2016 ip awards magazine

Dominating Domain Names Daniel Greenberg provides us with a fascinating insight into Lexsynergy Limited, a global domain name registrar and leading online brand protection company and the techniques it employs which have led it to be named ‘Best Online IP Enforcement Company – UK’.

Leading Intellectual Property into the Future

We invited Bruce Rubinger to provide us with a fascinating overview of Global Prior Art, which has just been named ‘Most Innovative Global IP Search Process – USA’.

Experience leads to Excellence in IP Law We spoke to Robin Keulertz, who provided us with a insight into Olbricht Patent Attorneys, which has just been named ‘Best for Mechanical Engineering IP – Germany’

www.acquisition-intl.com/intellectual-property-awards

welcome

to the 2016 Intellectual Property Awards

As businesses and individuals become increasingly dependent on technology, the Intellectual Property industry has grown in importance, with clients requiring support and advice on how to safeguard the intangible assets and online information which are often vital to their survival in the business market.

With this in mind, the 2016 Intellectual Property Awards were created to recognise the top intellectual property professionals across the industry, including trademark, copyright, patent and litigation practices and their dedicated employees. Now in its third year, this awards program aims to offer a unique resource detailing the major players in this industry for anyone seeking IP support services.

contents 4. Global Prior Art, Inc. has won Most Innovative Global IP Search Process - USA 7. Lexsynergy Limited has won Best Online IP Enforcement Company - UK 8. Olbricht Patentwaelte has won Best for Mechanical Engineering IP - Germany 10. SafeBrands has won Best in Domain Name IP Law - France 12. ALPIM Patent has won Best Full-Service IP Boutique and Recognised Leaders in Trademark Law - Turkey 13. Cabinet Netter has won Best for IP Due Diligence - France 14. Cermak a spol has won Best IP Law Firm 2016 - Czech Republic 15. CHADHA & CHADHA has won Overall IP Law Firm of the Year - India 16. Fernandez Manzo & Asociados, S.C. has won Best IP Litigation Firm - Mexico 17. FlashPoint IP has won Best IP Firm 2016 and Recognised Leader in Patent Portfolio Management - Israel 18. Hechanova Bugay Vilchez & Andaya-Racadio has won Best Contentious IP Law Firm - Philippines 19. ICOSA has won Best for Business IP Strategy Designs - France 20. InterAlia has won Best for IP Prosecution - Spain 21. Julius & Creasy Attorneys at Law has won IP Law Firm of the Year - Sri Lanka 22. Kasan IP & Law Firm has won Best IP Law Firm - South Korea 23. Lincoln IP has won Best Technology IP Portfolio Management Firm and Recognised Leader in Energy Technology IP - UK 24. M. Ide & Co. has won Recognised Leaders in Patent Law - Japan 25. MSA IP has won Best IP Law Firm - Serbia / Montenegro and Most Trusted Trademark Prosecutor - Eastern Europe 26. Oblon, McClelland, Maier & Neustadt LLP has won Best Electrical Patent Prosecution Firm -Virginia 28. P&T Intellectual Property Law Firm has won Best for Technology Patent Prosecution - Korea 29. PatentAxis Inc. has won Best for International Patent Prosecution - Canada 30. PLUS International IP Law Firm has won Best for Machinery Patent Law - Korea 31. Roider IP has won Best Patent Law Firm - Germany 32. Romanian Association for Technology Transfer has won Best Technology IP Consultancy - Romania 33. Romulo Mabanta Buenaventura Sayoc & De Los Angeles has won Best IP Law Firm - Philippines 34. Rosenbaum IP has won Best Life Sciences IP Law Firm - Illinois 35. Samson & Partner Patentanw채lte mbB has won Best for Computer Science Patent Prosecutions - Germany 36. Stellbrink IP has won Best IP Management Consultants 2016 - Germany 37. Stratiqa has won Best IP Consultancy Firm and Sustained Excellence in IP Valuations - Asia Pacific 38. Tabakov, Tabakova & Partners has won Best IP Law Practice - Bulgaria 39. TLIP has won Best for Patent Acquisition Management - UK 40. Wagenknecht IP Law Group has won Best for Medical Device Patent & Trademark Protection - USA 41. Wood IP Limited has won Best Trademark & Design Attorney - UK 42. WP Thompson has won Best Electro Engineering Patent Law Firm - UK 44. Zanoli & Giavarini S.r.l. has won Best for Technology IP Portfolio Strategy - Italy 46. Grosse Schumacher Knauer von Hirschhausen, Munich has won Best for Industrial Property Rights - Germany 47. EverEdge has won Strategic IP Advisory Firm of the Year - UK

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Most Innovative Global IP Search Process - USA

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Founded in 1982, Global Prior Art is an established leader in the intellectual property industry. We invited Bruce Rubinger to provide us with a fascinating overview of the firm, which has just been named ‘Most Innovative Global IP Search Process – USA’ in our coveted awards programme.

Company: Global Prior Art, Inc. Name: Bruce Rubinger, Ph.D. Email: rubinger@globalpriorart.com Web Address: www.globalpriorart.com Address: 21 Milk Street, 6th Floor, Boston, MA 02109 USA Telephone: +1 (617) 574-9574

Global Prior Art is renowned for and dedicated to its trademark, which epitomises our approach to our work and clients: “The Most Trusted Name in IP Research.” Our combination of in-depth technical expertise, search approach, and intimate knowledge of the best sources for highly relevant art in each technical category is unrivalled.

GPA has addressed thousands of high stakes cases and has a proven track record which has been documented by extensive benchmarking by clients and Joint Defense Groups. Our in-depth technical expertise is augmented by institutional knowledge reflecting over 30 years’ experience and familiarity with the most critical sources worldwide. While the field of IP research and IP strategy is crowded, clients select GPA for the reassurance of knowing that their decisions are based on the most accurate IP information.

Intellectual property plays a critical function when assessing a potential acquisition. We find that in many cases, clients need to evaluate the strength of a potential partner’s portfolio. In reality, every firm operates in a crowded IP space, making it essential to have an objective, independent assessment of this critical asset.

We are also finding that more clients are undertaking a freedom-to-operate (FTO) search. Often, after an acquisition closes, competitors and NPEs go after a company claiming that the new business is infringing their patents. From a risk analysis perspective, more companies are now undertaking an FTO-type search early in the acquisition process.

GPA has created a special capability to meet the due diligence needs of companies handling acquisitions.

Timing is of the essence for such assessments. It is also important that key patents and important product features be understood lest clients receive a large data dump (many non-relevant patents that divert their attention from more serious issues). GPA also recognizes that clients are busy and we work closely as part of their team. For example, at the conclusion of a due diligence project, we walk the client’s team through the top findings and the implications to facilitate their analysis.

Within the industry we are seeing a number of exciting developments as intellectual property becomes increasingly vital to the success of the corporate world. One recent development is more work from venture capital companies who wish to ensure that the firms in which they invest have strong patent protection. Many start-ups are focused on technical development and raising funds, and thus have traditionally not emphasized the creation of strong patent assets. This puts them at risk after successful products are launched and competitors enter the space. We have found that this group is hungry for useful patent information that allows them to understand the opportunity space. A good example of a local firm we have assisted to create a strong, valuable IP portfolio is Bit9, which is engaged in the development of complex security technology.

The importance of IP is also gaining widespread recognition among board members and CEOs. Previously, it was difficult for this key group of stakeholders to get its hands around complex IP-related information. The introduction of accurate and actionable IP landscapes by Global Prior Art has transformed decision-making.

We find many clients are using our assessments to understand their IP position vis-à-vis those of competitors, and to confirm that patent filings are covering the most critical technologies and product features.

Ultimately it is our overall mission as a business to be pioneers and thought leaders within our sector. GPA created the concept of accurate and actionable IP landscapes more than 20 years ago. The third generation IP landscape software was introduced in 2006. Over the last five years, we have worked at the intersection of technology, intellectual property, and strategy, identifying critical synergies that have allowed clients to more effectively exploit the opportunity space and guide their innovation activities. We are also assisting companies to ward off assaults by patent trolls and competitors, allowing them to emerge as financially successful innovators.

Intellectual Property Awards 2016 / 5

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Best Online IP Enforcement Company - UK

Company: Lexsynergy Limited Email: info@lexsynergy.com Web Address: www.lexsynergy.com Telephone: +44 20 313 70459 (UK) +1 858 225 1318 (US)

Lexsynergy Limited is a global domain name registrar and leading online brand protection company. Daniel Greenberg provides us with a fascinating insight into the firm and the techniques it employs which have led it to be named ‘Best Online IP Enforcement Company – UK’.

At Lexsynergy Limited we offer a wide range of services internationally within domain name and online brand protection industries, including managing domain names and monitoring and resolving brand abuse. Specifically within our brand protection service offering we remove copyrights infringements online and take down phishing sites and social media accounts that infringe upon IPR, and we also recover domain names through various dispute resolution mechanisms worldwide, with a 100% success rate thus far.

Our clients include financial institutions, international retailers, Internet service providers and multi-national organisations, who have entrusted us to protect and manage their domain names in an evolving market.

When taking on a new client we have a rigorous initial process which ensures they receive a service which exactly meets their needs. We gather all the information from the client to conduct an audit or investigation so we can advise on a course of action. Analysing the client’s position is key so that a proactive solution can be sought.

Our recommendations are practical on a short term and long term basis so that the client has an action plan to enforce its IPR online and mitigate any risks.

Our overall approach is to guide our client’s through the web of confusion surrounding domain names and online brand protection. In order to achieve this we educate our clients through training sessions so they are well versed to identify issues and become proactive as opposed to reactive.

In order to ensure that clients feel fully supported by our organisation at all times we take a personal approach treating our client’s business as if it is our own, aiming to be responsive and offer services that are priced at a level that allows our client to be more proactive.

Within our industry we are noticing that IPR owners are recognising the importance of developing an online brand protection policy and strategy that tackles the challenges of social media and other online services that affect their business.

However, we are still finding that our main challenge is to educate potential clients about the issues facing IPR owners. Once they are logged in to our approach it creates the opportunity to assist them.

In addition, trademark owners tend to sideline domain names and the issues it raises with the result that portfolios are scattered amongst several providers, infringements are not dealt with and new registrations are not acted upon.

Through our international operations we have gained a strong understanding of the international trademark and domain name market, and have seen growth in the African domain name industry. In order to meet the changing needs of clients in these areas we have set-up offices in South Africa, Kenya and Tanzania, which are supported by our US and UK offices.

Through our vigilance of the industry we are able to ensure that we are quick to react with solutions, since a day online is equivalent to a month or two offline. This approach ensures that our clients receive the best possible quality of services which exactly meet their needs.

We are also moving more into online brand protection as social media creates a new avenue for fraud. We are now developing tools that will lead the market on how infringements online are identified and dealt with in a cost effective manner. Since our business has an online focus we are always adapting. We predict law firms we start moving towards offering more online legal services. All of these developments will help the company to infiltrate new markets and support additional clients, and overall we are excited about what the future has to offer for our company.

Intellectual Property Awards 2016 / 7

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Best for Mechanical Engineering IP - Germany

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Olbricht Patent Attorneys is a reputable German patent law firm with a wide range of capabilities within IP law. We spoke to Robin Keulertz, who provided us with a insight into the firm, which has just been named ‘Best for Mechanical Engineering IP – Germany’, and the fascinating history behind it.

Olbricht was founded in 1967 by patent attorney Karl Olbricht (Dipl.-Phys.) in Munich, Germany. Our main office is now situated in Frankfurt, one of Europe’s largest business and finance hubs.

Company: Olbricht Patentanwälte Name: Robin Keulertz Email: mail@olbrichtpatent.de Web Address: www.olbrichtpatent.de Address: Bettinastraße 53-55, 60325 Frankfurt am Main, Germany Telephone: +49 (0) 69 7890 401 0

We serve a wide range of international, national and local clients, providing expertise and advice in all technical fields, from physics, mechanical engineering, electronics and chemistry, to the life sciences, pharmacology, biotechnology and medical devices. Our vast experience in IP law means that we are not limited with regards to the projects we can undertake and we work with start-ups, single inventors, SMEs and large, globally operating companies.

As a versatile legal practice our work encompasses all areas of IP, including prior art research, drafting and prosecuting applications, instigation and litigation of court proceedings, coexistence and confidentially agreements, obtaining preliminary injunctions and working with authorities in the seizure of infringing goods, monitoring third party activities and producing IP-related contracts. We are particularly strong in the fields of injection technology, foundry technology, engineered joining technology and construction, although we place equal focus on all technological areas, with different attorneys having different specialisms.

When starting a new project we always assign it to an attorney whose technical expertise and qualifications exactly match those required by the individual project or client. This person then works with the client from the beginning and throughout the process, during which they – in consultation with colleagues - consider how the project can be further developed from the initial idea to create value for the client. This approach ensures that every client receives a service which meets their individual needs and that they are fully supported throughout the process.

As a medium-sized firm, we have the opportunity to interact with clients on a more personal level, whilst still being able to offer our collective experience and expertise. We can take the time to get to know a client, to understand their individual needs and vision for their idea or company, and develop a plan of action with them.

Currently the intellectual property sector in Germany and Europe is an exciting and evolving market. The market as a whole is currently experiencing a period of streamlining and cutting back. One thing we are certain of is that being resistant to change or unwilling to adapt can only ever harm growth and expansion, and as such we are constantly reflecting on how we can move forward. For example, all of our attorneys are keeping abreast of legal developments in the upcoming unitary patent.

The emerging unitary patent is one of the most exciting innovations in the European IP market currently, and we are following it diligently. The core idea is to have one overall and unified system that should offer certain applicants a reduction in fees and translation costs. We view change as a good thing and as such are keeping well-informed on the latest progress and how we can ensure our clients will benefit from the changes.

So as to ensure that we are always at the forefront of emerging developments such as this and able to provide the best possible service to our clients we constantly refresh our knowledge of technological developments and current law through our regular presence at IP and technology conferences all over the world, where our attorneys themselves often hold talks on current and emerging matters. Such events also provide an excellent opportunity to meet with foreign colleagues and discuss the latest developments in other countries.

Moving forward we have a number of exciting future plans which will provide us with opportunities for growth.

We are constantly expanding, having recently opened our second office in Essen, Germany and welcomed many new colleagues into our team in recent months. We are constantly on the look-out for new experts to join our team and enhance our collective knowledge.

Intellectual Property Awards 2016 / 9

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www.acquisition-intl.com/intellectual-property-awards

Best in Domain Name IP Law - France

SafeBrands provides personalized and high quality services which are constantly evolving to meet the needs of the modern corporate market. We invited Matthieu Aubert to talk us through the firm’s service offering, as well as the techniques it employs to support its clients and ensure quality.

For 18 years, SafeBrands has been helping companies with the comprehensive management of their domain names and more generally their digital identities. We have built a strong company ethos based on our approachable, flexible and innovative service and our ability to consistently strive for the very highest quality.

Since inception the firm has grown considerably and now comprises of nearly 40 web professionals in two expert divisions, providing companies with high-end services and products that are constantly evolving.

We provide all of the services that our client require to successfully manage their internet naming strategy, including portfolio management, new TLDs, TMCH, auditing and monitoring, recovery, advanced DNS management, naming charters, statistics, IDN translations, local representation and more.

This vast service offering and our dedication to supporting our clients has helped to cement SafeBrands’ position as a premium Internet Naming Consultancy.

We can protect domain names around the world, and our teams will provide our clients with administrative, technical marketing and legal support for all of their domain name requirements, including registrations, global web monitoring, repurchasing, recovery and dispute procedures, naming strategies and domain portfolio management.

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Primarily these services are provided to French or European companies, as well as some IP law firms in need of support. Being an industry leader means that we are able to support our colleagues and enrich the wider knowledge through our experience. As such we participate in the evolution of the internet governance system and regularly monitor the activity in the sector in order to provide support to the wider market and to enrich our own understanding.

Our main objective is to be a one-stop shop for all our client’s needs related to online rights protection. To achieve this we offer a wide range of services, including support to establish a naming strategy in order for clients to have a rationalized and consistent approach and management of their distinctive signs as domain names worldwide. For these services, we rely on our registrar accreditations in mostly all countries and for nearly all GTLDs (legacy and New), as well as our in-house team of specialist Intellectual Property lawyers.

Company: SafeBrands SAS Name: Matthieu Aubert Email: legal@safebrands.com Web Address: https://www.safebrands.com Address: 71 rue Fondary, 75015 Paris, FRANCE Telephone: +33 (0)1 80 82 82 60

We also provide solutions and consultancy services as regards to monitoring on domain names, social networks, web content, logos, market places, Ad words, and mobile applications. We developed and constantly improve our own solutions to provide the service that best meets our client’s needs taking into account the constant transformation of the market. Every day our lawyers analyse the auditing and monitoring results, which are then applied to the strategy which is defined by the client. We then report to them the relevant infringement cases with a qualification on a case by case study and a recommendation regarding the potential action they could undertake.

Another key service we offer is acting directly to solve infringement by providing mandates of amicable resolution and the handling of administrative or/and arbitral procedures. We work with some partners for the judiciary parts to offer to our client a unique interlocutor during all these potential phases of conflict resolution.

In order to offer such a vast array of services we need to have the right technological and staff offering.

Being equipped with our own technical platform that meets the most stringent security standards together with seamless IP transit infrastructure, we are able apply our quality standards to the hosting of our client’s websites and servers through a full range of solutions on shared or private servers, or servers fully dedicated to their applications. Our DNS department uses its technical expertise to provide our major domain name clients with the most advanced DNS services on the market.

As well as offering state of the art technology, we also have some of the very best talent in the industry supporting us. This is vital for meeting our aim to support our clients with their long term business needs. With our extremely low turnover rate, our representatives will work with our clients for several years, ensuring that they are supported and communicated with appropriately. Our equally loyal clients appreciate our approachability and consistency, and rely on us to provide support and listen to their needs.

Overall our strategy is guided by our clients’ needs, and is based on flexibility, approachability and our ability to listen. This enables us to offer a global service with a local outlook. Each client is equally important to us regardless of their business size or industry ranking, and we pride ourselves on treating each client in the same professional and dedicated manner. As such we maintain a direct relationship and hold regular meetings with our clients’ representatives. This client focused philosophy has helped to differentiate our firm from our competitors and marks us out as a quality option for supporting our clients’ IP needs.

Looking ahead, we are undertaking a number of developments within the business in order to adapt to the ever changing market in which we operate, and to ensure that our clients receive the best possible service.

We have entirely redeveloped our monitoring solution. This new portal and its linked analysis make possible an easiest and more comprehensive control of internet activities.

This new technological offering is designed to better support our clients and ensure that we adapt around the changes that are occurring within the corporate landscape, as business increasingly rely on portable technology.

Additional changes we predict in the future include the evolution of the internet, with additional TLDs due to be incorporated in the coming years, as well as new systems and regulations which come in force nearly every day around the world and need to be adapted around. As such we are constantly upgrading our internal systems and processes to ensure clients receive the very highest quality service possible which exactly meets their needs. The future could prove challenging to trademark and patent owners, and we are dedicated to assisting them in overcoming these difficulties and meeting their business goals.

Intellectual Property Awards 2016 / 11

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www.acquisition-intl.com/intellectual-property-awards

Best Full-Service IP Boutique - Turkey & Recognised Leaders in Trademark Law - Turkey

ALPIM Patent Company: ALPIM Patent Limited Name: Nevzer Alperten and Dilek Imirlioglu Email: info@alpimpatent.com Web Address: www.alpimpatent.com Address: Çayyolu Mahallesi. 2706 Sok. (Eski 692.Sok.) Angora İş Merkezi Kat:1 No:11 Yenimahalle, Ankara / TURKEY Telephone: 00905492119000/00905492129000

ALPIM Patent is a niche patent protection firm serving a range of clients from various industries around the world. We invited Managing Partners Nevzer Alperten and Dilek Imirlioglu to provide us with an insight into the firm, which has just been awarded ‘Best Full-Service IP Boutique – Turkey’.

ALPIM Patent is a full service IP firm, providing services for protection of trademarks, patents, designs, utility models, plant breeders’ rights, domain names and all other kinds of intellectual property protection.

Acting as a reliable international partner in the field of legal protection of intellectual property we advise and offer legal support to innovative companies, with an aim to protect their interests and defend their rights.

As a full-service intellectual property bureau, we offer our clients the consultancy of experienced patent and trademark attorneys with the knowledge and competence of highly specialized attorneys-at-law.

The overall aim of the firm is to combine a high quality legal service with a professional team work in order to achieve the best possible results for our clients. Within this scope, all the attorneys and legal staff work diligently in order to achieve additional professional qualifications and experience which will enhance their knowledge and enable them to better support our clients.

One of our greatest strengths as a business is our swift response to any request from clients. We believe that this is the key for clients’ satisfaction and as such we ensure that clients only have a short wait for a response.

Looking ahead, we believe that there are a number of exciting developments within the Turkish market that will help our firm to expand in the future. As Turkey is both developing its industry and a growing market with over 75 million population 16.5% of which is young population (between the age of 15-24), intellectual property rights in Turkey are becoming increasingly important for both Turkish entrepreneurs and other investors in Turkey. Interest in the registration of motion marks is growing steadily, and from our analysis of last years’ annual reports, we also foresee that number of trademark applications for non-traditional marks such as sound, colour and 3D marks will increase as firms continue to utilise varying technologies and rely increasingly on branding.

Therefore, we expect a large scale of growth in our field of service and intend to capitalise on this by continuing to offer a superior service.

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Best for IP Due Diligence - France

Company: Cabinet NETTER President: Jean-Yves Plaçais Name: Gabriel de Kernier Email: gkernier@cabinetnetter.com Web Address: www.cabinetnetter.com Address: 36 avenue Hoche F75008 PARIS Telephone: 33 1 58 36 44 22

Established in 1945, Cabinet NETTER offers a range of legal services but specialises in intellectual property law, which is how the firm came to be named ‘Best for IP Due Diligence – France’. We invited Gabriel de Kernier to provide us with an overview of the company and the collaborative approach which has helped the firm to its present success.

Cabinet Netter serves a wide range of clients, including start-ups, mid-sized companies, market-listed corporations and major public entities. These clients are provided with a wide range of services, including acquisition of rights services: patent applications, trademarks, design and utility models and domain names.

In addition, the firm also provides rights of usage services, including patent and trademark enforcement, prior art search, validity analysis, legal opinions and industrial property contracts. Our range of expertise enables the firm to provide auditing services and also due diligence and financial evaluation of intellectual property rights, ensuring that every area of our clients business is supported.

The firm’s key focus is on providing added value to every client, which means tailoring our service offering to the client’s needs, as a publicly traded company, a mid-size industrial company and a start-up have different needs. We help our clients to integrate IP as a core development item, and our vast range of services ensures that every need can be met by a member of our staff.

At the heart of our approach is collaboration. Strong relationships are vitally important to the firm, and these are developed by ensuring that direct contact between client and attorney is maintained throughout any given project. This contributes to Netter’s focus on protecting a client’s long-term interests.

Alongside clients, the firm has also built strong relationships with industry peers, including a number of accounting and technical experts. The firm also maintains close ties with IP-specialized attorneys-at-law in order to ensure that we are always kept ahead of the latest industry developments.

This approach has led us to a number of success, and some of our major recent achievements include winning over 90% of opposition and appeal proceedings at the EPO, defending a major electronics manufacturer in a global lawsuit, successfully counselling avionics manufacturer against a global plane manufacturer.

Intellectual Property Awards 2016 / 13

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Best IP Law Firm 2016 - Czech Republic

Cermak a spol Company: Cermak a spol Phone: (+420) 296 167 111 Fax: (+420) 224 946 724 Address: Čermák a spol.

Elišky Peškové 15, 150 00 Praha 5 Czech republic Email: info@apk.cz Website: http://cermakaspol.com/

Cermak a spol specialises in providing legal advice and representing clients in the highly specialised field of Intellectual Property Law.

Cermak a spol, which has just been awarded the coveted title of ‘Best IP Law Firm 2016 - Czech Republic’, also provide advice and represent clients in the more general areas of commercial law and civil law.

The firm’s services are highly sought after in IP law, especially when industrial property law matters, such as trademarks and patents. In addition the practice carries out availability searches, prosecutes applications of patents, utility models, trademarks, designations of origin and geographical indications, semiconductor topographies, including the preparation of the necessary materials. This versatility enables the firm to offer a wide range of services which meets the needs of their clients.

Operating a team of more than 40 experts in industrial property law, including more than 15 attorneys at law and five patent attorneys, the firm has been active in this industry since 1990 and in that time have acquired invaluable in-house knowledge that is not available to less specialised firms.

As such the firm has built up a vast client base in this time, with both local and international firms working with the firm. These clients are often leaders in their respective fields, however the company also regularly assist small and medium enterprises as well as start-ups.

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Overall IP Law Firm of the Year - India

CHADHA & CHADHA Company: Chadha & Chadha Name: Chetan Chadha Email: info@iprattorneys.com Web Address: www.iprattorneys.com Address: F-46, Himalaya House, 23 K.G. Road, New Delhi Telephone: +91-11-41513030

Chadha & Chadha is an Intellectual Property Firm based in New Delhi with 9 branch offices across India. We invited Chetan Chadha to provide us with an insight into how this firm came to be named ‘Overall IP Law Firm of the Year – India’ in our prestigious awards programme.

Chadha & Chadha was established in 1967 and has evolved for close to five decades into one of India’s most prominent IP Firms. The firm is dedicated to providing the highest quality of work in all aspects of Intellectual Property, including patents, trademarks, copyrights, designs, emerging IP rights and licensing.

The firm has successfully represented various Indian and International clients before the Indian Patent Office and various Courts in India, gaining trust and appreciation over the years from its clients. As such the firm has seen a considerable growth in the past years and enjoys a diverse clientele including Fortune 500 companies, MNCs, Universi-ties from around the globe, start-ups and medium and small enterprises.

The greatest advantage Chadha & Chadha has is the diverse range of services that it can offer to its clients, ranging from handling client portfolios, conducting searches, to drafting, filing and prosecution through to further handling contentious matters.

The high quality drafting the firm offers is carried out by a specialised team of attorneys who have undergone training under the FICPI SEAD course exclusively for drafting, which is an international level patent drafting course with tutors from around the globe giving a perspective of drafting world-wide. The firm also uses IP Management Software from Pro Delta UK Limited for docketing and file management. The firm believes in Paperless Working and all the files and documents are stored and docketed electronically. The prosecution success rate of the firm is 98% which makes them stand out from other local law firms.

Overall IP is still a growing market in India. Although there is still a long way to go, we do see considerable awareness related to IPR amongst domestic companies, particularly start-ups and medium and small-scale enterprises. They understand the importance of IPR and are willing to explore this domain.

As such Chadha & Chadha is growing alongside our market, and the firm already has opened 10 offices in India to cater to domestic clients and would like to explore more opportunities worldwide.

Intellectual Property Awards 2016 / 15

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www.acquisition-intl.com/intellectual-property-awards

Best IP Litigation Firm - Mexico

Company: Fernandez Manzo & Asociados, S.C. Tel: [52-55] 552-555-86 551-451-26 Fax: 520-739-11 Address: Av. Paseo de las palmas No. 731 Despacho 802 Col. Lomas de Chapultepec México D.F. Postcode: 11000 P.O.BOX 10-823 Email: info@fernandezmanzo.com.mx Website: www.fernandezmanzo.com

Established in 1980, Fernandez Manzo & Asociados is a specialist IP firm which has just been awarded ‘Best IP Litigation Firm – Mexico’.

Located in the capital of the Mexican Republic, Fernandez Manzo & Asociados offer clients a highly qualified team, with every member of the firm being a specialist in their field, providing dedicated and personalized services with constant innovation, thus contributing with their experience to the attainment of a good evolution in the client’s businesses.

Specialising in integral legal services in industrial and Intellectual Property, corporate law, litigation and disloyal competence, as well as on sanitary registrations and copyright, the firm is able to offer a vast range of services to clients.

The firm is governed by a strong code of ethics and aim to provide the highest quality services to their clients at all times, as evidenced by the company’s mission statement: “to perform an integral personalized service fulfilling the needs and responding the expectations of our clients, based on the excellence and integrity of our collaborators.”

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Best IP Firm 2016 - Israel & Recognised Leader in Patent Portfolio Management - Israel

Company: FlashPoint IP Ltd. Name: Dr. Reuven K. Mouallem, LL.M. Email: info@FlashPointIP.com Web Address: www.FlashPointIP.com Telephone: +972-3-936-3199 Israel/ +1-516-301-1649 U.S.

FlashPoint IP is an IP and high-level consultancy practice, specializing in strategically aligning the clients’ IP to their business model. We invited Founder Dr. Reuven K. Mouallem to profile his unique firm, which has just been recognised as ‘Best IP Firm 2016 – Israel & Recognised Leader in Patent Portfolio Management – Israel’.

Please tell me about your firm, the work you do, and the types of clients with whom you work.

FlashPoint IP focuses primarily on patent drafting and prosecution, and firmly considers that the ultimate goal of securing strong IP is to help build and grow the client’s venture – translating the ideas into business opportunities through effective IP strategy and management.

Strategic portfolio management and counseling international clients is an integral part of the practice in a diverse array of technical fields. With a foundational expertise in US IP law, I have further gained significant knowledge about the EPC and the diversity of laws and practice among the European national systems during my LL.M. studies in Strasbourg. My knowledge of the European legal system, and how it differs from the United States, allows us to effectively counsel both European and U.S. clients with global interests in intellectual property – spanning drafting, prosecution, due diligence, legal opinions, valuations, IP analytics, IP risk assessment, and competitive intelligence. As an expert in the field, I have had the honour to lecture and lead panel forums on behalf of the EPO and WIPO. Our clients span the gamut from individual inventors, startups, and SMEs to research institutes, universities, and large multinational corporations.

Within your industry, what are the major challenges/opportunities you find, and what trends are you seeing with regards to intellectual property?

With economic recovery sputtering in many parts of the world, the knee-jerk reaction is to tighten the reins on discretionary expenditures. However, to avoid core competencies being mistakenly eroded, the prioritization of business, technology, and legal issues needs to be executed by intimately aligning IP strategy and management with business strategy. A strong IP culture is often lacking in many businesses, with in-house counsel not equipped or adequately-staffed to deal with the complexity of IP issues that can arise.

Effective cost containment for large portfolio clients, while preserving strategic IP goals and targets remains a challenge. Opportunities exist for value-added services in proactively developing and managing complex patent strategies for budding ventures in an efficient manner as outside counsel.

What is your overall mission, and what steps do you take to achieve the best possible quality of service for your clients?

In a nutshell, our overall mission is to ensure strategic IP alignment by: (1) creating IP solutions to meet business needs, (2) managing innovation portfolio horizons, and (3) discovering untapped opportunities. The FlashPoint IP team of engagement professionals manages each venture’s strategic horizons by combining client-validated offerings with out-of-the-box strategic thinking, charting a course to IP monetization. Our motto is to fuse vision and trust with the right expertise, providing satisfaction beyond the client’s expectations, and guiding ventures to fruition every step of the way through flawless execution.

Intellectual Property Awards 2016 / 17

IP16051

www.acquisition-intl.com/intellectual-property-awards

Best Contentious IP Law Firm - Philippines

Hechanova Bugay Vilchez & Andaya-Racadio Company: Hechanova Bugay Vilchez & Andaya-Racadio, Lawyers Name: Editha R. Hechanova Email: editharh@hechanova.com.ph Web Address: www.hechanova.com.ph Address: GF Salustiana D. Ty Tower, 104 Paseo de Roxas Avenue, Makati City 1231 Philippines Telephone: +632-888-4293/+632-812-6561

Hechanova Bugay Vilchez & Andaya-Racadio is an Intellectual Property office working across a wide range of sectors. We explored how the firm came to win ‘Best Contentious IP Law Firm – Philippines’ and gained a unique insight into its working practices from one of its Founders, Editha Hechanova.

Hechanova Bugay Vilchez & Andaya-Racadio was established in the Philippines as Hechanova Bugay & Vilchez on January, 2006 by Editha R. Hechanova, an intellectual property lawyer, Rodinil D. Bugay, corporate and estate planning law practitioner, and Gladys C. Vilchez former hearing officer at the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines, each with over 15 years of experience in their own fields of specialization. On March, 2014, Ms. Yasmin A. Andaya-Racadio, a tax expert, was admitted as partner, and the firm is now known as Hechanova Bugay Vilchez & Andaya-Racadio, Lawyers.

Edith outlines the firm’s approach when dealing with new clients and how the firm endeavours to offer them the best possible service.

“We try to get as much information about the client from independent sources and the industry involved, taking note of the state of the industry or the company, so that during the discussions with the client, we would have a better understanding of its concerns, create the team that would handle the client’s concerns, draw the options available to the client, giving timelines and costs and degree of ease or difficulty presented by each option. On the team that we created, we have a point person who shall monitor the project and prepare progress reports, so we know that we are within targets and budgets, and no runaway costs.”

The firm embraces the principle: ‘passion for service with integrity’, and aims to integrate this into every service it offer. They have a client base comprising of international customers from the apparel, pharmaceutical, fashion, automotive and telecommunications industries, as well as domestic clients from various markets.

Overall, Edith is optimistic about the future and has a number of exciting development plans for the firm.

“We are optimistic about the future. The Philippines has a healthy democracy, and there are more women entering law schools or taking up courses which used to be dominated by men, such as engineering and other technical fields. We have some plans with regard to strengthening and expanding our practice which will provide us with the opportunity to work with new clients and expand our knowledge and experience.”

18 / Intellectual Property Awards 2016

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Best for Business IP Strategy Designs - France

Company: ICOSA Phone: +33 1 53 63 46 90 Fax: +33 1 42 84 46 50 email: icosa@icosa.fr Website: http://www.icosa.fr

ICOSA is an IP law firm, specialising in the design of bespoke IP strategies to meet specific business needs. We profile the firm and explore how they have come to obtain such enviable success.

ICOSA offer services to customers all over the world, including Japan, United States, Switzerland, Belgium, Germany as well as France, where the firm is based. The company provide high quality, cost effective intellectual property services with the goal of providing clients with significant advantages in the marketplace.

To achieve this the firm is dedicated to being responsive to client communications and expectations, taking a personal interest in our customers’ businesses and bring up all of the IP strategies as possible, to help the customer to make informed decisions.

Promoting IP activities in line with the Corporate Strategy, capturing IP value, leveraging company valuation through IP are all central to the firm’s service offering.

The company’s expertise in IP and high scientific level are tools to promote value, partnership, development and success for their clients.

Ultimately, the firm’s collaborative work ethic and global approach ensure that every client receive a tailored service which exactly meets their needs.

Intellectual Property Awards 2016 / 19

IP16015

www.acquisition-intl.com/intellectual-property-awards

Best for IP Prosecution - Spain

Company: InterAlia Patentes y Marcas Name: Carlos Hernandez Email: carlos@interalia-ip.eu Web Address: www.interalia-ip.eu Address: Calle Toro 33-37, 37002 Salamanca (Spain) Telephone: +34616759990

InterAlia Patentes is a young, boutique IP firm offering a wide range of services. Founding Partner Carlos Hernandez talks us through this exemplary firm, which has just been awarded ‘Best for IP Prosecution – Spain’.

At InterAlia Patentes we undertake a wide range of IP projects including trademark, patent and design prosecution and litigation.

We have a particular expertise in the software, electronic equipment and food industries and as such work with a range of firms in these areas.

InterAlia’s mission is to bring the best possible intellectual property advice at a fair cost. We always ensure that clients never get unexpected charges, and as such our service offering is based on transparency and flexibility. This is much appreciated by all clients, particularly by foreign associates hiring InterAlia for European or Spanish matters.

As IP is becoming an increasingly complex subject, our approach at InterAlia is to give clients a clear view of the particular matter, explained in a comprehensible language. We evaluate all options and recommend what in all fairness believe is the most cost-effective way of achieving the most practical result.

Having a vast amount of experience in this industry provides our firm with strong insight into the IP market.

For IP Agencies, one major challenge is the do-it-yourself trend which leads companies and inventors to register their trademarks or to apply for patents using the increasing IP Offices’ online facilities, which gives rise to frequent errors and shortcomings in protection. In response to this, our opportunity is to increase IP awareness, applying a clear price policy and explaining the IP Agent’s role so that companies see there is a clear added value in our services.

Moving forward, InterAlia is expanding in an increasingly competitive field and we are hopeful that the industry will continue to grow in the future, as this will provide us with more exciting opportunities.

20 / Intellectual Property Awards 2016

IP16049

IP Law Firm of the Year - Sri Lanka

Company: Julius and Creasy Address: No. 41, Janadhipathi Mawatha, Colombo 1, Sri Lanka Phone: +94 11 4335159 Fax: +94 11 24466 663 or +94 11 2435 451 Email: jacey@sltnet.lk; pts@juliusandcreasy.lk Website: www.juliusandcreasy.com

Julius and Creasy is one of the oldest civil law firms in Sri Lanka. Partner Anomi I Wanigasekera provides us with an overview of this dedicated firm and its approach to IP law which has seen the firm win ‘IP Law Firm of the Year - Sri Lanka’.

Founded in 1879, Julius and Creasy has established itself on rich tradition and the highest professional principles. The firm’s wealth of expertise and experience in a wide range of specialized fields of Law enables it to offer innovative legal and business solutions to a diverse, sophisticated and high profile clientele.

Our firm from its inception has been involved in intellectual property work. We are presently handling over 30,000 files of which about 10,000 are current and intellectual property involves both contentious and non-contentious matters. We file a large number of trademark applications for overseas clients being instructed by our associates in several countries including UK, European Union, USA, India, Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and Korea.

When starting a new project, we initially do a conflict check and thereafter assign same to our team to take the matter forward in a professional manner and to meet their timelines. This ensures that clients receive the highest possible level of service which exactly meets their needs.

In contentious matters we represent clients both at the National Intellectual Property Office in opposition proceedings and in infringement proceedings before Courts, Infringement proceedings are instituted in the Commercial High Court and where necessary criminal proceedings are also instituted in the Magistrate’s Court.

Although our practice is to a great extent trademarks we have substantial portfolio of patents as well. A large part of this portfolio is related to PCT applications filed in Sri Lanka, We also file number of design applications for overseas clients in Sri Lanka and for Sri Lankan clients overseas through our associates in various countries. We also advise Sri Lankan and overseas company on copy right issues including reviewing of copyright agreements and advising publishers both in Sri Lanka and overseas. Alongside this we also take action upon instructions from clients to prevent counterfeits imported/exported by way of initiating criminal/civil actions and also inform Customs.

Our statute provides for registration and protection of IP rights and in addition recognizes the concept of unfair competition where a mark /product has been used even though not registered will be protected.

Ultimately, our firm is made up of a range of dedicated professionals with a vast knowledge of IP law who are able to provide our clients with a high quality service designed to meet their requirements and exceed their expectations.

Intellectual Property Awards 2016 / 21

IP16055

www.acquisition-intl.com/intellectual-property-awards

Best IP Law Firm - South Korea

Company: KASAN IP & LAW FIRM Email: kasan@kspat.com Web Address: www.kspat.com Address: 7th Fl., Hanwon Bldg., 2423, Nambusunhwan-ro, Seocho-gu, Seoul, Korea 06719 Telephone: 82-2-501-6771

Kasan IP & Law Firm is a Korean firm that specializes in intellectual property.

We spoke with Daniel KIM to find out how the firm came to win the prestigious title of ‘Best IP Law Firm - South Korea’.

Here at Kasan IP & Law Firm we focus on strategic prosecution of patents, utility models, designs, and trademarks for domestic and foreign clients. We also provide IP litigation services at all levels of court or tribunal.

In addition, we also engage in licensing, as our role is not limited to legal review. One thing we have learned from our wealth of field experience is that a business-oriented approach is often more effective. Regarding licensing, Kasan is a valuable addition to any clients’ list of business partners.

Our clients are various and include small to mid-sized companies and conglomerates such as Samsung Electronics.

Every project is handled under supervision of licensed professionals in conjunction with our quality assurance policy so that every client can be safe in the knowledge that they are receiving the very best service. Our professionals have from 10 to 30 years’ of experience providing legal advice on various litigations and disputes, and as such are able to support clients no matter what their legal issue.

Ultimately we believe that solving a simple legal problem for the client is never enough, and we are always looking to help our clients to meet their business goals.

22 / Intellectual Property Awards 2016

IP16011

Best Technology IP Portfolio Management Firm - UK & Recognised Leader in Energy Technology IP - UK

Company: Lincoln IP Name: Matthew Lincoln Email: info@lincoln-ip.com Web Address: www.lincoln-ip.com Address: Lincoln IP, 9 Victoria Street, Aberdeen, AB10 1XB Telephone: 01224 433123

Lincoln IP is a modern firm of patent and trade mark attorneys which has been awarded ‘Best Technology IP Portfolio Management Firm – UK and Recognised Leader in Energy Technology IP – UK’. We invited Matthew Lincoln to provide us with a unique overview of the firm.

Lincoln IP’s specialism is providing businesses with sensible, strategic advice on patents, trade marks and designs. We started our practice in 2007 with a focus on the energy sector, but over the last few years our business has diversified. Our clients include international corporations, public sector organisations, high growth technology SMEs, private equity houses and venture capitalists, and entrepreneurial start-up businesses across a range of sectors. Our trade mark practice has seen impressive growth, including successfully representing FTSE 100 companies in an increasing number of trade mark disputes.

Historically our client base has been domestic, but we are increasing our international reach as our network grows. Not only are more businesses recognising the value of IP, but decision makers are becoming more discerning, understanding the difference between a mediocre job and a high quality job, and the importance of the latter. As a result we are being presented with opportunities to act for organisations that want to improve the quality of the work being delivered to them.

Our energy practice, and in particular our oil and gas practice, remains strong. With recent changes in the industry, some oil and gas service companies are having to tighten their belts and re-evaluate their IP spend, whilst others in the energy sector are capitalising on new opportunities for technology development. The factors are complex, but including resource being freed up, and crystallising market needs for more effective and lower cost equipment and methodologies. Many of our clients are seeing opportunities for sustainable growth through innovation, and that has a positive impact on the level of activity.

Ultimately it is our aim as a business to become the leading specialist IP firm in the UK, not in terms of size, but in terms of quality of service, clients, staff, and working conditions. We will do this through organic growth.

We are building for the long term by the recruitment and training of technical assistants to supplement the experienced team of attorneys we have across our Glasgow and Aberdeen offices. Additionally we are continuing to develop our network of professional advisers, including overseas IP firms, to make sure we have the resources available to service our clients’ international needs.

Intellectual Property Awards 2016 / 23

IP16007

www.acquisition-intl.com/intellectual-property-awards

Recognised Leaders in Patent Law - Japan

Company: M. IDE & Co. Name: Masatake IDE Email: officei0p@midepat.com Web Address: www.midepat.com Address: 9F, Gobancho Grand Bldg., 3-1, Gobancho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 102-0076, JAPAN

M. IDE & Co. specialises in the counsel and representation in the procurement of patents, trademarks and other IP rights. Masatake Ide talks us through the firm and how it came to be awarded the prestigious title of ‘Recognised Leaders in Patent Law – Japan’.

M. IDE & Co. was founded in 1995 by myself, drawing on my experience as a Japanese Patent Attorney, which I have been acting as since 1984 and I am now one of the most-experienced active IP practitioners in Japan, particularly, in chemical and biochemical fields.

Our work is predominantly around the global procurement of IP rights, particularly patent right on behalf of Japanese clients, as well as working for the procurement of IP rights in Japan for clients in various other countries.

When a patent for invention is procured for clients, we first endeavour to understand not only the subject of the invention but also the positioning of the invention in the industry. We believe the documents that we prepare on this basis will lead to an adequate and valuable protection for the invention all over the world.

Our overall mission is to have insight for not only clients’ on-going business but also their goal of business.

Further, in order to provide the best possible quality of service extensive knowledge is required about IP laws in various jurisdictions. As such we always endeavour to gather updated legal information in other countries to better understand their trends and ways of thinking.

Looking ahead, there are a number of exciting growth opportunities for our firm. With the increase in importance of global procurement of IP rights, quick and efficient cooperation between IP practitioners in different countries is becoming increasingly important. We are willing to participate in global networks through which IP knowledge or information can be exchanged over the world, in order to better inform the wider industry.

24 / Intellectual Property Awards 2016

IP16067

Best IP Law Firm - Serbia / Montenegro & Most Trusted Trademark Prosecutor - Eastern Europe

Company: MSA IP – Milojevic, Sekulic & Associates Name: Milan Milojevic Email: tm@msa-iplaw.com patents@msa-iplaw.com Web Address: www.msa-iplaw.com Address: Terazije 29/V, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia Telephone: +381 11 78 56 820

MSA IP is a boutique law firm which specializes in prosecution and litigation of trademarks, patents, designs, as well as in enforcement of Intellectual Property rights throughout Southeast Europe. We spoke to Milan Milojevic who talked us through the IP market in the region and how its firm is changing this for the better.

At MSA IP, our clients always come first. Our business approach is to work closely with our numerous clients to identify their needs and to provide effective and cost-efficient approach that align with their goals. We aim to provide our clients with the highest level of assistance across our range of IP services. We take great pride in our team of local attorneys and trademark agents across the region, who possess an in-depth knowledge of local IP laws and procedures, and are backed by an experienced team of administrative staff, which enables a quick and expert response to our clients’ needs.

From the firm’s head office in Belgrade, Serbia, MSA IP directs and coordinates the work of its local offices in nine countries in the region, as well as the work of its associated firms in other neighbouring countries.

The importance of the region of Southeast Europe for IP rights holders, particularly multi-national companies, lies in the fact that it represents a large and continuously growing market and it has become an important port of entry of counterfeit and pirated goods into the EU. Local governments in the region are constantly increasing their efforts to improve the environment for the successful protection of IP rights – on the one hand, by more consistency and greater speed in the work of the courts, and on the other hand, by involving customs and other authorities in the fight against counterfeiting and piracy.

For MSA IP the consequence of this is evident- the efficient protection of IP rights in Southeast Europe is in the best interest of rights holders, and MSA IP not only seeks to give proper and efficient protection for its clients’ IP rights, but also to coordinate with the authorities in order to enhance the fights against counterfeiting and piracy in an ultimate goal of, one day, making the region water-tight against these unlawful activities.

Overall our mission is to continue to provide our clients with high-quality legal work and implement the latest methodologies regarding the management and protection of IP rights, and this will be our main focus moving forward.

Intellectual Property Awards 2016 / 25

IP16062

www.acquisition-intl.com/intellectual-property-awards

Best Electrical Patent Prosecution Firm -Virginia

M&A Patent Due Diligence l Post-Grant Procedures l Patent Mining and Landscape Mapping l Multi-National Strategic Portfolio Development & Management l IP Licensing l Patent Prosecution

Oblon, McClelland, Maier & Neustadt LLP is a full service Intellectual Property firm which specialises in safeguarding innovation. We invited Ronald Rudder, a Partner in the firm, to talk us through the techniques the company employs to achieve this aim.

26 / Intellectual Property Awards 2016

Company: Oblon, McClelland, Maier & Neustadt LLP Address: www.oblon.com 1940 Duke Street Alexandria, VA 22314

For over 40 years, Oblon has helped its clients protect and use their IP assets worldwide. Headquartered next door to the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), Oblon is one of the largest IP law firms in the United States with over 130 legal professionals having expertise ranging from prosecution to post grant proceedings to litigation. Oblon is a full service intellectual property law firm, representing both domestic and international clients, from small start-ups to multinational corporations, and covering all areas of IP law and all technologies.

The Firm is consistently recognized as an industry leader, with annual accolades from reputable publications such as Managing Intellectual Property (named “PTAB Firm of the Year” for 2016), U.S. News & Best Lawyers (named “a Best Law Firm” for 2014), Corporate Counsel Magazine (named a “Go-to” law firm by the top 500 U.S. companies), and Intellectual Property Today (ranked #1 on the list of “Top Patent Firms”). The Firm has obtained more U.S. utility patents than any other firm in the world for over 25 consecutive years.

Many of the firm’s attorneys speak several languages, including Japanese, French, German, Mandarin and Korean, to enable more efficient communication with the firm’s global clients. Oblon also hosts client trainees, familiarizing them with the U.S. legal system, culture, and business methods.

Ronald A. Rudder, Ph.D. Partner rrudder@oblon.com Tel: (703) 413-3000 Fax: (703) 413-2220

In today’s corporate market, providing a superior product is no longer sufficient for success for our clients.

Unless a company can prevent competitors from copying the product, the competitive edge provided by the superior product is readily lost. Having IP protection helps the company create an exclusive marketing space, providing market entry barriers for the competitor. A strong IP portfolio is a business asset, providing negotiating leverage with respect to competitors’ portfolios. IP is continually becoming a more prominent component in corporate transactions, a meaningful part of the valuation of corporations, and a factor in day-to-day business.

As such Oblon’s IP Transactions group assists our clients in a wide variety of projects: from acquisition or sale of intellectual property and due diligence in such deals, to licensing technology to or from other parties, to the development of internal documents and procedures for capturing and managing all forms of intellectual property. Our attorneys also collaborate with clients in identifying and taking advantage of opportunities to expand or exploit the client’s intellectual property rights.

Working collaboratively also ensures that we have a wide reach, and our world-wide network of clients and associates means that we can look beyond the US and advise on the relative strength of their intellectual property abroad, especially with regard to practices abroad which differ remarkably from the US. Our team routinely counsels on a wide range of IP matters relating to: strategic portfolio development and management in the US and abroad; due diligence; patent mining and landscape mapping; business and technical collaborations; licensing programs; negotiating and drafting agreements as well as joint research agreements and government contracts.

J. Derek Mason, Ph.D., CLP Partner dmason@oblon.com Tel: (703) 413-3000 Fax: (703) 413-2220

This vast array of services is provided across a wide variety of sectors, and our attorneys routinely handle transactions involving all types of technologies, including cosmetics, semiconductors, circuits, nanotechnology, biotech, pharmaceuticals, aerospace, automotive, heavy machinery, high-tech plastics, chemicals and chemical processes, and glass.

The inclusion of an IP advisor in due diligence, negotiation, and agreement drafting permits identification of potential IP issues, risk assessment, adjustment of deal terms in relation to potential risks, and inclusion of appropriate representations and warranties in the agreement to protect the investment being made and provide legal recourse post-closing.

The IP Transactions group members are especially skilled at advising clients on the interplay of patents and business in IP-related transactions. We work closely with our clients’ corporate transaction teams to identify potential risks and benefits, determine effective uses of innovations, optimize intellectual property portfolio value, and improve the clients’ market position.

In today’s world of AIA trial proceedings and the large number of patent invalidations by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, understanding the risk of post grant invalidation and strategies to inoculate one’s portfolio against post grant invalidation are now important considerations in M&A diligence for assessing the risk that these trial proceedings present to patent holders. Since the introduction of the AIA, Oblon has been counsel in well over 200 AIA trial proceedings.

Ultimately with our business-minded approach, combined with the technical capability of our attorneys, we are able to provide comprehensive transactional intellectual property services needed to succeed in the highly competitive world market. This comprehensive service is complemented by our extensive experience in patent and trademark prosecution, and post grant proceedings and litigation, which permits us to expertly counsel our clients on issues that could value or devalue IP portfolios.

Intellectual Property Awards 2016 / 27

IP16030

www.acquisition-intl.com/intellectual-property-awards

Best for Technology Patent Prosecution - Korea

Company: P&T Intellectual Property Law Firm Name: Sungbo Yang Email: sbyang@pntpat.com Web Address: www.pntpat.com Address: 2nd Fl., Samsung Bldg., 14, Seolleung-ro 125-gil, Gangnam-gu, Seoul 06099 Republic of Korea Telephone: +82-2-2038-2254

P&T Intellectual Property Law Firm specializes in Intellectual Property (IP) rights across all IP practice areas. We invited Sungbo Yang to talk us through the techniques the company has utilised to be named ‘Best for Technology Patent Prosecution – Korea’.

Here at P&T, our main role is to lead clients towards achieving their goals, through the prosecution of patent applications in technical areas, strategic patent portfolio development, prosecution of trademark/design applications, IP litigation, etc. From emerging enterprises to large public corporations, our clients are leaders in the technology and depend on the expertise of P&T to provide for their IP demands.

Our highest priority is communicating with the client throughout the process, and as such when we start working with a new clients we define their purpose and principles first. It is ultimately up to the clients to decide the purpose, however, clients may not have thought about what they need themselves, thus we need to listen to them carefully from the outset, read between the lines, and figure out what will help them. Once we have got clear ideas of what success would look like, we do brainstorming, organise them into a plan, and finally suggest our best possible solution.

Ultimately we provide high quality services which are in line with the clients’ needs and always care about the clients’ goals. Quality and cost efficiency are two key trends we are currently noticing in the Korean IP market.

In order to satisfy both goals, we continue to improve efficiency by training our staff and making more of our process manual in order to better support our clients face to face.

Staff are of vital importance to ensuring that our clients receive the best possible service, and therefore we believe flexible working hours are important to maintain balance between work and life and adopt 7 to 11am flexible time office report hours, substitute working hours, and half-holidays to support a flexible working environment. All of our members take advantage of this system to take care of various personal events. Further, we also believe that the expertise of each talent adds up to the expertise of P&T as a firm. Hosting various in-office seminars and encouraging our employees to participate in seminars outside of the office, we fully support the growth and training of our employees.

Overall P&T’s structure is organized to take full advantage of all the special talents of each individual. Our cooperative and collaborative style enables us to bring the expertise of all our people to bear, to the benefit of each client’s specific needs.

Moving forward, the intellectual property market is increasingly competitive, and also extremely important to the business landscape. With global demand growing daily, rapidly evolving technology has become intensely competitive. When one inventive step could mean all the difference, it is the ability to secure patent protection and ensure exclusivity that enables a company to distinguish itself. Therefore we equip all of our clients with the legal expertise, business knowledge, and technical insight to obtain the IP protection they need.

28 / Intellectual Property Awards 2016

IP16014

Best for International Patent Prosecution - Canada

Company: PatentAxis Inc. Name: Jai Chatterjee Email: mail@patentaxis.com Web Address: www.patentaxis.com Address: 10 King Street East, suite 500, Toronto, Ontario, M5C 1C3 Canada Telephone: +1-416-556-2999

PatentAxis Inc. is a Canada based patent services firm which specialises in offering a range of patent protection services for both domestic and international clients. Jai Chatterjee provides us with an insight into the company, which has just been named ‘Best for International Patent Prosecution – Canada’.

PatentAxis Inc. provides patent services that include search, analysis, filing and prosecution for a range of clients, both domestic and international, who include small and medium sized businesses, governmental organizations and law firms.

Filing and prosecution strategy is tailored to each client’s needs. For Canadian clients the firm provides a full service international patent prosecution, and directs and manages patent protection and analysis for desired markets worldwide. Conversely, for International clients the firm provides a focused approach to obtaining patent protection and patent analysis in Canada, prosecuting Canadian counterpart patent applications stemming from PCT International applications or priority applications filed in other countries.

However despite these differing strategies, the firm’s approach to client service remains the same for every client, and a major emphasis is always placed on prompt communication with clients and providing clear and practical advice to allow them to make informed and educated decisions.

This helps achieve the firm’s mission: to provide its clients with a competitive advantage in relation to patents.

Typically, this means successfully obtaining a patent for a client, but, sometimes providing a patent analysis or strategy that bolsters a client’s commercialization goals can be significant. Ultimately, clear communication, particularly when reciprocated from a client, allows PatentAxis Inc. to align patent services and patent strategy to each client’s goals. By striving to help its clients achieve a competitive advantage in their patent landscape the firm hopes to develop lasting client relationships.

Looking ahead, the firm’s future is bright, benefiting from a client roster filled with ingenious inventors and pragmatic business acumen. Furthermore, Canadian government funding programs and tax incentives and the Canadian business environment provide a strong and stable support for research and development activities. There is every indication that innovative investigation and business recognition of patent value will continue its current momentum, and that the firm’s client roster will continue to grow as a result, providing a number of exciting opportunities moving forward.

Intellectual Property Awards 2016 / 29

IP16050

www.acquisition-intl.com/intellectual-property-awards

Best for Machinery Patent Law - Korea

Company: PLUS International IP Law Firm Name: JongKwan Kim Email: office@pluspatent.com Web Address: www.pluspatent.com Address: 10F, 809, Hanbat-daero, Seo-gu, Daejeon, 35209, Rep. of KOREA Telephone: +82-42-482-0004

PLUS International IP Law Firm is spearheading the IP services of Korea.

We invited JongKwan Kim to provide us with an insight into the firm which has just been awarded ‘Best for Machinery Patent Law – Korea’.

PLUS International IP was established in 2003 by former KIPO patent examiners who had been hired through special PhD graduate recruitment programs. Since our firm’s foundation we have provided IP services to state-financed research institutes, universities, large and small companies in Korea.

The majority of our clients are researchers and professors from government affiliated research institutes, universities and research centres of large companies. They always study the trend setting technologies in their own fields of expertise and ask us to come up with effective measures to protect IPRs of their research outcomes.

Our fundamental solution to satisfy the needs of these clients is to secure quality employees who are able to understand advanced technology in line with the sophistication level of our clients and provide the optimal methods to protect their IPRs. As such we are always endeavouring to recruit patent attorneys with high level education in relevant technology and in-depth IP experiences. Most of our patent attorneys hold PhDs in the area of their expertise and have previous work experience as patent examiners, administrative patent judges or technical advisers at KIPO or Patent Court of Korea.

These excellent, knowledgeable staff are able to suggest the best ways to upgrade the technical ideas of our clients into IP rights through continuous technical discussion.

One of the key future developments in our industry that we are preparing for is the artificial intelligence-utilized analysis of patent information. There are currently a number of patent literature classification systems such as IPC, CPC, ECLA, USPC, F-term, but high-level search techniques and a great deal more time will be required to find and analyze the patent literature requested by the clients and distinguish genuine information from unnecessary literature.

Since last year, we have been developing an algorithm selecting truly necessary patent literature by using artificial intelligence and we have witnessed some level of positive outcomes. As the power of A.I. has been demonstrated in the Go matches between South Korean professional Go player Lee Sedol and AlphaGo, we hope that the A.I.-utilized patent information analysis projects at PLUS International IP Law Firm will be possible in the future.

30 / Intellectual Property Awards 2016

IP16032

Best Patent Law Firm - Germany

RO I D E R | IP EUROPEAN PATENT ATTORNEY

Company: ROIDER IP Law Firm Name: Stephan Roider Email: patent@roider-ip.de Web Address: www.roider-ip.de Address: Pfarrer-Erhard-Weg 19, 82008 Unterhaching, Germany Telephone: +49 89 2371 0616

This year’s winner of the prestigious award for Best Patent Law Firm – Germany is ROIDER IP. ROIDER IP is a small firm established in 2013, who are able offer their clients a full range of intellectual property services, with a focus on European patents.

ROIDER IP is a European patent law firm named after its founder Stephan Roider, who has a record of more than eight years working in the field of intellectual property. Stephan is European Patent Attorney and possesses a technical degree in physics and industry experience working for technology companies. This combination of legal and technical expertise allows ROIDER IP to understand their clients’ objectives and provide focused intellectual property services for achieving them.

ROIDER IP is focused on providing cost efficient and high quality intellectual property services, including drafting and filing European and International patent applications and their prosecution, maintenance of intellectual property rights, conducting searches as well as providing customized trainings and seminars on a need to basis, enabling clients to make the right decisions in strategic planning.

In addition to managing and ensuring obtaining intellectual property rights, they represent their clients in opposition and appeal proceedings before the European Patent Office. In order to provide international clients with consistent and reliable on-site representation, the firm collaborates with a select group of highly experienced and well-established correspondence law firms around the world.

The clients of ROIDER IP are domestic and foreign companies involved in all fields of technology and ranging in the size from small start-ups to medium-sized and large multinational companies, as well as research institutions and individuals. The technical focus of ROIDER IP lies in the fields of general mechanics, general mechanical engineering, medical engineering, optics, electrical engineering, semiconductor technology as well as information and telecommunication technology.

The patent law firm works closely with their clients in order to provide proactive suggestions for obtaining more valuable intellectual property rights and establishing a strong IP strategy. They always take the client’s requirements seriously and demonstrate professionalism to meet their clients’ needs and expectations. ROIDER IP is located in Unterhaching, a steadily growing suburb in Munich’s south - close to the European Patent Office, the German Patent and Trademark Office as well as the German Federal Patent Court.

Overall, ROIDER IP is very glad to have been named ‘Best Patent Law Firm – Germany of 2016’. Considering that the patent law firm was established only three years ago, they feel it is an honour to be nominated and recognized internationally for this prestigious award. ROIDER IP believes that they owe this success to their clear focus on providing high quality work to their clients, and is keen to continue with successful approach in the future.

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www.acquisition-intl.com/intellectual-property-awards

Best Technology IP Consultancy - Romania

Company: ARoTT-Romanian Association for Technology Transfer and Innovation Name: Gabriel Vladut Email: office@ipacv.ro Web Address: www.arott.ro Address: 12, Stefan cel Mare street, 200130, Craiova, Dolj County, Romania Telephone: +40-251-412290; +40-251-412775; +40-722-715604

ARoTT, Romanian Association for Technology Transfer and Innovation is a professional organization of technological transfer and innovation profile units acting as a non-governmental and non-profit organization. Gabriel Vladut provides us with an insight into the firm, which has just been awarded ‘Best Technology IP Consultancy – Romania’.

The aim of ARoTT is to increase competition in the Romanian IP sector by reinforcing technological, innovation and Intellectual Property base. Our primary functions are education, research, and the expansion of knowledge and the application of this knowledge to advance the common good.

We work with and for innovative companies, inventors, as well as working on contact research with business environment aiming to increase competition and added value of the products based around Intellectual and Industrial Property.

In addition we support inventors and companies in writing patent applications, identify different form in which IP may provide revenue, anticipate some of the issues which they may come across in their future career or future research projects, such as assessing IP, ownership of IP, the effect of publication on patenting, etc.

Ultimately it is widely accepted that a well-functioning and balanced IP system is key to promoting innovation and creativity, which are the main drivers of economic development of knowledge-based economy. The success of this is dependent on a system that promotes knowledge-based enterprises, strengthens linkages between industry and research institutions, and develops the workforce necessary to deliver IP services. Such a system presupposes the appropriate integration of IP into the national development framework, and the interfacing of broad national IP policies and strategies with relevant national policy issues.

Therefore looking to the future, our strategy is to push the policy makers to create an eco-system, sustainable and coherent that can create a competitive market with added value base on IP and innovation.

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Best IP Law Firm - Philippines

Company: Romulo Mabanta Buenaventura Sayoc & De Los Angeles Name: Benjamin Z. Lerma Email: Benjamin.Lerma@Romulo.com Web Address: www.romulo.com Address: 21st Floor, Philamlife Tower, 8767 Paseo de Roxas, Makati City, Metro Manila, Philippines Telephone: +632 555 9555

Emerging from a modest commercial law practice in downtown Manila at the turn of the 20th century, Romulo Law is today one of the largest and most highly regarded law firms in the Philippines. We spoke to them to find out more about their firm, as well as get their insight on the growing importance of intellectual property and how they came to win ‘Best IP Law Firm – Philippines’.

Our firm offers a highly diverse range of services, including advice and representation in banking and finance, capital market and securities, energy and infrastructure, immigration, and intellectual property, among others.

In total, Romulo Law is composed of more than 90 lawyers, all of whom speak English fluently and a good number of whom have received training and graduate degrees from universities abroad.

Furthermore, the firm is the sole Philippine member of Lex Mundi, a global network of about 160 independent law firms, with a combined total of more than 21,000 lawyers in all commercially significant jurisdictions throughout the world.

Managing Partner, Ricardo J. Romulo, on the firm’s anniversary in 1982, highlighted the company’s dedication to excellence in client service, perfectly summing up the firm’s focus on excellence.

“First, we are lawyers above all else and, as such, we must be votaries of the law, and as integral parts of the legal system, we are committed to make it work. Second, we are advocates and, as such, we must within reason defend and protect the legitimate interests of our clients. Third, we are professionals and, as such, we owe it to ourselves and the clientele we serve to pursue at all times the path of excellence, to develop our capabilities to the fullest, and to extend ourselves to the limit. We must bear in mind that every right implies a responsibility, every opportunity an obligation, every possession a duty.”

Currently we are experiencing more and more interest in our intellectual property expertise, as companies have only begun recognising the importance of these intangible assets. This is very evident from the increase in number of transactions that are actually driven by intellectual property. In the past, most commercial transactions heavily involve other assets, with intellectual property being a mere afterthought. Today, I have seen an increasing number of transactions whereby the intellectual property is the most coveted asset subject of the transaction.

From our experience, leaning on the expertise of legal counsel or other experts in the field of intellectual property is crucial to an entity’s ability to protect its intellectual property rights. Third parties have found innovative means of infringing on these rights, and the know-how and experience of legal counsel is highly necessary to counter these efforts.

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www.acquisition-intl.com/intellectual-property-awards

Best Life Sciences IP Law Firm - Illinois

Company: Rosenbaum IP, P.C. Name: David G. Rosenbaum Email: drosenbaum@RosenbaumIP.com Web Address: www.RosenbaumIP.com Address: 1480 Techny Road, Northbrook, Illinois 60062 USA Telephone: +1-847-770-6000

Rosenbaum IP is intellectual property firm which has just been awarded ‘Best Life Sciences IP Law Firm – Illinois’. We invited Founder David Rosenbaum to outline the company and the techniques it employs to offer clients the best possible service.

Founded in 1988, Rosenbaum IP combines professional legal skills with technology experience to focus and position IP portfolios that assist our client’s in achieving their business outcomes. With particular expertise in the life sciences and Internet-based technologies, we provide a full spectrum of intellectual property legal services in a wide array of fields from biotechnology to semiconductor processing. Our clients are typically post-Series A pre-revenue companies, and also include established commercial companies, universities and research institutions.

As a business we are patent-centric and specialize in IP portfolio value building through patenting activity in coordination with trade secret protection. Trademark and copyright protection as well as unfair competition issues are addressed as part of the overall IP portfolio and to prepare the portfolio for client entry or expansion within commercial markets. Our enforcement practice has considerable expertise in licensing, dispute resolution through mediation, arbitration and litigation, both domestically and internationally.

Our overarching philosophy is to establish and maintain coherence between outcomes required by our clients’ objectives and the intellectual property strategy. This philosophy necessitates obtaining clear understanding of the client’s needed outcomes, any constraints on achieving those outcomes, setting unequivocal expectations and establishing milestones to measure when those outcomes are achieved.

In light of this philosophy we have made it our overall mission to develop and safeguard intellectual property assets throughout our clients’ lifecycle, while consistently ensuring alignment between the intellectual property assets and their required commercial outcomes.

This alignment is achieved through trust building, which we view as a core principal of our firm. Trust is crafted through consistently applied transparency and communication. We accomplish this by leveraging our internal systems and processes to ensure that we have multiple points of communication with each client that keep them fully informed of the progress the representation.

In the future, industry changes will have an impact on our firm and will shape our future. Our firm, like all IP firms, is witnessing and participating in a generational evolution of the Intellectual Property field. As technology continues to permeate human endeavours, the role of Intellectual Property is becoming an even more significant aspect of business as well as social, economic, governmental effect and policy. I expect our firm to continue to grow and evolve in concert with the changes in the IP field and in alignment with our clients in a manner that ensures we consistently maximize the value-focused service we deliver to our clients.

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Best for Computer Science Patent Prosecutions - Germany

Company: Samson & Partner Patentanwälte mbB Name: Dr. Wolfgang Lippich Email: email@samon-pertner.de Web Address: www.samson-partner.de Address: Widenmayerstr. 6, 80538 Munich, Germany Telephone: +49 89 2919820

Samson & Partner Patentanwälte mbB is a German based IP law firm which has just been recognised as ‘Best for Computer Science Patent Prosecutions – Germany’. With the help of Wolfgang Lippich we explore how the firm earned this prestigious accolade.

Established in 1983 Samson & Partner has grown into a mid-sized patent law firm in Munich at the seat of various IP authorities: the German Federal Patent Court, the German Patent and Trademark Office, the European Patent Office including its Boards of Appeal, and parts of the forthcoming Unified Patent Court.

Our work is predominantly undertaken for international clients, and we have a focus on technology, specifically computer science and telecommunication. Our work encompasses both patent prosecution and litigation.

This combination of both aspects is very useful as we consider our litigation experience already when drafting patents. In the litigation field, our specialty is helping large international companies challenged by non-practising entities by invalidating the patent at issue.

Moving forward, we are eager to take advantage of the transition to the Unified Patent Court which is taking place in our country currently, as this will require strong technical knowledge from law firms within the patent industry, which our firm is able to provide.

As the complexity of technology is ever increasing, drafting, invalidating and defending patents in the IT fields is increasingly challenging, and as such clients are looking for firms with strong technical and legal knowledge, such as ours.

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www.acquisition-intl.com/intellectual-property-awards

Best IP Management Consultants 2016 - Germany

Company: Stellbrink IP Name: Axel Stellbrink (founder) Email: mail@stellbrink-ip.com Web Address: www.stellbrink-ip.com Address: Ludwigstraße 10, 80539 Munich, Germany Telephone: +49(0)89 28806570

Stellbrink IP is a boutique IP firm specializing in high tech inventions, focusing on robotics, software, biotech and medtech. Founder Axel Stellbrink provides us with an insight into the company and the highly personalised services it provides, which have helped the firm to be awarded the prestigious title of ‘Best IP Management Consultants 2016 – Germany’.

Stellbrink IP offers strategic consulting with respect to IP Assets, patent application drafting, as well as patent prosecution and assisting our clients with developing and furthering their innovation and IP goals. Many of our clients are start-ups looking for advice on IP matters tailored specifically to their needs.

In order to provide this, we focus on listening to our clients and understanding exactly what they require. We then carefully explain all of the possible ways to further their goals and maintain close contact during the course of the project. A very important part of our job is to establish trust with our clients, and as such, we pride ourselves on always taking the time to get to know the clients individually to be able to offer better service.

This client-focused approach helps us to achieve our mission: to provide the highest possible quality client-oriented IP service covering all of the facets of innovation and IP strategies.

Currently, the robotics industry is on the rise with lightning-fast developments in hardware along with sophisticated decision-making algorithms in software. IP protection for those developments will play a major role in the near future.

Therefore, moving forward, we are focusing on innovation and business development, and our business services are constantly evolving and growing to adapt and to anticipate the changing needs of our clients.

We constantly look to expand our services, and are now offering bundled services for start-ups to cover all of their intellectual property needs, as well as some further business needs at an affordable price.

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Best IP Consultancy Firm - Asia Pacific & Sustained Excellence in IP Valuations - Asia Pacific

Company: Stratiqa Website: http://www.stratiqa.com/

Stratiqa is the intellectual property brand of Censere Group. Brett Shadbolt, CEO of Censere, talks us through the brand and how it came to be awarded ‘Best IP Consultancy Firm - Asia Pacific & Sustained Excellence in IP Valuations - Asia Pacific’.

Here at Stratiqa we specialise in the valuation of all classes of illiquid assets including Intangible Assets and IP. As part of our work in this area value Intellectual Property such as trademarks, patents, licenses & other Intangible Assets for a variety of purposes including, sale and purchase; financial reporting; taxation; and IP portfolio management. We also undertake royalty rate studies, IP portfolio audits and commercialisation studies.

The group provides this vast array of services to a range of business clients, from start up to multinational enterprises.

In order to ensure these clients receive the best possible quality of service our staff rely on our core values of courage, integrity, knowledge, objectivity and reliability. We work closely with our clients and assist them to overcome their challenges and to achieve the best possible solution.

This helps us to achieve the group mission: to partner with clients to create value by optimising strategic and operational decisions. As such we start with a proactive attitude, interactively communicating with clients in order to understand the challenges that they face. We tap on our extensive internal resources, our experience and external data to offer high quality services.

These internal resources include the group’s broad united network across Asia Pacific and in the US, which is operated with a single ownership structure. That means we can work seamlessly in any market without having to be concerned which office is engaging with the client or who is going the work. Everyone is focused on ensuring that the client’s objectives come first.

Looking to the future, over the coming months and years we see continued opportunity to expand into growing markets and extend our core services to new clients. We will continue to provide an excellent standard of service in order to ensure that clients are able to excel within their business.

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www.acquisition-intl.com/intellectual-property-awards

Best IP Law Practice - Bulgaria

Tabakov, Tabakova & Partners Company: Tabakov, Tabakova & Partners Law Firm Email: office@interlex-bg.com Web Address: www.ttplaw.bg Address: 18 Ami Boue Str., entr. C, 1606 Sofia, Republic of Bulgaria Telephone: +359 2 963 02 66

TTP Law Firm offers a wide range of IP services, supporting clients in the registration, opposition and cancellation of registered IP rights. We invited Hristo Raychev from the firm’s IP law team to talk us through the company, which has just been awarded ‘Best IP Law Practice – Bulgaria’.

With more than 23 years of experience Tabakov, Tabakova & Partners Law Firm (TTP Law Firm) has become a byword for quality in the field of legal and tax services. The Law Firm offers full scope of legal and tax advice and representation with particular emphasis on Intellectual Property Law, Business Law and Tax Law. TTP Law Firm’s corporate values are aimed at achieving business-friendly one-stop solutions with clients’ assignments being addressed in a complex, efficient and responsible way.

As a firm we have strong expertise in all areas of Intellectual Property (IP), including IP rights prosecution and licensing, as well as IP advice. The law firm has also vast experience in IP and unfair competition litigation which comprises representation before national courts, EU agencies and the Court of Justice of the EU. Our clients are medium to large-sized businesses, many of which are owned by foreign investors. Within IP specifically we serve a wide variety of clients, including leading cosmetic, pharmaceutical as well as food and alcoholic beverage companies.

It is our vision to provide advice that is feasible and coherent to the individual business considerations of each client. We aim to obtain in-depth understanding of the client’s business, including its purely commercial side, its marketing and reputational goals, etc. In addition, we are clearly aware of the dynamics of doing business and, therefore, we concentrate on providing prompt well-organised services that add value at the right time.

Looking ahead to the future, TTP’s IP business is expanding, with the firm providing its determination to support the growth of IP expertise in Bulgaria by providing the most efficient solutions to its clients and by participation in awareness raising projects. It is our priority to keep clients updated and to make use of the most recent IP developments, such as the unitary patent system, the amended EU Trade Mark regime, the EU’s legislation on trade secrets, the EU and international protection of geographical indications, etc. One of our goals moving forward is to contribute to the introduction in Bulgaria of the best EU and international practices, of which we have gained extensive experience in the course of our work with EU bodies and international organisations.

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Best for Patent Acquisition Management - UK

Company: TLIP Ltd Name: Alex Turnbull Email: mail@tlip.co.uk Web Address: www.tlip.co.uk Address: Leeds Innovation Centre 103 Clarendon Road Leeds, LS2 9DF Telephone: 0113 246 0151

TLIP Ltd are a UK based firm of European Patent Attorneys. Alex Turnbull provides us with a unique insight into the firm, which has just been named ‘Best for Patent Acquisition Management – UK’.

TLIP Ltd are active across all technology sectors and have a special focus on computer software and pharmaceutical subject matter. Our client base is vast and ranges from university spin-outs to publically listed multi-nationals.

For these clients we provide a plethora of services including drafting patent applications, undertaking patent prosecution and delivering freedom to operate strategies. We also manage a number of large patent portfolios and have organised multi-jurisdictional transactional registrations.

Our overall mission is to work with clients for whom IP is a fundamental part of their business. In order to achieve this we always get close to our clients because we are working on a business unit that is very important to their success. When undertaking a new project we ask a lot of quite basic questions covering everything from their market, industry type, competitor analysis, business goals and of course budget, to ensure we have a full grasp of what the client needs and are fully able to meet their requirements.

In recent years we have noticed within the European patent market that there is a greater focus on building niche portfolios, rather than filing lots of patents for the pure purpose of creating a patent thicket. Companies are increasingly comparing the strength of patents rather than simply the number of patents.

As such TLIP Ltd is keen to continue providing excellent service to our clients and expand into new areas so that we are able to meet the changing needs of our industry. We are continuing to expand our medicinal chemistry team we foresee further recruitment in this area during 2016, which will provide us with a number of exciting opportunities and ensure that achieve continued success in the future.

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www.acquisition-intl.com/intellectual-property-awards

Best for Medical Device Patent & Trademark Protection - USA

Company: Wagenknecht IP Law Group PC Name: Raymond Wagenknecht Email: office@wageniplaw.com Web Address: www.WagenIPLaw.com Address: 5677 Oberlin Dr. Ste. 204, San Diego, CA 92121 USA Telephone: 858-587-2510

Wagenknecht IP Law Group PC is a U.S. intellectual property law firm serving corporations, non-profits and universities based in the U.S., Europe, and Canada. Raymond Wagenknecht talks us through this exemplary firm, which has been awarded ‘Best for Medical Device Patent & Trademark Protection – USA’ in this year’s prestigious Intellectual Property Awards.

Here at Wagenknecht IP Law Group, our patent and trademark attorneys provide a wide variety of intellectual property services, such as patent and trademark counselling, IP portfolio management, preparation and prosecution of patent and trademark applications, due diligence support, freedom to operate and non-infringement opinions, trademark opposition and cancellation proceedings, and additional insight into the IP needs for corporate and business grant funding. Ultimately protecting innovation and creativity is the cornerstone of our practice.

As such we strive to build comprehensive patent and trademark portfolios both in the US and abroad by relying on our experience as well as our close relationships with boutique firms around the world. We value our dynamic team of attorneys and staff and work to continually improve both our clients’ and colleagues’ experiences with our firm. We monitor trends in case law, science and business to provide added insight to our clients and are confident that we are well on our way to becoming a preferred intellectual property law firm in the minds of the legal and scientific communities.

Each project is managed by an attorney with over 10 years of experience in intellectual property law and the day to day transactions are handled by our IP coordinator, which ensures all administrative matters are handled smoothly and efficiently by our support team. We have developed an infrastructure well equipped to handle large patent and trademark estates.

Looking ahead, our firm continues to grow and will become increasingly visible in events such as BIO and INTA. While we have traditionally been a patent law firm we are expanding our trademark practice, which will provide us with a number of exciting opportunities in the future. Alongside this, we are also keen to maintain our global approach to IP law by continuing to build and maintain relationships with foreign firms.

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Best Trademark & Design Attorney - UK

Company: Wood IP Limited Name: Aaron Wood Email: aaron@wood-ip.com Web Address: www.wood-ip.com Address: Ravendale House, Fir Tree Lane, Swinford, LE17 6BH Telephone: 01788 860 060

Wood IP Limited focuses on serving the full intellectual property needs of their clients, with a focus on creative and innovative advice and service.

We invited Aaron Wood, who has been awarded ‘Best Trademark & Design Attorney – UK’, to talk us through his contribution to the firm’s success.

Within Wood IP Limited the work I do spans the full spectrum of intellectual property law. It can start with advising companies on strategy at their inception, through protection and the inevitable commercial issues that arise and through to getting the intellectual property assets ready for sale or licence. Increasingly I am being asked to handle disputes between parties, appearing as advocate opposite many of the top barristers in the profession.

My role is unique, as I am one of only four trade mark advocates in the country (a trade mark attorney having the rights of audience of a barrister). This specialism brings further insight to the standard intellectual property protection and maintenance work of my firm, since it enables you to understand more fully the attacks your client may face or wish to bring and to plan accordingly.

When undertaking a new project, the first thing I do is listen to my client so that I can fully understand their needs. It is important to understand where a client is in terms of its growth, what their key drivers are, where the threats are, and what is most important to them. It’s also very important for me that I get to understand the level of knowledge on IP that the client possess, in order to identify key issues.

This approach helps me to achieve my overall mission: to get the clients to their target, or as close as we can on the budget allocated. I like to understand what the client really wants, what is acceptable and unacceptable as outcomes, and then plan the strategy.

Looking ahead there are a few very interesting cases coming towards the courts for me and my firm. I am always hopeful that suitable resolution will arrive for my clients, but I suspect there will be a few appearances this year, both in the courts and the trade mark offices. There are plans to add extra staff, but this is an incredibly difficult process. As with all specialist professional services, the right candidates have the ideal mix of temperament, ethos and intellectual interest so that they can serve clients well. Overall I am excited for what the future will bring.

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www.acquisition-intl.com/intellectual-property-awards

Best Electro Engineering Patent Law Firm - UK

WP Thompson is a specialist IP strategy, prosecution and litigation firm, with patent and trade mark attorneys based in their UK and Munich offices, providing expertise across all technological areas. We invited Rigel Moss McGrath and Dr Julian M Potter to talk us through the company and how it strives for excellence in all areas.

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Here at WP Thompson we are renowned for meeting and exceeding our clients’ needs and expectations and providing our clients with professional advice and support services which are technically excellent, legally sophisticated and commercially astute.

We have a strong direct client base in Europe and work closely with our direct clients, getting to know their businesses and technologies and thus advising them from a position of detailed knowledge and understanding of their market and technology sectors and business objectives. We are known for our commercial focus, many of us having worked in-house for major corporations, and bring our experience and knowledge gained in a wide variety of business environments to our relationship with clients.

We extend our knowledge and experience to our substantial overseas client base and commensurate network of professional relationships in literally every IP functioning jurisdiction worldwide.

Our clients include Johnson Davy Process Technology Limited, Volkswagen AG, Fort Vale Engineering, Fenner PLC, Nerudia Limited, Lakeland Limited, Mast Group Limited, University of Liverpool, Timken UK, Vernacare, American Golf Limited, Blippar Limited and NXP BV. As a business it is our aim to continue to offer a high quality service appropriate to and optimised for our existing clients and to acquire new clients in order to grow the business. To achieve this we provide programmes of in-house delivered seminars covering a wide and detailed range of topics, including not only IP topics but also general business topics. Many of the partners and fee-earners contribute to text-books and lead training courses on IP, including leading courses to prepare candidates for the final examinations in the profession.

We also have an outreach programme directed to universities and other academic institutions for raising awareness of and educating in IP.

Company: WP Thompson Name: Rigel Moss McGrath and Dr. Julian M Potter Email: rkm@wpt.co.uk jmp@wpt.co.uk Web Address: www.wpt.co.uk Address: 138 Fetter Lane, London EC4A 1BT Telephone: 020 7405 4442

Currently the IP service industry as a whole is thriving, due to a growing appreciation that the value of an IP portfolio is increasingly recognised both in terms of a company’s balance sheet and as an important commercial tool for dealings with third parties. Consequently competition within the IP service market has continued to increase over the past decade, although consumers recognise that, given the value of the IP to their businesses, cheap advice isn’t always reliable. Unfortunately for the consumer that realisation often comes only after experiencing sub-optimal, possibly ineffective service and indeed failing to achieve necessary IP protection.

The cost of putting such things right, if they can be put right at all, often exceeds what the costs would have been if a more capable adviser had been instructed from the outset.

We aim to support and inform clients at the very start of the process so that we can meet their overall needs.

WP Thompson is known for providing a highly tailored service and, like any firm, we always want to exceed our clients’ expectations and requirements. In order to achieve these goals the starting point is always to identify with the client what it is seeking to achieve in as much detail as is needed to enable us to devise the right strategy.

Those initial discussions inform us as to the client’s understanding of the legal processes involved, the landscape of the relevant markets, how the results of the project will feed into the long term plans for the business, how aggressive the client wants to be and its understanding of what happens if we don’t succeed etc. It is also important to establish the client’s administrative requirements, such as reporting methods, how and how often the progress of the project is to be reviewed, billing requirements etc. These are important to the client’s overall experience and again need to be tailored to their particular requirements. Not only does this enable us to ensure we meet our client’s IP and business needs and expectations but also develop an appropriate budget for meeting those needs and expectations.

Looking to the future, we believe that the business environment may be made more challenging if the UK chooses to leave the European Union. In part to mitigate the effects of this potential development we have a focus on winning direct UK clients and providing a wider offering of services in particular IP consultancy for businesses wishing to set up an innovation capture and management system.

Ultimately within the wider IP industry we expect demand for services to continue to primarily fall into two categories; a low cost volume category where the value of any particular IP asset is not as important as the commercial impact of a large IP portfolio, and a higher value category where individual IP assets and issues are highly important. The firm therefore has structured itself so that it can offer both the lower cost service and higher value service within its existing cohort of fee-earners, paralegals and support staff by appropriate use of technology and delegation, and we also have a recruitment strategy to support this approach. Overall we are excited about the developments the future will bring for our business.

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www.acquisition-intl.com/intellectual-property-awards

Best for Technology IP Portfolio Strategy - Italy

Company: Zanoli & Giavarini Name: Enrico Zanoli Email: enrico.zanoli@ipeuro.com Web Address: www.ipeuro.com Address: .Via Melchiorre Gioia, 64 – I-20125 Milano - Italy Telephone: +39 02 66799711

Zanoli & Giavarini is an IP boutique offering a full range of IP activities, including filing/prosecuting patents, trade marks and designs, as well as offering opposition/litigation services. Enrico Zanoli provides us with an insight into the firm, which has just been awarded ‘Best for Technology IP Portfolio Strategy – Italy’.

Here at Zanoli & Giavarini, we like to work with our clients from the beginning of their projects, in what we call “ab initio” approach. For example, in the patent field, when the client starts a new research project we like to be involved from the beginning (in latin language “ab initio”) to help the R&D staff to develop a patent strategy aimed at maximizing the protection. The same is true for the definition and launch of a new trade mark.

Our clients include large multinational companies, small/medium companies and universities/non-profit organizations. Most of our clients are European entities but we assist also US and Japanese companies, in particular on EU prosecution and oppositions work.

In order to fully support our clients, we are a versatile firm, and we have a flexible workforce that can adapt to the needs of our clients.

This approach helps us to achieve our mission: to help our clients to build and strengthen a portfolio of IP rights .By exploiting any opportunity to improve their technology and differentiate their products the client gains a competitive advantage in the business arena. In litigation we use our skills and experience to maximize the chances of success of our clients.

The challenge in achieving this is delivering results even above the client’s needs and expectations. However, a key advantage we see when operating in this market is that many clients have not yet actually understood and experienced the potential of intellectual property in terms of market value. Therefore there is room to make the client appreciate the value of IP. Looking ahead, the future is in providing high quality services at competitive cost. We want to show to our clients, in particular theC100 new ones, thatY0 Intellectual Property is not only a cost item in the budget but an essential M80 K0 investment, which has an important return in terms of added value of the company. This requires a clear IP strategy, and we can contribute to define and implement it.

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www.acquisition-intl.com/intellectual-property-awards

Best for Industrial Property Rights - Germany

Grosse Schumacher Knauer von Hirschhausen (GSKH), are an experienced law firm specialising in patent law. We invited Partners Felix Grosse and Helge von Hirschhausen to tell us more about the firm and the services it provides.

GSKH are a mid-sized boutique law firm situated in Munich, Germany, which is the heart of Intellectual Property in Europe, with additional branch offices in a number of other German cities. We also operate in Alicante, Spain, where the office responsible for European Union Trademark and Community Design matters, namely the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO), is situated. Operating in these locations allows us to significantly reduce travelling expenses and to keep close personal contact with all relevant IP authorities in Europe, which often enables us to cut through the bureaucratic red tape by, for example, discussing our clients’ cases directly with the examiner in charge.

Moreover, we are part of the European Union’s most active trademark representatives, and as such last year our firm was named one of the Key Users of the EUIPO giving us an additional and noticeable edge on the competition.

Our clients are very diverse and range from to small entrepreneurs through to medium sized businesses as well as decision makers at large fortune 500 companies.

The firm consists of patent attorneys and attorneys at law, and as such we are able to cover the whole field of protection of Industrial and Intellectual Property including infringement litigation, proceedings in connection with competition law and anti-trust law, as well as contract law. Our patent attorneys are specialized in various technical fields across both, national and international property rights.

Due to this combination of patent attorneys and attorneys at law in one office, communication is easier and more efficient, as clients only have to correspond with one office. It is therefore not necessary to seek additional advice from outside attorneys who are naturally less familiar with the individual circumstances of these clients. Our diversified team of attorneys is supported by technical experts, translators, qualified paralegals and multilingual secretaries. This excellent workforce enables us to offer the best possible quality of service.

Company: Grosse Schumacher Knauer von Hirschhausen, Munich Name: Felix Grosse and Helge von Hirschhausen, Partners Email: muenchen@gskh.eu Web Address: http://gskh.eu Address: Nymphenburger Str 14, 80335 Munich, Germany Telephone: 49 (0)89 - 99 399 77 - 0

This helps us to achieve our mission: to provide high quality services at moderate prices. We strive to find tailormade solutions for each individual client to ensure that they receive a personalised service which exactly meets their needs. This is achieved by very broadly educated and experienced teams which often think out of the box and take the time necessary to understand the clients’ requirements and expectations.

This is particularly vital, as in the increasingly competitive marketplace, where established business models are being challenged as never before, the focus on IP has intensified greatly in recent years. Issues such as branding and counterfeiting are getting more attention, whilst technological convergence means that patent protection, enforcement and licensing have become more important than ever. Decision makers at both large and small companies all over the world are very much aware of this and are, rightly so, very selective and careful when choosing a law firm to entrust with their valuable IP. At the same time, we have noticed that globalization is taking its toll and with the IP business becoming more popular the number of companies offering discount IP services rises. However, we feel that we have risen to this challenge as our clients know and value our personalized and highly involved approach which only a firm of our size can offer.

In the past year we have been able to more than double our office space and now aim to fill the newly acquired space with the best talent in the industry, in order to enhance our current team and make it more widely ranged in terms of their skill set and individual specializations. We are seeing an increase in clients seeking to both, protect their most valuable brands and also their technical developments to ensure that their position on the market is secured. By developing our team, we will be able to meet this need by further improving support for our clients and offering them an even wider range of services.

Ultimately, if the IP sector continues to develop as it is currently, we are positive that our firm continues to grow also.

It is our ultimate goal to achieve this whilst keeping up the high quality work we have become known for.

46 / Intellectual Property Awards 2016

IP16073

Strategic IP Advisory Firm of the Year - UK

EverEdge Company: EverEdge

EverEdge is a strategic consulting firm that advises clients on how to generate real business benefit from their intangible assets. We spoke to Chris Donegan to find out more.

EverEdge are an international firm with offices in London, Los Angeles, Raleigh (RTP), Auckland and Sydney and work with multinationals, smaller and medium sized companies and the investment community.

Our unique engagement proposition is that most of the value of today’s corporations is driven by intangible assets. This includes obvious assets such as patents or copyrights but also encompasses less obvious intangibles such as business model, unique data sets and trade secrets.

Since such assets do not easily conform to traditional valuation approaches (much of their impact is specific to industry and strategic context) they are often overlooked in corporate finance transactions or investment decisions where they are given cursory valuations or often none at all. This is a mistake since the intangible assets of a company support its earnings quality, credit strength and provide the basis for strategic pivoting into new products or markets.

In the context of mergers and acquisitions, private equity investing or initial public offerings our team works with management and advisors to identify the value contribution of intangibles. This can lead to better loan to value ratio’s in financing, greater operational leverage for private equity owners and bridging of pricing gaps between buyers and sellers. Goodwill is in essence the distillation of intangible value.

A contextual knowledge of the intangible assets of a company provides investors with a road map of the development or growth path ahead of time. Patent filings in particular are hidden signals for where the competition is going and what strategic risks lie ahead. This is particularly important for research and development driven companies or innovators who are pioneering new applications of older (protected) technologies.

In thinking about intangible assets as strategic business tools rather than legal or “soft” assets EverEdge differentiates itself from many other specialist consulting firms. Our success is measured not by hours billed or reports written but by the acknowledgement from our clients that we have improved their businesses. This reflects itself both subjectively and objectively, the latter through enhanced stock price, higher sales value, greater revenue or profits or increased market share.

The 20th century was an era of competitive strategy, return on equity and shareholder value. In this context the focus of many consulting firms was on helping their clients to gain more of their market in a zero sum game. In the 21st century our focus is to work with clients to unleash untapped value, leverage their intangible assets and increase the size of their addressable market. It’s no longer a zero sum game and the rewards are substantial for those clients who can generate a leading position in a larger opportunity set that they define, protect and serve.

With clients in technology, pharmaceuticals, engineering, software, publishing, financial services, energy and business services the beauty of our proposition is that it works across all sectors. Intangible assets are everywhere and our job is to make sure that they are managed better, for the benefit of all stakeholders.

Intellectual Property Awards 2016 / 47