Intellectual property

News

Gemma Barrett

Another hire for A&O: IP partner joins firm

Allen & Overy is once again boosting its ranks before its merger with Shearman & Sterling, hiring a new partner to its IP team from Bristows. Gemma Barrett is joining A&O after 17 years at Bristows, where she made partner at the end of 2017. Barrett handles cross-border patent litigation matters within Europe, India and […]

Alessandro De Nicola

Orrick suffers second Italian hit with 15-lawyer loss to BonelliErede

Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe has been hit by a second mass defection in Italy this week, seeing a 15-lawyer team leave to join BonelliErede just days after another group moved to Hogan Lovells. The BonelliErede joiners will strengthen the firm’s risk, compliance and investigations (RCI) group, as well as its IP, privacy and IT team […]

Gherkin Kirkland

Paul Weiss hires ninth partner from Kirkland

Kirkland & Ellis has lost another partner to Paul Weiss’s burgeoning London office, this time in intellectual property. Partner John Patten is set to move firms and join his former Kirkland colleagues at Paul Weiss. IP specialist Patten has been at Kirkland since 2018 and was promoted to its partnership in 2021. His practice focuses […]

Allen Overy

A&O to expand cyber team with Norton Rose Fulbright hires

Allen & Overy is set to bulk up its data security and litigation team with new hires from Norton Rose Fulbright. Ffion Flockhart is joining the magic circle firm, The Lawyer has learnt, having co-led Norton Rose’s global data protection, privacy and cybersecurity practice. Flockhart is a lifer at Norton Rose and was given the […]

Bird & Bird

Bird & Bird defends in first-ever oral hearing in UPC

Bird & Bird is set to defend a life sciences patent dispute in September in what will be the first-ever oral hearing before the brand new Unified Patent Court (UPC). The UPC was created to unify patent litigation across the European Union, meaning cases can be heard in one court instead of individual jurisdictions. The […]

Analysis

2024’s newest silks: Why we chose a career in law

A solicitor-turned-barrister and the Bar’s newest doctor KC; The Lawyer speaks to six of the Bar’s newest silks. The group was announced as KCs-in-waiting earlier this year, with 95 barristers in total getting the nod. Among the 95 were Crucible Law’s Clea Topolski – who having been called in 2014 – is the most junior of the set. […]

Ministry of Justice

Legal industry clashes over Government’s vow to reverse PACCAR

Litigation funders, defendant lawyers and claimant lawyers are divided over Lord Chancellor Alex Chalk KC’s plans to introduce a new law to reverse the Supreme Court’s PACCAR ruling last July, which ruled many litigation funding agreements (LFAs) unenforceable. The Government said it is also considering options for a wider review of the sector and how third-party litigation […]

Featured Briefings

Brexit’s implications for automotive intellectual property

By Gordon Harris If a deal is reached ahead of Brexit, the indications are that a transition period would preserve the status quo for intellectual property (IP) until the end of 2020. This article explores the implications of a no deal Brexit, for IP regimes supporting the UK automotive sector. It explains what would not be […]

Amendment to Czech Copyright Act – the effect on businesses

…One of the main purposes of the new legislative framework is to implement Directive 2014/26/EU on collective management of copyright and related rights and multi-territorial licensing of rights in musical works for online use in the internal market. The amendment also responds to some practical issues in relation to the licensing of copyrighted works, and […]

Can Brexit UK remain in the UP and UPC system?

An Opinion, by English barristers Richard Gordon QC and Tom Pascoe, has been published considering the effect of Brexit (i.e. departure from the EU) upon the Unitary Patent (UP) Regulation and the Unified Patent Court (UPC) Agreement. Can the UK remain involved in the UP and UPC system? In summary, it was concluded that, upon Brexit, the […]