major proceedings in other areas have ended. For example, the dispute between Apple and Ericsson was settled. Thus the work of the pharmaceutical team around partners Theo Blomme, Peter van Schijndel and Frank Eijsvogels before the Dutch courts has come to the fore. Hoyng ROKH continues to represent BioNTech in litigation proceedings initiated by Moderna over mRNA vaccines. Other important instructions come from Biogen over multiple sclerosis drug Tecfidera, from Johnson & Johnson over antibody drug Stelara, from Regeneron and Bayer over biosimilar Eylea, and from Sanofi over Aubagio. Another pharmaceutical company hired the team for a UPC lawsuit. The team’s intensive work in this segment shows how quickly it has been able to compensate for the departure of the former lead partner Simon Dack in 2023.

Away from life sciences, senior partner Bart van den Broek is the firm’s main heavyweight. He represents Netflix before the Dutch courts as well as FujiFilm at the UPC. Young partner Roeland Grijpink continues to impress as a “strong and up-and-coming patent litigator in telecoms and mechanics”, but he is also involved in pharma litigation.

European set-up

The firm sets itself apart from other European market leaders like Bird & Bird or Hogan Lovells with its pure IP boutique approach, despite having an international setup with market-leading teams in Amsterdam, Paris and Germany. The Belgian, German, French and Dutch partners implemented this years ago so as to play an important role in pan-European cross-border disputes, and now at the UPC. Their joint work for Apple and Philip Morris shows just how successful this was, even before the new court was launched. Furthermore, the European practice currently plays out its strength on the side of original drug manufacturers in the pharma and biotech sectors by representing BioNTech in the lawsuits brought by Moderna in Germany and the Netherlands.

Hoyng ROKH Monegier got off to an impressive start at the UPC thanks to the German partners’ strong presence in numerous UPC proceedings, for example for myStromer over e-bikes, for Magna over car accessories, and for Motorola/Lenovo, Verifone, Intel and Texas Instruments over mobile communications and semiconductors. Meanwhile, the Paris team is representing Homron over household appliances and the Amsterdam partners have a first UPC case for Orbisk against Winnow Solutions over a technology to reduce food waste. However, unlike at competitors such as Taylor Wessing or Bird & Bird, the German Hoyng ROKH team seems to dominate in the firm’s UPC cases. The Amsterdam team is also heavily involved in the cases for Fujiifilm, Texas Instruments and Verifone alongside the German partners, but the Amsterdam partners must ensure that this work is more visible.

Strengths

European and global cross-border litigation in high-profile telecommunication and pharmaceutical cases. Strong patent prosecution practice.

Recommended individuals

Bart van den Broek (“extremely good patent litigator”, competitor), Theo Blomme, Frank Eijsvogels, Roeland Grijpink, (“strong and up-and-coming patent litigator in telecoms and mechanics”, competitor), Peter van Schijndel

Team

14 lawyers, 15 patent attorneys

Clients

Litigation: BioNTech (co-defendant with Pfizer) against Moderna over mRNA vaccine technology; Biogen against various generic companies over multiple sclerosis drug dimethylfumarate/Tecfidera; Johnson & Johnson against Samsung BioEpis over antibody drug ustekinumab/Stelara; Regeneron and Bayer against Samsung Bioepis and Amgen over biosimilar for retinal disease drug Eylea; AstraZeneca against Menzis over compensation and damages for quetiapine/Seroquel; Sanofi against Torrent in revocation case over patent regarding multiple sclerosis drug terifunomide/Aubagio; Netflix against DivX over video coding patent; We Soda against Solvay over method for producing soda ash; Essity against MTS Euro Products over dispenser technology for toilet paper; frequent litigation for Astellas, Intel, Philips.