United Kingdom (England)

Firm overview

Murgitroyd is a rapidly growing firm with innovation at its heart.

For nearly 50 years we’ve built a reputation as one of the world’s leading strategic IP firms. Trusted by global innovators and businesses to realise and protect the true value of their intellectual assets. History we may have, but we instead face forward. Our success lies in the positive relationships we build and our unrivalled breadth of expertise – from an unmatched technical knowledge to a proven commercial awareness.

We’re more than legal experts – we’re a strategic IP solutions firm with an unrivalled breadth of expertise. Our UK and European patent, trade mark and design attorneys bring together solid legal foundations, unmatched technical knowledge, and a commercial awareness that can drive growth and accelerate success.

We build relationships – globally. Our job is to protect and unlock the full potential of your innovations and ideas – not just in your country, but around the world. Our global team of specialists have an unrivalled knowledge in local laws and practices that provide a benchmark for advice and expertise wherever it’s needed to help you grow your business in markets you never thought possible, in ways you never imagined.

Our global office network spans Europe, North America and Asia. With over 440 employees (including over 120 attorneys) worldwide, our people have leading IP expertise across many industries including automotive, engineering & energy; consumer brands & services; chemistry & materials; life sciences & healthcare; and technology, media & telecoms.

Firm overview

The Simmons & Simmons international IP team offers the specialist expertise of a boutique IP practice complemented by the full service offering of a major international firm. We are well known in the market for our high-calibre clients and involvement in many of the leading IP cases and transactions, both in the UK and internationally.

Our IP practice, comprising litigation, prosecution and transactional expertise, for both brands/trade mark and patents matters, is one of the only international firms that provide the full suite of IP services from one trusted source – a significant differentiator in the legal market.

We boast an extremely deep and strong bench. Consisting of over 100 fee earners internationally, our IP team has a presence across EMEA (in Belgium, China, Dubai, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, The Netherlands), the UK and Asia.

Known for our expertise in the life sciences, fintech and technology sectors, we leverage our in-depth industry knowledge developed over our 120+ year history to provide the best advice to the most sophisticated clients. The majority of our patent litigators, attorneys and transactional IP lawyers have technical backgrounds, including advanced degrees and scientific research experience, giving our clients the advantage of market leading legal advisors who also understand their complex and cutting-edge inventions.

Firm overview

Maucher Jenkins is an Anglo-German Intellectual Property firm with offices in the UK, Germany, Switzerland and China, staffed by local partners and attorneys with a genuinely international perspective.

Our attorneys advise on all aspects of intellectual property in the various legal systems in which we operate. We are also able to advise our clients on the business cultures and economic and cultural distinctions between the UK and Germany for both national and European filings. Our UK-based attorneys practice out of both our London and Munich offices ensuring a close working relationship with our German colleagues. This enables us to offer our clients swift, responsive and fully tailored IP legal services in two of the most important jurisdictions in Europe. Our presence in China is a further advantage and allows us to advise clients on safely navigating the legal and cultural features of the largest economy in the world.

Our patents team files and prosecutes patent applications and carries out patent portfolio and freedom to operate reviews in fast moving areas of technology, along with validity and infringement analysis. We have specialist patent litigators in the UK and Germany. All of our patent attorneys have scientific or engineering backgrounds with significant industry or academic experience. The team’s technical understanding is essential to successfully representing the interests of our clients.

The patents team boasts extraordinarily wide sector specialisms. James Cross leads on IT, satellites, software, fintech and electronics. Hugh Dunlop is in charge of teams specialising in wireless telecoms, green energy, and the Internet-of-Things. Reuben Jacob heads up the Life Sciences team, along with Fiona Kellas. Their team serves a range of clients in medtech, medical devices, pharma, biotech, chemistry and agro-chem. Ad hoc expert teams are formed for nanotech and AI, according to applications. Holly Whitlock and Phil Treeby together lead on engineering, physics and mathematics patenting. Stuart Rowlands has a background in engineering and is an expert on rechargeable batteries and green-tech.

Our trade marks team works with clients of all sizes, advising on the registrability of new brand names and logos, conducting searches to locate any potentially conflicting third-party rights, filing and prosecuting trade mark applications and acting on behalf of clients in relation to any disputes.

We have a strong litigation team experienced in representing clients in IP matters before the English High Court, the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court and the German courts.

We are experts in advising clients on domain name registration, copyright law and protecting against cybersquatting. Our attorneys obtain design protection for new and innovative product shapes and advise on effective action against copyright infringement, including seizure and detention of infringing goods.

The trade marks team is experienced in a wide range of industries and is particularly known for their expertise in the following sectors: media and entertainment, pharmaceuticals and medical devices, cosmetics, food and beverages, financial services and fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG). The trade marks and brand protection team is headed up by Angela Fox, Katie Cameron and Tanya Buckley.

Maucher Jenkins is the joint trading name of RGC Jenkins & Co in the UK (regulated by IPReg) and Maucher Jenkins Patentanwälte & Rechtsanwälte in Germany.

Firm overview

Areas of specialism
EIP is a leading IP law firm advising on high-value and complex patent matters. Our multidisciplinary team combines patent attorneys, litigators and commercial IP lawyers. EIP is located in key strategic markets – Germany, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States.

The benefit of combining attorneys and litigators is well illustrated by EIP’s successful representation of clients in high-stakes patent litigation before the UK High Court, the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court, and before the German district and federal courts.

Aside from the more mainstream drafting and prosecution practices, EIP’s patent attorneys work closely with the litigation team in the United Kingdom and Germany, providing additional technical expertise on large-scale international patent litigation matters. We also have a dedicated, experienced and technically skilled team supporting clients before the new Unified Patent Court (UPC). EIP brings together highly recognised litigation lawyers and European patent attorneys that are experienced in English and German across all technical fields and since the UPC opened its doors also has experience from a number of cases before different venues of the new court.

EIP is increasingly involved in advisory and strategic project work in relation to the enforcement of patent rights, including portfolio analyses, infringement and validity analyses and claim charting, as well as strategic IP advice such as due diligence related to acquisitions and joint ventures. Team members often counsel clients on strategic patent portfolio management and development matters, and EIP has been retained to assist in developing high-level IP strategies for some of the world’s largest companies. Recently, after strategic hire, the team can also advise on China related matters.

To complement the high-value patent advice we already provide to our clients, we give commercial advice on the exploitation and use of IP rights and ancillary issues arising in relation to data protection and rights of privacy.

EIP has represented clients in hundreds of oppositions before the EPO over the past two decades and represent clients in person at hearings at the EPO in Munich, The Hague and Berlin, as well as via videoconference hearings.

The firm’s integrated team of patent attorneys, litigators and paralegals can act in national court litigation alongside EPO opposition proceedings for a seamless, consistent and effective service.

Clients
EIP has a diverse international client base, advising blue-chip companies through to small and mid-sized enterprises. Clients include Nokia, VISA, Airbus, AP Moller-Maersk, Pulpex, Sonos, Broadcom and Optis.

Clients choose EIP for its commercial outlook, in-house experience, honest opinions and pioneering approach to dealing with patents. Our attorneys and lawyers have considerable technical knowledge in the areas of high tech, advanced engineering, chemistry, life sciences, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, healthcare, medical technology and energy.

Firm overview
EIP was established in 2000 and has rapidly grown to be a leading IP firm with 36 partners and more than 180 staff practising from its four UK offices in Bath, Cardiff, Leeds and London, its German office in Düsseldorf, its Sweden office in Stockholm and its US office in Denver, Colorado.

In 2024 EIP was named “European Patent Disputes Firm of the Year” at Managing Intellectual Property EMEA awards for the third time. EIP is a Legal 500, Chambers & Partners, IAM Patent 1000, IP Stars and JUVE-recommended firm, as well as being one of four firms achieving gold rankings all six categories in the Financial Times' Europe's Leading Patent Law Firms award list: Biotechnology, Food & Healthcare, Chemistry & Pharmacy, Electrical Engineering & Physics, IT & Software, Materials & Nanotechnology, and Mechanical Engineering.

Notable cases
EIP has built an enviable reputation in patent litigation and has won the following high-profile cases for clients:

• EIP secured a landmark victory in the UK Supreme Court for its clients Unwired Planet and Conversant Wireless, in Unwired Planet v Huawei and Conversant Wireless v Huawei & ZTE – the most eagerly anticipated telecoms cases in years. The Supreme Court’s combined ruling defines the licensing of patented technology considered essential to the international standards for previous and future generations of wireless telecommunications technology.
• EIP secured a significant victory for client Conversant Wireless in Germany. EIP successfully asserted a standard essential patent (SEP) for Conversant against Stuttgart carmaker Daimler in a dispute that will have repercussions across the sector.
• EIP obtained a victory in the Düsseldorf District Court for its client Conversant Wireless in two patent infringement decisions against Huawei and ZTE. The court affirmed infringement of two 3G-related SEPs by Huawei and ZTE products. Subject to enforcement, the ruling awarded, among other things, an injunction against both companies, confirming a previous but non-accepted licence offer by Conversant as fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory.