Casalonga opens in Düsseldorf with Fieldfisher litigation team

Benjamin Grzimek (53) from Fieldfisher’s Düsseldorf office is now launching a Düsseldorf office on behalf of Casalonga. The litigator will be joined by his two existing associates.

Grzimek complements Casalonga’s mixed team with his proven experience in electronics patent litigation, particularly SEP actions for NPEs. He has also gained initial experience with UPC proceedings representing Syngenta in a dispute with Sumi Agro.

Furthermore, Grzimek is leading the SEP actions for NPE Sol IP against Chinese carmaker BYD, which are ongoing both nationally in Germany and at the UPC.

Casalonga on expansion course

As part of its reorganisation, Casalonga is expanding so as to represent clients with more of its own local counsel at the UPC’s local divisions. The firm also plans to open an office in Milan this year.

Recently, Casalonga bolstered its Munich office with partner Denise Nestle-Nguyen from German patent attorney firm Stolmàr. In Munich the firm operates with three fee earners, including two lawyers in addition to patent attorney Nestle-Nguyen.

Casalonga represents companies such as the Institut Pasteur, Biogaran, Sanofi, Institut Gustave Roussy, PolTreg, and Cellectis. In France, Casalonga is well known for representing generic drug companies such as Biogaran or Zentiva against originators in various national pharma disputes.

Founded in 1867 in Paris, Casalonga is now a European IP firm with patent attorneys and lawyers across offices in France, Germany, and Spain. The outfit opened its Munich office in 1978.

Currently, 28 patent and trademark attorneys as well as 17 lawyers work at Casalonga. Of these, 27 are UPC representatives. Prior to hiring Nestle-Nguyen, Casalonga took on patent attorneys from French competitors such as Santarelli and Plasseraud.

Now, the firm is pushing ahead with its expansion into other UPC countries. So far, Munich and Alicante are the firm’s only offices outside France.

Known for pharmaceutical litigation nationally, Casalonga recently took on its first UPC case. At the Paris local division the firm is currently defending Maguin SAS against Tiru in an application for provisional measures over a patent related to a technology for burning rubbish (case ID: ACT_66560/2024).

Team depletion

Fieldfisher, on the other hand, has gradually lost its patent litigation team in recent years. In 2017 there were five patent litigation partners in London. In 2019, co-head of life sciences Nicole Jadeja left the firm to join Pinsent Masons. In the same year, former Fieldfisher partner Beatriz San Martin joined Arnold & Porter as a partner.

Prior to this, patent litigator partner Diana Sternfeld joined medical research charity LifeArc as head of intellectual property. Then, in August 2019, Rebecca Baines took up a post as senior IP counsel at medical implant manufacturer Stryker. Finally, David Knight left for US firm Brown Rudnick in late 2022.

Now, the departure of Benjamin Grzimek and his team means the entire German patent litigation team is leaving the firm. However, Fieldfisher reinforced its practice for soft IP and media law in 2024 with a team from SKW.

Grzimek joined Fieldfisher in 2017. He had previously been a partner at EIP in Düsseldorf for three and a half years. Prior to that, he had gained experience as a lawyer at Maiwald and DLA.