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Hogan Lovells is a full service international law firm with more than 80 IP lawyers based in the US. The IP group has grown dramatically over the years and is now acknowledged for the ability to leverage the firm's international presence and expertise across a full range of legal services. Attorneys in the trade mark practice group are particularly renowned for building and enforcing brand portfolios, representing clients such as Kimberly-Clark, adidas, LEGO and Alberto-Culver. "Internationally, they are phenomenal for trade mark work," says one competitor. Beyond the trade mark realm, the firm's US-based attorneys are experienced handling a range of IP transactional matters in addition to contentious work before the International Trade Commission.

Hogan Lovells is well established in Russia, offering a full service including a busy and respected IP team. Natalia Gulyaeva leads the 11 professionals, who do work for a number of global names including GlaxoSmithKline, Sony, Skype, Nintendo and Merck.

The firm has been busy across all areas this year, including extensive oppositions for Lego in the Chamber for Trademark Disputes and managing and prosecuting the trade mark portfolios of Glaxo Group/ViiV Healthcare and Skype, the latter including domain name infringement disputes.

A big client on the patent side has been Sony and Sony Computer Entertainment, who are engaged in a number of pieces of litigation in Russia, details of which remain confidential. Lovells also administers these clients' trade mark prosecution and clearance too.

With a team of 30 IP professionals and attorneys, Hogan Lovells is one of the few foreign firms with a solid resident team located in its Shanghai and Beijing offices. In the past, trade mark and brand protection comprised a large bulk of its work. However, 2012 has seen a sharp increase in patent and trade secret matters. Typical clients are global multinational leaders in various industries.

The firm has rapidly increased its China team this year by adding four partners. William Fisher, Katie Feng, Rae Yan and Song Zhu are based in Shanghai and are all accomplished veterans in the IP field.

Feng led a team in the first trade mark infringement litigation relating to curved (arcuate) stitching design in China. Zhen provided advice on enforcement of arcuate stitching design in China against a Chinese factory and various apparel distributors. The stitching design was recognised by Shanghai Pudong New District People's Court as unique and awarded the client damages for infringement.

In another case, the team helped an American multinational e-commerce company in a domain name recovery dispute. The firm acted as counsel for its client handling a number of domain name IP-driven transactional issues involving different practices and cross-border work.

Deanna Wong is heading the trade mark infringement disputes before the Beijing courts for a client. The firm handles all non-contentious and contentious matters for this brand. The client is involved in an active case against copycats and online infringement actions against the alleged infringer.

Internationally, Hogan Lovells has a strong profile in IP, and in France the same is true. Its trade mark contentious team is considered one of the country's strongest and it has a well-regarded patent litigation practice too. In trade marks, the firm also handles prosecution work and includes Facebook and eBay among its clients. Additionally Apple, Expedia and Merck seek the firm's advice. The practice, which is concentrated in Paris, includes four partners and 12 lawyers.

A prominent trade mark case has seen practice head Marie-Aimée de Dampierre heading a team defending Lego in a trade mark infringement claim concerning its use of the Spinjitzu brand of figures.

In telecommunications, the firm has been active for HTC in a dispute with Samsung. Dominique Ménard and Camille Pecnard represented HTC in its pre-trial regarding an infringement suit it brought against Samsung relating to designs for its mobile phone interface. Another of the firm's clients with a stake in the industry is Apple, which it has been representing in a patent infringement dispute with Stantum.

The firm also has a good pharma client base. An example of its work in this sector was Dominique Ménard and his team's advice to Eli Lilly in a dispute with Sandoz that had launched a nullity action against a client's products. The Court of Appeal dismissed the action and ordered Sandoz to pay Eli Lilly's €500,000 legal fees.

Hogan Lovells' IP practice enjoys a stellar reputation in Germany. "It's very big and very active. It has some excellent lawyers," notes one competitor. Aside from patent prosecution, where the firm collaborates with specialist firms depending on the technical field involved, it offers advice on protecting all varieties of intellectual property. Although as equally well regarded in patent contentious as it is for trade mark filing – where it counts itself among the country's top filers – its patent litigators are what makes it stand out for peers. Practice group leader Andreas von Falck is "one of the leading pharmaceutical experts in Germany" according to several while others say Martin Chakraborty is "really doing a great job".

The firm has one of the biggest IP practices, employing 19 partners, eight counsel, 16 senior associates and 42 associates, who are divided between offices in Berlin, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Munich and Alicante.

Recent patent clients for the firm include RIM, Siemens and Dell. In trade marks the firm has been mandated by Lego, Pepsi and Deutsche Telekom among others.

The firm has taken a role in several of the high-profile smartphone cases. One of the public matters sees von Falck and Clemens Plassmann representing Apple in its disputes with Nokia.

The trade mark team was kept active by Allianz which needed representation in numerous trade mark opposition proceedings before OHIM relating to its figurative mark.

In the IT sector, Chakraborty has been advising Qualcomm in a patent infringement action against Ericsson regarding Wi-Fi technology.

Full-service law firm Hogan Lovells has a well-established IP practice with capabilities in all areas of IP. The team is made up of 14 IP partners and attorneys along with 11 lawyers engaged in patent or trade mark work including applications, oppositions, cancellations and enforcement actions. Highly praised for her work in IP, Gabriela Kennedy co-leads the team in Hong Kong along with Henry Wheare. Clients of the firm include Fox Entertainment, Alibaba, Adidas and Jack Daniel's.

Kennedy has been working with Alibaba in a number of cross-border deals and civil litigation actions involving recovery of domain names in Greece and China. Stella International is another firm client, and the Hong Kong and China partners manage its IP portfolio on a regional scale. On enforcement, the firm is advising Adidas in its High Court proceedings against a local sports company that has allegedly infringed Adidas's three stripes logo.

A satisfied client mentions his appreciation for the firm in its ability to think strategically and responsive attitude: "We find Hogan Lovells to be efficient and effective. It provides excellent client service and is well-equipped to handle any matter that arises." Clients highlight Kennedy, Heidi Gleeson and Amy Zhang for being exceptional practitioners.

Hogan Lovells is one of a brace of international firms moving up the tiers this year, going up to tier two in both patent and trade mark contentious, as Bird & Bird moves into tier 1.

"Hogan Lovells is a big player in trade mark contentious," says one partner, while another speaks to the firm's increased visibility: "We have seen Lovells on a lot of cases. They should be up."

One name among others came up a lot when it came to recommendations. "Luigi Mansani at Lovells is very good," say two competitors, while one peer is more inclusive: "Lovells is an overall excellent practice." Mansani leads the IP team, which numbers nine professionals. It has one office, in Milan.

Lloyd Parker, managing partner at Hogan Lovells leads an impressive team comprised of Japanese and foreign qualified attorneys, most of whom have business level English and Japanese language abilities. The firm is equally adept at patent and trade mark law and both contentious and non-contentious work. There is a strong focus on trade marks and the firm boasts one of the largest trade mark departments of any foreign law firm in Japan.

It handles the overseas trade mark portfolio of some of Japan's largest corporations, leading to a threefold increase in fee earners in the past four years. Trade mark portfolio management is Parker's specialty, and he and his team cover over 150 countries for the firm's Japanese clients. Distinguished clients include Brother, Panasonic, Kao, PepsiCo and Oakley.

Hogan Lovells is ranked in tier 3 of the trade mark/copyright contentious table and tier 4 of the patent contentious table. Led by Ewa Kacperek, the firm's Warsaw-based IP team is on the smaller side with five fee-earners but it acts for notable clients like Deutsche Telekom and Bacardi-Martini. Nevertheless, in recent years, the Polish office lost some key talent with the departures of Krystyna Szczepanowska-Kozlowska to DLA Piper and Oskar Tulodziecki to K&L Gates Jamka.

The firm acted for Car-Freshener Corporation before the Polish Patent Office and the courts in a number of proceedings in connection to the protection of the company's brands against potential infringement of its trade marks and designs. The firm also acted for Smyk, a children's retail company, in alleged copyright infringement proceedings against clothes stores across Poland.

Hogan Lovells is a full-service international law firm and in Spain it has offices in Madrid and Alicante. The office in Madrid handles contentious and non-contentious IP and the office in Alicante focuses on Community trade marks and manages trade mark portfolios. The firm is made up of lawyers but it does have one trade mark attorney. It acts for clients such as Google, PepsiCo, Santander and Dell.

The firm advised YouTube with regard to the copyright and regulatory aspects of its pay online content services in Spain. "Gonzalo [Gállego] is good," one client says. "He's tech-savvy and gives us added value. He knows a lot about technology and this is something that lawyers don't tend to know." Moreover, the firm acted for Red Bull in a number of opposition or cancellation actions. Some notable actions were taken against the following marks: American Bullet, Red Q, Red Whiskey and Redline, and Toro Loco Energy Drink.

Hogan Lovells established its first office in Ho Chi Minh City in 1994 and opened its Hanoi office in 2009. The team led by Henry Wheare typically represents foreign clients with IP issues in Vietnam. Skype, BDO, Mattel and Biofarma are among many in a list of the firm's enviable clients. There are five lawyers on the team with experienced patent and trade mark backgrounds.

Trade mark work has been keeping the team busy in the past year, especially in managing client trade mark portfolios. Wheare and his team advise companies such as ExxonMobil, Ford and Biofarma in a variety of trade mark matters in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. Advice tends to include pre-application searches, filing, investigations and enforcement when needed. For ExxonMobil the team successfully opposed an application for a similar trade mark.

Hogan Lovells is a law firm of international scope that maintains an IP team of 44 fee-earners in its London office. Partners there include Stephen Bennett, Daniel Brook and Paul Brown in patents, and Sharia Khwaja in trade marks. The firm lost partner Adam Cooke to DLA Piper this year and trade mark partner David Latham sadly passed away in February.

The practice does work for a number of large global clients that remain confidential, but its disclosable cases still give a good flavour of its capabilities. A team from the firm has been advising Play.com on trade mark oppositions, while partners Brook and Bennett have been acting for Werit Kunststoffwerke in a multi-patent infringement action brought by Schütz that, on Werit's initial success, became a counterclaim to revoke Schütz's patents. The matter was decided in Schütz's favour by the Supreme Court in March.

Bennett has also been working with partner Paul Brown in representing mobile phone manufacturer HTC to defend against claims from non-practising entities, as well as advising on licensing negotiations.

Bennett has also been working with partner Paul Brown in representing mobile phone manufacturer HTC to defend against claims from non-practising entities, as well as advising on licensing negotiations.

Hogan Lovells is a well known international brand and its Dutch IP practice is led by Marc Wallheimer. Located in Amsterdam, the firm has a strong life sciences practice and it retains its tier 2 ranking in the patent contentious table. The firm acts for clients such as Merck & Co, Sanofi-Aventis, Nintendo and GlaxoSmithKline.

The firm benefits from its experience of handling multi-jurisdictional litigation. For example, the Amsterdam office is lead counsel for BDO, the fifth largest network of public accounting firms in the world, in 160 pending trade mark infringement cases and oppositions in 37 jurisdictions against BDO Unibank, the largest bank in the Philippines. Additionally, on behalf of Merck and BMS, the firm is coordinating all actions with respect to the early entry of the generic Efavirenz.

Hogan Lovells is a global law firm with a strong contingent of more than 20 IP professionals in its Washington, D.C. headquarters. The firm has a top-tier reputation for managing, developing and protecting trademark portfolios for domestic and international clients. "Internationally, they are phenomenal for trademark work," acknowledges one competitor. In one notable matter, attorneys at the firm obtained a $2.1 million settlement in gray market-related copyright and trademark litigation for Red Bull GmbH and Red Bull North America. Deep experience at the ITC is another area that sets the firm apart from its peers.

Raymond Kurz is an IP group leader who possesses close to 30 years of legal experience across a complete range of intellectual property. He is particularly active with respect to global transactions involving the development and commercialization of IP assets, licensing and acquisition agreements. Kurtz is a frequent writer and speaker on IP-related issues. Steven Hollman is one of the firm's most respected trial lawyers. Although his practice is broad and frequently involves commercial disputes, intellectual property is one of his specialties. Other stars singled out in the D.C. office include Susan Cook and Audrey Reed, both of whom are heavily involved in trademark matters among other practice areas. Reed's client roster includes names such as Time Warner, Fox Entertainment Group and Ford Motor Company.