United Kingdom (England)

Firm overview

Firm overview

Powell Gilbert is one of the most highly regarded European IP law firms, with unrivalled patent litigation experience and a blue-chip brands practice.  In addition to extensive patent litigation experience before the national courts, the firm has rapidly established itself as one of the leading firms for patent litigation before the Unified Patent Court.  PG also has unrivalled experience in advising clients on European IP strategy and coordinating European IP litigation. PG is frequently involved in devising European patent litigation strategies, acting as co-ordinating counsel and working alongside local teams to put those strategies into effect and ensure consistency of approach.  The firm has played a central role in cases before many courts, including in the UK, continental Europe and Scandinavia, the UPC, the United States (district court and ITC proceedings), Australia, China, Korea and Japan.

In UK litigation, the team routinely represents clients before the patent courts at all levels, including on appeal before the UK Supreme Court, where it has appeared in a number of precedent-setting cases in recent years.

In UPC litigation, PG’s success since the Court opened its doors in June 2023 was recognised when PG won JUVE Patent’s inaugural “UPC Firm of the Year” Award in December 2024. PG is uniquely well placed to advise on the opportunities and risks which result from the addition of the UPC to the existing European patent litigation landscape. The PG team has been involved in a number of UPC cases – including appearing as advocates - before a variety of Local, Regional, and Central Divisions and the Court of Appeal.

The firm includes some of Europe’s leading patent litigators. Almost all lawyers have technical backgrounds, including many with PhDs or master’s degrees in relevant scientific disciplines.  The firm also advises on complex technology contract disputes and provides IP portfolio assessments and FTO analyses.

The firm advises across the full spectrum of IP rights. Its experience in patent litigation ranges across all technical fields, from acting in the earliest biotechnology patent cases to involvement in the smartphone wars and leading cases on FRAND licensing disputes. It has appeared in many of Europe’s most technically and legally complex cases, including representing clients in referrals to the CJEU and the EFTA Court on SPCs. The firm also represents clients EPO oppositions and other registry proceedings, including before the UK IPO.

Although focused on litigation, the firm is experienced in alternative dispute resolution, including mediation and arbitration.

Firm overview

Venner Shipley is a prominent full-service European intellectual property firm, uniquely with a leading team of patent attorneys, trade mark attorneys, solicitors and barristers, providing a complete IP service to clients.

Our clients value the strategic and multi-disciplinary approach we take to supporting their business goals, and we have experts in many rapidly developing technical fields: our managing partner led the European Court of Appeal G1/19 case on computer-implemented simulations and our life sciences team has been an integral part of numerous vaccine research and development projects, notably including Imperial College’s self-amplifying RNA vaccine.

Our multi-disciplinary team deals with a hugely diverse and constantly evolving range of intellectual property issues in multiple jurisdictions with specialist teams in Life Sciences, materials, software and AI as well as engineering expertise from heavy mechanical to electronics. The component parts of Venner Shipley combine to give our clients the creative and innovative solutions to their commercial needs they require and expect us to tirelessly deliver.

We have a wealth of experience advising on the life cycle of IPR from clearance and filing strategies worldwide, through to drafting, filing and prosecution, along with transactional work and defensive and offensive contentious work, with oppositions and other contentious work being a strength across the full range of IPR, from patents and trade marks to designs, copyright and soft IP. Our legal team has particular expertise in data protection, ownership and dispute resolution and our whole team works together to provide the strategic and analytic advice that our clients rely on to make their IP work harder for, and add value to, their businesses and give them a competitive edge.

With multiple offices in the UK and EU, we work with clients in a huge range of industry sectors, from major international corporations, to universities and SMEs, and we play a key role in nurturing of innovation and growth. We have a truly flexible approach to the service we provide, putting client priorities at the front and centre of what we do. This has resulted in long term relationships and a vast resource of knowledge of our clients’ businesses and priorities, with many clients having been with us for decades.

Firm overview

Mewburn Ellis is the forward-looking European IP firm. We are a business that puts our clients, our people and our values at the heart of everything we do. It is what we believe makes us unique in the IP space. 

With more than 150 years' experience in the IP profession, our focus is on providing clear, honest, strategic advice to maximise the potential of IP as an asset and so increase the value of our clients’ business. The result is a firm with a stellar national and international client list that builds strong and long-standing client relationships – over a third of our clients have worked with us for over 20 years. Our approach is always personal and client-focused. We work hard to ensure our clients benefit from “joined up” thinking when it comes to their IP strategy working alongside them as trusted partners in order to support their business ambitions and growth plans. We work at all stages of the IP lifecycle, from protecting IP to commercialisation, as well as dealing with disputes should they arise.

We have an international IP practice and work with some of the most innovative companies across the globe to advise on and positively influence their filing and prosecution strategies working hard to achieve a deep understanding of their commercial goals and long term vision. From household brands to dynamic start-ups across all industries and our clients are as diverse as the technical areas we cover. 

With expertise spanning over 50 specialist technical areas we work across the entire chemistry, materials, engineering, ICT and life sciences sectors. We also have specialist expertise in SPC's and other Patent Term Extensions as well as Plant Variety Inventions. 

Many of our patent attorneys have PhDs, and our clients always feel confident they are dealing with someone with a real technical understanding. Our qualified patent paralegals possess an in-depth understanding of the complexities of all aspects of the patent administrative process and provide exceptional client service.

We are committed to our ‘Forward Community Programme’ and being a good corporate citizen. We want to have a positive impact on our people, communities, and the planet in which we live. Our community programme has now been running for three years and has made tremendous change, we have given over £750,000 to good causes. You can see more about our community programme here: https://www.mewburn.com/community-giving. As a firm, we focus on Inclusion and Diversity, and it has become part of our culture. We started from the top with each member of our management board signing up to the IP Inclusive Senior Leader’s Pledge, as well as many of our people being recognised as diversity influentials and trailblazers. In addition, we actively support charities that are in line with our strategic I&D priorities. Sustainability is also an important focus we work with many green clients who share the same values as us, as we continue to build on our own green credentials this has been reinforced by our silver EcoVardis ranking for two years running.

We are recognised for the quality of our people and we devote considerable energy and resources into developing them. We foster a continuous learning environment that is accessible to all and integrated into our day-to-day life. Our open learning culture is all inclusive, regardless of the stage that people are at in their career we strive to ensure that innovation and success is perpetuated and shared. Investment in our people is key for us and it’s our commitment to sharing knowledge, insights and best practice that makes a Mewburn-trained attorney an excellent attorney.