JUVE Comment

Clifford Chance has firmly established itself as a leading force in SEP litigation at the UPC. The team was able to build on its good start. After representing Huawei in now-settled actions against Netgear, the client promptly retained the team for other cases against MediaTek, HMD, and HP.

The firm’s strategy of bringing in strong laterals also continues to pay off. The recent recruitment of David Por from A&O Shearman in Paris adds a partner with years of experience in both SEP/FRAND as well as pharmaceutical cases. This move strengthens Clifford Chance’s practice around renowned partners Tobias Hessel and Stefan Richter, which is active in a remarkable number of extensive UPC cases for its core clients. The team’s good reputation in mobile communications cases increasingly attracts new clients in other hi-tech fields, thus broadening the range of expertise. This is demonstrated by the work for Open AI in a dispute over information security technology and — alongside other patent firms — for BF exaQC and ParTec regarding high-performance computing. The representation of Troy Chemical and Zhejiang Nurotron further demonstrates that Clifford Chance is also successfully expanding the technical breadth of its UPC work into other key industries such as chemicals and medtech.

Simultaneously, Clifford Chance continues to increase its visibility in life sciences through its growing work for Pfizer in major cases against Promosome and Enanta. It was also active for the US pharma company in a lawsuit filed by GlaxoSmithKline regarding an RSV vaccine, where the team cooperated with lead counsel Marks & Clerk until the parties settled.

As in national proceedings, the lawyers are regularly cooperating with experienced patent attorney firms. The European practice demonstrates its cross-border capabilities with German and French lawyers collaborating on cases for clients like DJI and Open AI.

Strengths

Litigation over mobile communications.

Recommended individuals

Tobias Hessel (“pragmatic litigator who gets to the point”, “high quality work”, competitors), Stefan Richter (“highly convincing patent litigator, excellent team player with a sharp legal mind”, “excellent strategic thinker”, competitors)

Team

16 lawyers

Partner moves

David Por (from A&O Shearman)

Clients

Open AI against KeeeX over a process for verifying digital data integrity; BF exaQC and ParTec against NVIDIA over high-performance computing; DJI against Irdeto over open source operating system; Huawei against HMD Global, HP and MediaTek (settled 2025) over 4G, 5G and wi-fi 6 standards; TP-Link against Atlas Global Technologies over wi-fi 6 standard; Pfizer against Enanta over COVID-19 antiviral; Pfizer against Promosome over mRNA technology; Pfizer against GSK over RSV vaccine (settled 2025); Troy Chemical Company against AdvanSix Resins & Chemicals over specialty chemicals; Zhejiang Nurotron Biotechnology against MED-EL over cochlear implants.