DLA Piper is an international law firm with an IP team in the UK consisting of 80 professionals. It has eight offices and can boast clients such as Football DataCo, Virgin Atlantic and the FA Premier League. The team is also recognised by peers for its copyright work, as one says: "DLA is very good here. It has the football data case which is very big."
This is being led by partners Simon Levine, Ruth Hoy and John Wilks, who are acting for Football DataCo, the FA Premier League, the Football League, the Scottish Premier League, the Scottish Football League and PA Sport (UK) in litigation regarding the copyright and database rights inherent in football fixture lists and live football data. This set of disputes is still being resolved, with aspects being referred to the CJEU.
Elsewhere, partners George Godar and Claire Bennett represented Virgin Atlantic Airways in its set of patent disputes over flatbed seats in its aircraft. With a variety of different actions against four defendants, this case is still pending completion.
Lastly, the firm boosted its numbers by recruiting partner Adam Cooke from Hogan Lovells in September 2012.