International law firm Bird & Bird has applied to the Luxembourg Bar for approval to the opening of an office in Luxembourg, which would bring the number of Bird & Bird offices around the world to 28.
In view of the siting in Luxembourg of the new Unified Patent Court (UPC), Court of Appeal and Registry, with jurisdiction over Unitary Patents and European Patents not subject to an opt out, one of the main purposes of the office will be to support our work with the UPC as well as our ongoing work in the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). In addition, the office would further facilitate our work with Luxembourg-based banking and finance clients.
The Luxembourg office opening would uniquely give Bird & Bird the broadest coverage of any law firm in terms of patent litigation experts in the countries where the UPC will initially be functioning, consisting of specialist patent litigators in the location of the Court of Appeal and 12 of the 16 initial local, regional and central divisions of the Court together with the ability of our UPC team to handle proceedings in the other 4 divisions. Bird & Bird was recently named “IP Law Firm of the Decade – Europe” by Managing Intellectual Property.
The new office would also enable us to support more effectively our finance and tax clients based in Luxembourg who are investing in countries across Europe, though we will not practise Luxembourg law and will continue to work closely with our existing correspondent firms.
David Kerr, CEO, Bird & Bird said: “Luxembourg is an important jurisdiction for the UPC and many of our IP clients, as well as for many of our financial services and tax clients, so opening an office in Luxembourg makes perfect sense for us.”
Morag Macdonald, joint head of our international Intellectual Property group, said: “The establishment of the Unitary Patent and the Unified Patent Court represents the largest change to patent law across Europe in 40 years. Opening an office in Luxembourg will ensure our leading patent law team in Europe remains ideally placed to assist clients with their patent needs.”
Stefano Febbi, co-head of our Financial Services group, said: “Our Luxembourg base will enhance Bird & Bird’s ability to serve our financial services and other Luxembourg based clients.”
Source: www.twobirds.com
