Dentons strengthens patent practice with De Brauw hire

In the ten years before moving to Dentons, the 36-year-old lawyer worked at Dutch full-service firm De Brauw. At the new firm, Douma leads the patents practice in Amsterdam. The IP team now boasts two partners, two counsel and one associate.

Strength to strength

At the beginning of 2018, the IP practice was strengthened with the addition of Alexander van Laaren as counsel. Van Laaren works mainly in soft IP, whereas Douma focuses on technology-related matters, patents and trade secrets. Douma has experience in both US and European litigation, representing clients before the European Patent Office.

Douma mainly advises clients from the life sciences and healthcare sectors, as well as the food and beverages, telecommunications and chemicals sectors.

As part of a De Brouw team, Douma advised a pharmaceutical company in multi-jurisdictional patent litigation against a competitor with actions pending in the Netherlands, the US and before the EPO. He was part of the 18-lawyer-strong team around partner Gertjan Kuipers, a leading address for pharmaceutical disputes in the Dutch market.

Expanding in Amsterdam

“This senior recruitment is an integral part of our ongoing strategy to improve our market position in key practices and sectors – in this case, intellectual property, technology and life sciences,” says Marien Glerum, Chief Managing Officer of Dentons Boekel. “In less than two years, we have recruited and promoted ten new partners in Amsterdam.”

“Everything now is technology. Dentons offers a true technology and sector focus that fits with clients’ needs,” Douma adds. “I look forward to working with my new colleagues in Dentons’ European and global IP&T group, and to developing a top quality patents team here in the Netherlands.”

Dentons is not yet one of the heavyweights in the European patent market, but has recently made efforts to strengthen its patent team. The most prominent move is Marianne Schaffner, who made her name in pharmaceuticals proceedings. The patent litigation specialist left Dechert in March 2018 to join Dentons’ relatively large French IP team.

Dentons’ intellectual property and technology practice boasts more than 600 lawyers worldwide.

For more insight into Dutch patent litigation, click here.