Litigation: Solicitors – UK 2020

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This market-leading London patent-litigation practice continues its impressive development by retaining a raft of big-name clients in both telecommunications and pharmaceuticals disputes – as well as adding more to its roster such as shipowning company Kristian Gerhard Jebsen Skipsrederi. Bristows is heavily involved in the main FRAND and SEP disputes before UK patent courts, this year representing defendant ZTE against Conversant in the Supreme Court, as well as running major disputes for SEP holders Philips and IPCom. Not many firms in London...

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The London boutique is universally regarded as a market leader with a remarkable reputation for its litigation work, both at UK courts and on major international disputes, where it often plays a coordinating role. Relations to leading pharmaceutical corporations are particularly outstanding and the ties to the US have always been deep. The frequency with which the senior partners are recommended is remarkable – Penny Gilbert in particular provokes almost passionate approbation for her work in pharmaceutical cases, both in the London community a...

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The London litigation team at this global firm is now once again challenging the market leaders, despite the high-profile departure of Nicola Dagg and a team to Kirkland & Ellis at the end of 2018. The remaining six partners have both won and retained repeat work for well-known life sciences clients, such as Eli Lilly, litigating heavily as well as advising on regulatory areas such as supplementary protection certificates (SPCs). Partner Neville Cordell continues to lead on major cases of all genres, such as Regeneron in the pharma field or...

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The patent litigation team at this international firm has historically been one of the UK’s most active, but it is seen as recently having lost some ground to the market leaders. It is still exceptionally strong in life sciences, and Bird & Bird continues to litigate for a raft of globally high-profile pharmaceutical clients such as Allergan and Actavis. Indeed, the firm recently represented Actavis in the Supreme Court against Eli Lilly over Tadalafil. But this year the firm has also won two new tech clients in Qualcomm and Mitsubishi (lic...

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The patent litigation team of this global law firm maintains a stable position as one of Europe’s leading practices, although smaller in partner size than comparable firms such as Bird & Bird and Allen & Overy. However, the expertise of Hogan Lovells’ litigators means it continues to act in complex cases in the pharmaceutical sector, such as for Merck Sharp & Dohme against GSK, and for Akebia against Fibrogen. Hogan Lovells is also concentrating on consolidating its pan-European litigation practice, which sees its lawyers act in pat...

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The rapidly expanding patent team of the full-service Anglo-Canadian firm Gowling WLG has been especially active in litigation concerning mobile technology and communication. The firm has successfully fought for TQ Delta in the latter’s ongoing dispute against Zyxel and is also working for research company Interdigital in its first UK litigation proceedings against Lenovo. With these two cases, the team has clearly positioned itself alongside SEP holders in FRAND disputes. It has also been active in patent licensing, focusing on portfolios in 5...

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The IP litigation team at this global, full-service law firm shows consistent strength in high-profile pharmaceutical litigation cases. Herbert Smith Freehills has picked up new clients such as biotech company CSL Behring while retaining key names Gilead and Unilever. Herbert Smith appeared in the UK patent courts for the latter several times over the past year. Indeed, Herbert Smith litigated for clients in all areas of the life sciences sector, including medical technology and diagnostics. It has also forayed into inventors’ rights, acting fo...

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The patent litigation team of this international firm has been increasingly visible in London. Its work on patent litigation for pharmaceuticals is seeing the firm retain long-standing clients on the generics side, for example in its revocation proceedings work for Accord Healthcare and work for Teva. However, its pharma expertise is diverging, with the Pinsent Masons partners also taking on work for biotechnology companies. The hiring of life sciences partner Nicole Jadeja from Fieldfisher, along with several high-profile clients, reinforces t...

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The patent litigation arm of this international full-service firm maintains its visibility in pharmaceutical cases across Europe. Life sciences continues to be a core focus of the firm’s London office, retaining important links with clients on the generics side such as global originator company Pfizer. Over the past year, Taylor Wessing was twice present in the Supreme Court in its litigation for client Mylan against Eli Lilly, as well as Warner Lambert, concerning tadalafil and pregabalin respectively. These cases had a pan-European element, c...

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As a part of one of the leading litigation/arbitration transatlantic practices, the patent team of the US firm in London has been built up to serve the firm’s key clients, many of which are from the US. The outstanding Justin Watts and his team advised Apple, one of the key clients of the global patent team, on a dispute with NPE Conversant. The clear focus is on life sciences and the technology industries. The reputation of the firm as a whole is strong but its profile in the London market is limited because of the particular client focus. It ...

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The well-established UK litigation team at global firm DLA Piper continues to work for big-name clients across a variety of technical fields. With a traditionally strong focus on technology patents, the past year has seen the three-partner-strong patent team win some new clients, including legacy brand names, through an international coordination strategy. These include building materials manufacturer Knauf and toy company Spinmaster. DLA has also been kept busy with patent licensing work for major commercial pharmaceutical companies, for examp...

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This large mixed patent firm has operated for years with a mixed team consisting of patent attorneys and lawyers. Its litigation team enjoys a good reputation for pharma cases. This not only applies to the lawyers’ work on infringement and nullity suits, but also the patent attorneys’ work in EPO proceedings. Marks & Clerk is firmly established in litigation for manufacturers of traditional pharmaceuticals and recently underlined this with its first instruction from Wyeth. Until now, the firm had not been seen litigating for a Pfizer subsid...

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The well-positioned patent team of this global law firm is beginning to make its presence felt in London. Although lacking the big-name clients in telecommunications and pharmaceuticals of its competitors, Baker & McKenzie is nonetheless establishing itself through litigating on consumer products. A team behind recommended IP partner Hiroshi Sheraton has been especially active in the UK High Court and Court of Appeal for major consumer brand L’Oréal against startup Olaplex. L’Oréal remains Baker’s main source of client work, with other divi...

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The well-positioned patent team at the London office of this global firm continues to consolidate its patent practice after the merger with Olswang. This saw CMS expand its capabilities to focus on technology-based patent litigation. A recent promotion means the patent team now has a dedicated technology focus, alongside the life science speciality of its other patent partner. However, increased involvement in litigation for the medical device sector means CMS is increasingly combining these two elements, looking ahead to litigate in new areas ...

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This well-positioned mixed patent practice of the international law firm is particularly active in technology. The small litigation team recently attracted attention with a lawsuit for Emtelle over fibre optic cables. Campbell Forsyth in particular has a good name in the market. Unlike most law firms, Dentons uses a mixed approach with patent attorneys, which is currently in vogue on the continent. In London, apart from patent attorney firms such as Marks & Clerk and EIP, only Simmons & Simmons and CMS are currently following this path....

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This well-positioned patent litigation practice of the international law firm is particularly active in life science disputes. It has, however had a turbulent last two years. The new team around Christopher Stothers did not join Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer until 2018, after one of the outstanding figures in the London patent market, Justin Watts, had joined WilmerHale. For the new team, the challenge after a year is still to rebuild the Freshfields practice from the ground up. But it has already made rapid progress on instructions from the p...

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This well-positioned IP boutique has acted in several high-profile patent cases. Innovate Legal is especially active in life science disputes and its work with innovative pharmaceutical companies has seen the practice litigate against higher-tier firms such as Bird & Bird and Kirkland & Ellis. At the beginning of the year, its litigation team appeared at the High Court for Indian company Dr Reddy’s against global healthcare company Novartis. It is also set to litigate for client Allergan in 2020. There is no doubt these clients are impressive b...

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This well-positioned patent practice of the international law firm is particularly active in life science disputes but also in licensing deals and transactions. As in most large international teams, the London Jones Day patent litigators work closely with the other European teams. But compared to Allen & Overy or Hogan Lovells, the Jones Day team is much less involved in mobile communication disputes. Moreover, it is considerably smaller than the market-leading teams. However, it has direct access to their strong US practice – only WilmerHa...

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This well-positioned London patent litigation practice of the international law firm is predominantly active in life science disputes. One of the main clients is Sanofi, which the firm represents in different disputes across the continent. But it is not only on Sanofi’s side that Linklaters demonstrates the ability of the European patent practice to oversee important proceedings across several jurisdictions. The same applies to Seoul Semiconductors in a Europe-wide dispute over LED technology. But the Korean LED manufacturer is so far the only ...