Howrey targets IP litigation in Europe with Linklaters swoop

Linklaters has lost its Brussels head of IP Carl De Meyer to US firm Howrey Simon Arnold & White.

As first revealed on www.thelawyer.com (26 January), De Meyer will be the US firm’s first IP partner in Brussels, which until now has concentrated purely on antitrust, although the firm does have IP expertise in London and Amsterdam.

Linklaters culled a number of underperforming partners last year, particu-larly in Germany, but De Meyer is rated highly and it is understood that he quit.

Howrey managing partner Bob Ruyak said: “We really focus on contentious IP and [De Meyer] is a very nice fit for us.” A Linklaters spokesperson declined to comment other than to wish De Meyer well.

Howrey reshuffled European IP personnel late last year, moving London-based IP partners David Owen and Jacobus Rasser to Amsterdam.

Ruyak said: “There’s been a change in IP litigation in London. A couple of House of Lords cases have poured cold water on it. The decisions made it a little less easy to enforce patents, and our clients are now more interested in Paris, Amsterdam or Germany for litigation.”
He added that the firm was considering expanding into Paris and Germany.