Bird & Bird patent team regroups with De Brauw hire

International firm Bird & Bird is the latest to undergo a restructuring of its patent and IP team in the Netherlands. As of 1 May, stalwart Armand Killan has left the firm, while Carlos van Staveren joins as counsel from De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek. The latter had been a senior associate in the national full-service firm’s IP practice since 2012. The firm has also promoted a new partner.

Armand Killan was a founding partner of Bird & Bird’s Dutch IP team. He is now working as an independent consultant. In this capacity, he remains closely connected to his old firm and will continue to work with the IP team on a project-by-project basis.

Both moves are the latest in a series of developments in the Netherlands, where the patent market is currently in a state of flux.

Bird & Bird welcomes new expertise

Carlos van Staveren

New addition Carlos van Staveren has a specialisation in mobile communication cases. He was involved in the Dutch proceedings for Sonos against Google, for KPN against High Point, and for GEVC and Access Advance against Vestel.

However, he also has experience in the life sciences sector. For example, van Staveren was active for Amgen against Accord in the dispute over cinacalcet, and litigated for Ferring against AbbVie, Fein and Serenity over diabetes drug desmopressin.

Here, he worked side by side with his new firm as co-counsel.

Manon Rieger-Jansen and Marc van Wijngaarden of the firm’s Dutch IP team, say, “We are delighted to welcome Carlos to our Dutch IP team. With his in-depth knowledge and experience, he will strengthen Bird & Bird’s Dutch IP patent litigation team. With Carlos on board, we will continue to provide an even better client service, also with a view to our Unified Patent Court offering.”

Growth at Bird & Bird

According to Bird & Bird, van Staveren’s arrival is part of the Dutch IP team’s strategic expansion and growth in its Amsterdam team, which comprises long-time partners Wouter Pors, Marc van Wijngaarden and Tjibbe Douma. Like van Staveren, Douma also spent many years in the De Brauw IP team before joining the team from Dentons in 2019.

Bird & Bird has also appointed Peter van Gemert as its fourth and newest partner. He primarily worked with Armand Killan for various cases across different sectors, including mobile communication.

One of Killan’s most important clients was Nokia. The client relationship is now being taken over by Peter van Gemert and Wouter Pors, for example in the pan-European dispute with Oppo over 4G and 5G standards.

Generational change

Peter van Gemert

Peter van Gemert, who holds degrees in both law and aerospace technology, joined the international law firm in 2013 as a paralegal, before becoming an associate in 2015.

Most recently, he acted for Nokia in proceedings against Assia regarding DSL technology, and for Broadcom against Netflix over encoding technologies for video files. He was also on the team advising Sisvel in its campaigns against Xiaomi, Oppo and Wiko over mobile standards.

Furthermore, van Gemert represented a major generic drug manufacturer in various lawsuits.

Bird & Bird’s Dutch patent team now continues to operate out of Amsterdam and The Hague with its four partners. In total, it has twelve patent lawyers and one patent attorney.

De Brauw builds back

Recently, Dutch patent firms have seen multiple changes. Only one month after the move of Gertjan Kuipers to Hogan Lovells, De Brauw has started to rebuild its patent practice. It quickly found a successor in Amsterdam with well-known IP partner, Anne Marie Verschuur.

Thus, Carlos van Staveren’s departure from De Brauw comes only a few days after the full-service firm announced a major restructuring of its Amsterdam-based IP team.

Meanwhile, Simmons & Simmons has also bolstered its partner ranks with Machteld Hiemstra, who returned to the firm after a stint at Pinsent Masons. Hiemstra had already worked at the firm from 2013 until 2021 in its patent and regulatory team, returning on 1 May 2023.

Another departure at Pinsent Masons

It is not only Bird & Bird undergoing changes at partner level. András Kupecz has also departed Pinsent Masons’ IP team, in order to focus more fully on his role as a part-time UPC judge. The dual-qualified lawyer and patent attorney was another recent addition to the Pinsent Masons team, joining the new Amsterdam office as a partner in late 2021.

The Unified Patent Court recently appointed Kupecz as one of 51 technical judges. Of these, 43 will also work part-time for the court as patent attorneys. The participation of patent attorneys from private practices or from industry has recently received much criticism due to potential conflicts. As such, the UPC officials are looking to confirm clearer conditions for the role.