Shake-up in Paris: August Debouzy’s patent team joins Winston Taylor

According to JUVE Patent research, a substantial team of lawyers and patent attorneys will move to Winston Taylor. The three partners, Grégoire Desrousseaux, François Pochart and Lionel Martin — all dual qualified as patent attorneys and lawyers — jointly lead one of the most sought-after patent litigation teams at August Debouzy. They will join Winston Taylor at the start of 2027 to establish its patent litigation practice in Paris. The move marks a significant reshuffling in the French patent market.

The departures remove a core part of a practice that in recent years has ranked among the leading patent litigation teams in France. The August Debouzy team has combined technical and legal expertise through its mix of patent attorneys and lawyers, and has handled numerous economically significant EPO oppositions alongside national infringement proceedings. It is also one of the few French outfits to have also acted in high-profile UPC matters. Prominent cases include for Abbott Diabetes Care against Dexcom, SiBio, Sinocare, and Menarini over glucose-monitoring devices, for Ona Patents against Apple and Google over mobile communications, and for Michelin against Goodyear France over tyres. Other UPC clients include HP, Maytronics, Smart Strike, FDE, and Unilever.

Nigel Stoate, head of UK patents at Winston Taylor, says, “A group of this calibre does not come along often. It strengthens one of Europe’s leading IP and UPC platforms and means we can offer clients genuinely coordinated strength across borders, at precisely the moment that kind of coordination matters most.”

While German firms often dominated the early UPC caseload, August Debouzy’s dual-qualified partners Desrousseaux and Pochart built a reputation that made the team a first port of call for both French clients and for international companies filing cases at the Paris local division.

Teams from Winston Taylor and August Debouzy have recently worked together for Abbott against Sinocare and Menarini in the glucose-monitoring devices case.

Intertwined careers

Grégoire Desrousseaux began his career as a patent attorney at Cabinet Hirsch & Associés in 1994, where he became partner in 2000. After being admitted to the Paris Bar in 2000, he joined August Debouzy as partner in 2011 together with François Pochart. A graduate of École Polytechnique and ENST, Desrousseaux is both an engineer and a lawyer and advises on patent matters before national courts, the UPC, the EPO, and the French patent office INPI.

François Pochart joined August Debouzy in 2011 after more than 15 years as a patent attorney at Cabinet Hirsch. Together with Desrousseaux, he built up August Debouzy’s patent practice and has since been one of its leading figures in contentious patent work.

Lionel Martin also followed the two partners from Cabinet Hirsch to August Debouzy in March 2014, after completing his qualification as a French and European patent attorney and passing the Bar exam. He had first encountered Desrousseaux as a lecturer during his engineering studies at École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées. Martin made partner at August Debouzy in 2023 and has made his name in EPO opposition proceedings concerning electronics and mechanics patents, often conducted in parallel with infringement suits. Among others, he has acted for Huawei against Intellectual Ventures, for Valeo against Nissens, for Saint Gobain against Knauf, and for Suzuki against Chemours. Martin also coordinates UPC matters at August Debouzy.

March on the European market

The arrival of the three partners and their team comes as Winston Taylor is building a European patent practice following the merger of Taylor Wessing UK and US firm Winston & Strawn, which took effect in May 2026. The newly formed law firm currently has a strong US patent practice, as well as an equally strong team based in London led by Nigel Stoate, Simon Cohen and Michael Wahsbrook, amongst others.

The Dutch and Belgian offices entered an agreement to operate under the new Winston Taylor brand as franchisees. IP and patent litigation play a significant role in both country groups. Christian Dekoninck leads the Belgian team, while Wim Maas heads the Dutch IP team. Only a year ago, a larger team from Simmons & Simmons joined the Amsterdam office. The addition of Bas Berghuis van Woortmann and Sebastien Versaevel marked the beginning von Winston Taylor’s long-awaited expansion in the continental European patent market.

Nigel Stoate says of the new arrivals, “This is tangible evidence of the strategic growth in Europe and the UPC our combination is delivering. By connecting this group to our existing strength in London, the Benelux, Dublin, Dubai and the US, we can coordinate national, UPC and transatlantic patent strategy through a single team. This is exactly the kind of joined-up capability our clients are asking for.”

IP is considered a central element of the Winston Taylor merger. It comes as a surprise that the firm is now making its first move in Paris rather than in Germany. Competitors had expected the firm to bring on board lateral hires in Germany first. However, Stoate says, “Paris is one of the most important centres for European IP enforcement and the UPC. They give us Tier 1 capability in France and, for clients, that means access to the full IP lifecycle delivered by a group of partners that sits among the best in the market.”

Temporary collaboration

Until now, Winston Taylor’s patent litigators have continued to work with their former Taylor Wessing colleagues from the German, French, and Austrian patent teams. Taylor Wessing had only established a dedicated Paris patent team in May last year with the arrival of Jules Fabre from Pinsent Masons. The firms have a cooperation agreement. However, the agreement is in any case considered to be temporary as both firms are working on their own plans for their future positioning in Europe. Taylor Wessing, for example, has spoken out against a transatlantic merger and, according to media reports, is currently in talks with the UK firm Stephenson Harwood. Winston Taylor, on the other hand, is said to have further expansion plans in Europe – particularly in Germany.

The impact on August Debouzy‘s patent practice is substantial. JUVE Patent does not know whether the firm has plans to rebuild its patent practice. (Co-author: Mathieu Klos)