Mayer Brown outdoes the agents in trademark ranks

Mayer Brown Rowe & Maw and Baker & McKenzie have barged aside the trademark agents to land top five positions in 2003’s community trademark filings chart.

Mayer Brown boosted its trademark filings by 77 per cent in 2003, according to figures released by the Institute of Trade Mark Attorneys, moving it up to third place in a table that has traditionally been dominated by patent and trademark attorneys.

Mayer Brown’s London head of intellectual property (IP) Stephen Gare said: “In London, trademark filing is a business that we weren’t in before we merged. In both the US and Germany, trademark filing and prosecution have always been part of the mainstream activities of the firm. It shows the benefit of an integrated IP practice.”

Mayer Brown, with 1,328 filings, has some way to go to top Field Fisher Waterhouse’s 2,026, and the world’s biggest patent and trademark firm Marks & Clerk with 2,267, but it is catching them fast.

The table is the source of much pride among trademark agents, who will be sad to see the law firms encroaching on their turf. Among the other law firms, White & Case recorded a 68 per cent rise in filings and Nabarro Nathanson’s practice was boosted 68 per cent. Baker & McKenzie broke into the top five by boosting trademark filings by 111 per cent.

Clifford Chance was the only law firm to buck the upward trend, with its filings falling by 42 per cent, while Simmons & Simmons re-ported a mere 3.5 per cent increase.