Dehns

Firm overview:

From its offices in the UK, Germany and Norway, Dehns has established a reputation as an IP specialist. Its partners, senior associates and associates are all chartered and European patent attorneys, trademark attorneys or solicitors, with many qualified in both patents and trademarks.

Dehns is known for its ability to handle high volumes of prosecution work. The firm claims to have filed the greatest number of patent applications of any UK firm in each of the last five years, with over 7,000 filed in 2024. Alongside its drafting service, Dehns provides watching services, portfolio audits and advice on assignments and licences.

The firm is also prolific in its contentious work before the patent offices, and is currently handling more than 440 live opposition cases at the European Patent Office (EPO). This year, Dehns represented polymer and base chemicals company Borealis in a dispute over polymer products with Mitsui Chemicals, a case before the EPO’s highest appeals body that could redraw the boundaries of prior art.

Dehns has the ability to conduct litigation at all levels of the UK courts and the Court of Justice of the European Union, as well as the German Federal Court, and has been involved in a number of actions before the Unified Patent Office (UPC).

Team overview:

Dehn’s team comprises over 130 patent professionals specialising in all types of science and technology fields.

Louise Golding heads up the Chemical Group at the firm, and has considerable experience in patent drafting for a number of direct clients as well as routinely advising on IP strategy. Her expertise covers areas of chemistry such as pharmaceuticals, medical methods and devices, oil and gas technology, and polymers.

Managing partner Adrian Samuels handles patent work in various fields of physics and engineering. As well as drafting patent applications, he has considerable experience in contentious matters including European oppositions and UK and US litigation. A peer says they find Samuels to be “very commercial and easy to work with”.

Partner Laura Ramsay is one of the firm’s UPC representatives, as well as a UK and European patent attorney. A peer says they would “definitely recommend her due to her technical skills and ideas in regard to handling EPO oppositions”.

Key matters:

• Filing patent applications for atomic physics technology—ORCA Computing

Dehns partner Mark Bell has handled work for ORCA since 2015. The client is a spin-out company from the University of Oxford that uses photonics for quantum computing, based on atomic physics technologies that has been described as “mind-bendingly difficult”.

Bell has used his professional expertise and academic background to draft, file and prosecute through to grant a number of patent applications for ORCA around the world.

• Defending an infringement accusation—Q-Free

Dehns has worked with client Q-Free, a technology company based in Norway that specialises in transportation management, for many years, and has built a large IP portfolio on the client’s behalf.

A ‘patent troll’ alleged that Q-Free was infringing its rights in certain technology related to road pricing, where road tolls would change based on environmental pollution levels. Dehns applied to have two of the entity’s patents revoked and was successful, firstly at the Norwegian Intellectual Patent Office (NIPO) and then Norwegian Appeal Board.

The team, led by Adrian Samuels, worked closely with Norwegian law firm Simonson Vogt Wiig which undertook the procedural and legal work, while Dehns handled the substantive and technical arguments.

• EPO dispute with implications for prior art boundaries—Borealis

The EPO’s highest appeals body is set to rule on a case that could redefine what counts as prior art and reshape opposition strategies. It centres on the key question of whether a commercial product should count as prior art if it can’t be reverse engineered.

Dehns represents Borealis in its dispute with Mitsui Chemicals, which owns a European patent for a polymer product.

Partner Neil Campbell, who represents Borealis, told WIPR in April this year that he hoped the EPO would essentially introduce an ‘on-sale patent bar’, that would create more harmonisation than tension, and would be similar to the model in the US.

Clients:

Borealis, Coca-Cola, Q-Free