IP STARS 2019: Trade mark firm rankings available on ipstars.com

Managing Intellectual Property is delighted to publish the IP STARS 2019 trade mark rankings on ipstars.com. These rankings were first published in the February issue of the Managing IP magazine. This is the first set of results from the research for IP STARS 2019, which started in September 2018. These 2019 rankings cover more than 70 jurisdictions.

IP STARS is not a directory of all firms offering IP services and therefore many firms, including those that participated in the research, have not been listed.

Ranked firms can contact Nick Heath at nheath@managingip.com or our research team at research@managingip.com for the latest ranking logo.

Congratulations to all the firms listed this year.

Apart from some firms moving between tiers or even included for the first time, we introduced new ranking categories such as a trade mark prosecution table for law firms operating in the Benelux, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. This new category reflects the trend in law firms establishing or strengthening their trade mark filing and prosecution practices to be able to provide a holistic service to brand owners.

What's available on ipstars.com

Click on the region of interest above to view the available 2019 firm rankings for each jurisdiction. The national firm rankings for the US (which are under Americas) are available online but the state rankings and all US firm editorials are first published in the US IP STARS Handbook in May. 

For the rest of the world, the firm rankings for patent and copyright, firm editorials and the IP stars published in the 2018 edition will remain on this website until we publish the 2019 version. We will make an announcement on our news page following each publication.

We now have filters on the IP stars tab on most country pages and, where available, we added the practice area data supplied by the IP star. IP stars can contact us to update their data but there may be restrictions on what we can display. Click on the star's name to see the individual's full profile. 

We will make an announcement when new content or features are available on ipstars.com.

These rankings are based on information available at the time the research was completed (January 2019). The research was conducted rigorously and impartially by our team of researchers in London, New York and Hong Kong. No firm can pay to be included or to influence the results, and there is no fee to pay to participate in our research.

Each year our research analysts obtain information from thousands of firms, IP practitioners and their clients through interviews, email and online surveys. Before compiling the rankings, our research analysts also conducted their own independent research, including an analysis of publicly available information (such as court or IP office data) and existing data we hold on firms.

The attributes assessed for the firm rankings include expertise, workload, market reputation/track record, outcomes achieved for clients, and unique strengths in a given practice area. Judgements about which firms to include in the rankings, and which tier and practice area they should be in, take account of all this information. This makes IP STARS the most comprehensive and authoritative survey of the IP legal market yet published.

Firms are ranked alphabetically in tiers, or as highly recommended or recommended. The total number of firms listed varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. For most jurisdictions the rankings are split into prosecution and contentious work. However, in smaller jurisdictions we evaluated and ranked firms for their IP practice as a whole. The trade mark prosecution ranking takes account of pre and post-registration work including contentious office proceedings and portfolio management advice, whereas the trade mark contentious ranking covers trade mark-related disputes including anti-counterfeiting work. Where appropriate, some firms have been ranked for both practice areas.

Except for name changes, any subsequent developments or information that could influence our rankings will be considered during the research for the 2020 edition of IP STARS, which starts in September 2019. For the avoidance of doubt, the tables do not suggest or indicate that the IP expertise or services of the listed firms are limited to the practice area in question. Managing IP does not recommend or endorse any particular firm for IP work. IP STARS rankings are subject to change each year. Visit ipstars.com to learn more about our research.

The March/April issue of Managing IP will include the 2019 national rankings for patent work. We reveal the  national rankings for copyright and related rights work in the May issue.

The IP STARS Trade Mark/Copyright Handbook (global edition) and the US edition of IP STARS are published in May, whereas the Patent Handbook is published in July. The IP STARS Handbook includes all the relevant firm rankings, the list of the leading IP practitioners (including the Top 250 Women in IP and Corporate IP Stars), and our editorial commentary on the ranked firms. IP STARS Handbooks are widely distributed and copies can be found at IP industry events we attend such as the INTA Annual Meeting.

If you have any feedback or questions please contact the research editor, Kingsley Egbuonu kingsley.egbuonu@managingip.com