Bird & Bird is noted for its strength in both pharmaceutical and telecoms patent litigation, working closely with the firm’s teams in Germany to handle infringement and opposition proceedings, and is also well versed in handling standard essential patent (SEP) and FRAND disputes. The firm’s overall IP team is headed by Manon Rieger-Jansen, and includes Wouter Pors, whose patents practice encompasses both life sciences and electronics disputes, and Marc van Wijngaarden, who co-leads the firm’s life sciences team, handling cross-border disputes concerning drugs and medical devices. Tjibbe Douma handles a wide range of cross-border disputes for tech companies and private equity houses, while Peter van Gemert, who was made partner in May 2023, specialises in telecoms patent disputes. Carlos van Staveren‘s practice includes telecoms and life sciences patent matters, which he litigates up to the Dutch Supreme Court.

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Testimonials

Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.

'Tjibbe Douma is a pleasure to work with, both professionally and personally. He is a worthy lawyer with a great eye for detail.'
'The team is both technically capable and litigation oriented, which makes the team perfect for handling challenging litigation.'
'We are pleased with Tjibbe Douma as he received complex cases and handled them very well. Tjibbe also assisted in defining the overall litigation strategy for the patents, and we will definitely use him for future litigation.'
'Tjibbe Douma, Peter van Gemert, and the whole team produce great written work product and excellent technical arguments, and their client service is top-notch. They hold themselves to a very high standard and it shows.'

Key clients

Nokia
Edwards Lifesciences
Broadcom
KPN
Sanofi/Ablynx
Amgen
Valeo
Qualcomm
Sinopharm Weiqida Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd.
Neuraxpharm
Bicycle Therapeutics
Neo Materials
Ferring Pharmaceuticals
Odysight AI
Canon
Bound2B

Work highlights

Represented Nokia in patent litigation comprising a series of proceedings against ASSIA and Oppo, related to both implementation and alleged standard-essential patents on DSL technology.
Acted for Neuraxpharm in patent litigation against Biogen in the context of an international dispute on generic entry for a treatment for MS.
Represented Edwards Lifesciences in a multi-jurisdictional, multi-patent dispute against Meril Life Sciences and its national distributor, in light of Meril's global launch of its prosthetic heart valve Myval, which Edwards alleges infringes its SAPIEN 3 prosthetic valve.