Expertise > Patents

Patent Litigation and Counselling

Our expertise in patent law stems from an intensive practice of patent litigation and counseling, for more than fifteen years.



Patents are a crucial asset for innovative businesses to permit the return of R&D costly investments, in all sectors of industry, including pharmaceuticals, biotechnologies, consumer products, electronics and telecommunications.

A patent thus gives his holder to reserve the exploitation of an invention, to perceive royalties in exchange of the grant of a license, and to prevent unauthorized third parties to work the invention.

In France, an invention may be protected either by a French patent granted by the French patent office, i.e. the National Institute of Industrial Property, or by a European patent granted by the European Patent Office.



We represent and assist clients in all patent litigation before French courts.

Prior to commencing infringement proceedings, we prepare and conduct the judicial actions to gather evidence of the alleged infringement, by obtaining ex parte a court order authorizing a so-called saisie-contrefaçon, i.e. the seizure of suspected infringing goods and taking of evidence by a court bailiff who will enter the premises where infringing acts are suspected to happen, draft an official report, seize samples and proofs of the alleged infringement which can later be used as evidence in court in subsequent infringement proceedings.

In France, the civil first instance court ("tribunal de grande instance") and court of appeals ("cour d'appel") of Paris have exclusive jusrisdiction on patent infringement and validity litigation.
 
We represent and assist clients in all proceedings before these courts, at all stages, including:

• saisies-contrefaçon

• customs seizures of infringing goods

• patent infringement proceedings

• proceedings to obtain a declaratory judgment of non-infringement

• patent nullity proceedings

• proceedings re validity and infringement of SPCs

• summary proceedings to obtain interim relief and injunctions

• proceedings to claim ownership of an invention

• proceedings re employee inventions

• proceedings before court appointed technical or financial experts

• enforcement of judgments

 

We also provide advice to our clients in the management of patent portfolios and assist them during drafting and negotiation of patents tranfer and license agreements.

We assess the quality of their protection, in particular in the framework of audits (due diligence) on the occasion of mergers and acquisitions.

We analyse the policy and strategy of their competitors and, if need be, coordinate and implement the measures necessary to obtain a freedom to operate.