How the UPC is accelerating generational change in Dutch patent litigation firms

Amsterdam in late summer belongs to the youth. From August to September groups of young people can be found on every corner of the Dutch metropolis. Whether in rented boats on the city’s canals, sprawled on the grass in Vondelpark or clustered around the Museumsplein, the world’s youth are drawn to the city situated on the Amstel river.

Even in the office towers in Amsterdam Zuid, where most Dutch patent litigation firms are now based, young lawyers aged between 35 and 45 are much more present now than in previous years. It is the second year after the launch of the Unified Patent Court, and lawyers such as Eelco Bergsma, Tjibbe Douma, Oscar Lamme and Rien Broekstra are suddenly gaining a much higher profile. They are now handling their own UPC cases, and this guarantees them better visibility throughout Europe than in purely national proceedings.

The wind of change is currently blowing through the offices of Amsterdam patent firms.

The main players that have shaped the Dutch patent market in recent years, such as Richard Ebbink and Mark Van Gardingen from Brinkhof, Wouter Pors from Bird & Bird, Bart van den Broek from Hoyng ROKH Monegier and Bas Berghuis van Woortman from Simmons & Simmons, are by no means inactive or even retiring from the legal profession — on the contrary. But it seems they are letting their younger partners take the lead in UPC cases.

UPC once in a lifetime

This could change with each new case, but in the long term it will be those lawyers aged 50 or younger shaping litigation at the UPC. “The UPC launch is a once in a lifetime opportunity,” says one lawyer, and the younger litigators are seizing it.

The young Taylor Wessing partner Eelco Bergsma, for example, has significantly raised his profile over the past year. The law firm promoted him to partner in 2022. This year, he and Wim Maas, who has been in the profession longer than Bergsma, used their long-standing connections to Ericsson to significantly increase their visibility. The team launched a campaign for regular client Ericsson against AsusTek at the UPC local divisions in Lisbon and Milan.

Alongside Maas, Bergsma is playing an active role for Abbott Medical Care in a dispute with SiBio Technology, and in four of Abbott’s nine proceedings against Dexcom. Both disputes revolve around glucose-monitoring devices.

Bird and Simmons no exception

It is similar at Simmons & Simmons and Bird & Bird. At the latter, Tjibbe Douma, Peter van Gemert and Carlos van Staveren belong to the younger generation. The Amsterdam team’s UPC cases are firmly in their hands. For example, Douma is the main representative in the dispute between Black Sheep Retail and HL Display over shelf systems at the local division The Hague.

He and counsel van Staveren are also representing Dexcom against Abbott in two cases. In addition, Douma, van Gemert and van Staveren filed the very first SEP case at the local division The Hague for core client KPN against Oppo in September 2024. Van Staveren made it into JUVE Patent’s Ones to Watch in the Netherlands 2024 thanks to his work on these UPC cases.

At Simmons & Simmons, Oscar Lamme is currently the central figure alongside senior partner Bas Berghuis van Woortman. It was the Dutch team under Lamme’s lead that filed Simmons & Simmons’ first suit at the UPC local division The Hague in 2023, on behalf of Plant-e over a technology that converts energy from plants into electricity such as light. Furthermore, Lamme and associates are part of a truly pan-European team that represents SiBio Technology in a battle against Abbott at various UPC divisions over glucose-monitoring devices.

Additionally, Amsterdam-based Sebastian Versaevel is Simmons & Simmons’ lead patent attorney in Networks Technology Systems’ UPC battle against Audi and Volkswagen over semiconductors.

Same at leading IP boutiques

The two leading Dutch patent firms Hoyng ROK Monegier and Brinkhof are also nudging young talent into the spotlight. Years ago the former merged with leading teams in Germany and France. The latter bundles most of its UPC activities with German IP firm Vossius & Partner in mixed teams under the brand Vossius & Brinkhof UPC Litigators.

Brinkhof counsel Rik Lambers, for example, is taking the lead in a case concerning the patentability of fungi for US company Amycel against Polish company Szymon Spyra. Lambers works alongside partner Daan de Lange, who is already a leading litigator in the Dutch patent market. JUVE Patent understands they recently filed another infringment case for Amycel with the local division The Hague.

Brinkhof partner Rien Broekstra also represented Ballinno in a dispute with Kineox over the use of VAR technology during the Uefa European Championships 2024. And, under the brand Vossius & Brinkhof UPC Litigators, de Lange and counsel Alexander de Leeuw are leading a claim for Agfa against Gucci at the Hamburg local division.

Brinkhof senior associate Boukje van der Maazen played an important role alongside Daan de Lange for CCV Group in its UPC battle with Nokia Solution and Networks over mobile communictaion patents. The parties recently settled the case. Various Brinkhof litigators are also heavily involved in the mega battle against Panasonic on behalf of Oppo.

At Hoyng ROKH Monegier it is last year’s JUVE Patent Ones to Watch Roeland Grijpink advising Orbisk alongside highly regarded partner Theo Blomme in a dispute with Winnow Solutions over a technology to reduce food waste.

Career booster

The UPC seems tailor-made for young lawyers to kick-start their careers. It is ultimately a new system whereby all lawyers — young or old — have the same starting conditions.

The timelines for UPC proceedings are tight. The first cases have already shown that parties are instructing large teams. Furthermore, the proceedings are technically and legally complex. One lawyer alone can scarcely handle the multitude of topics discussed in the oral hearings. It is clear the one-man show that was still possible in national proceedings is no longer practicable at the UPC.

As a result, during the initial hearings senior associates or counsel were assigned certain aspects of the cases and regularly presented in the courtroom. This has given young litigators more opportunities to showcase their skills.

Still male dominated

However, there is one aspect the UPC has not yet altered. Even in the younger generation, it is mainly male lawyers who are coming to the fore. When it comes to well-known patent litigators, female lawyers are underrepresented to a greater degree at Dutch firms than at French and UK firms. This has been the case for years.

Nevertheless, Marleen van den Horst, senior partner at Dutch full-service firm La Gro, represented OrthoApnea in one of the very first UPC cases. The Spanish medical device manufacturer retained the La Gro team to defend against the first infringement action at the Brussels local division concerning medical devices.

At Pinsent Masons a team of French and UK lawyers is representing eight Accord companies at the local division Munich in a lawsuit brought by Sanofi over the chemotherapy drug cabazitaxel/Jevtana. The Dutch team is also playing a role. But the Amsterdam team is primarily handling a lawsuit by Advanced Cell Diagnostics against Molecular Instruments at the local division The Hague. Pinsent Mason’s frontwoman Judith Krens is the driving force here. Otherwise, Dutch UPC proceedings appear to be firmly in male hands for now.

This year, however, two young female litigators, Emma Stok from Bird & Bird and Jarieke Timmerman from BarentsKrans, made it into JUVE Patent’s Ones to Watch in the Netherlands 2024.