JUVE Comment

With the arrival of the well-known patent litigator Marleen van den Horst in March 2023, the small IP team at this Dutch full-service law firm made the leap into the ranks of respected Dutch patent litigation practices. The experienced senior partner came from BarentsKrans and strengthened the still-young La Gro team, not only with her experience but also her client relationships to many manufacturers of generics and biosimilars such as Stada and Insud Pharma. The work for Amgen on a now-settled nullity case against Alexion over Soliris rounds out the team’s strong activities in the life sciences sector.

Here, the patent team meets the strong regulatory practice of La Gro. By working more closely with the latter, the patent litigators will be able to develop further work in the future, which, in addition to the client relationships of van den Horst, offer development opportunities for the younger patent litigators.

A second mainstay is the mobile communications sector, where the senior partner has a long-standing relationship with InterDigital, although this did not result in any active litigation in the Netherlands as the patent holder has been litigating primarily in Germany and the UK.

European set-up

Marleen van den Horst was recently involved in cross-border litigation for generics manufacturers, but also on the side of InterDigital. In these cases, she usually took over the Dutch proceedings. Should the UPC become more attractive for the firm’s pharmaceutical clients, this business could decline. In the UPC dispute against Alexion, for example, Amgen relied on the German law firm Bardehle Pagenberg, while La Gro only conducted a parallel national nullity case. If InterDigital were to focus more on the UPC, the La Gro team would have to prevail against strong international competition such as Gowling WLG, Bird & Bird or Arnold Ruess.

On the other hand, the team surprised with the representation of OrthoApnea in one of the very first UPC cases. In September 2023, many other Dutch patent teams were still waiting for their first UPC case. The La Gro team was retained by the Spanish medical device manufacturer to defend against the first infringement action at the Brussels local division at a time when the team was still in the process of being set up. This further shows how helpful van den Horst’s international ties are for the patent team. There is a lot of untapped potential, especially in the support of medium-sized companies which find the UPC attractive.

Strengths

Strong focus on litigation in the pharma sector, especially for generic drug and biosimilar manufacturers.

Recommended individuals

Marleen van den Horst

Team

5 lawyers

Clients

Litigation: Amgen in nullity case against Alexion over a patent covering biologic drug eculizumab/Soliris for rare blood diseases (settled 2024); Insud Pharma in nullity case against Galenicum’s patent for pharmaceutical compositions for diabetes drug sitagliptin (ended 2024); Insud Pharma in nullity case against UCB and LTS Lohmann over a patent regarding active ingredient for Parkinson drug; Stolze Installatietechniek against Gebr. Geers in nullity case over patent regarding landscaping technology; frequent litigation for InterDigital and Stada.