Intellectual Property

29 June 2017

The Board Ultimatum: Protect and Preserve

Report looks at the rising importance of safeguarding trade secrets during a time of swift technological advancement.

Managing and protecting intellectual property has become increasingly complex for global companies, which often have huge IP portfolios and operations in multiple jurisdictions with varied IP laws and levels of enforcement. Rapid technological advancements have enabled infringers to become more sophisticated, and the rise of intellectual property as a main driver of mergers and acquisitions has made developing strategies to protect these assets even more important.

Baker McKenzie’s intellectual property practice is consistently recognized around the world for our exceptional quality in a range of intellectual property matters.

Chambers Global

We retained our top position in Chambers Global for the ninth consecutive year - one of only two firms to be Band-1 ranked in Chambers 2017. Thirty-seven of our lawyers also earned plaudits for their strong IP practice in various jurisdictions around the world.

In its editorial, Chambers Global cites the Firm's "unparalleled global trade mark registration and enforcement practice" and "strong reputation in anti-counterfeiting matters, with standout practice in emerging markets." The publication also highlights the Firm's "increasing focus on hard IP matters, and benefits from the excellent reputation of copyright specialists in the London office."

Chambers' also featured client commentaries:

"The advice is not just country-specific and we get a lot of feedback on what is happening in other countries. In my industry, there are all sorts of global changes and regulatory developments, so it is good to get another perspective."

"The lawyers filter and summarize all of what I need to know and do a great job of packaging information. They provide high-level summaries and when I need to get into detail, they have charts and materials that give me the background."

World Trademark Review

World Trademark Review (WTR 1000) once again handed to our firm the most number of individual lawyer and office recognitions:

In the general trademark category, we bagged nine Gold rankings (Colombia, Egypt, Malaysia, Poland, Thailand, UK, Ukraine, Venezuela and Vietnam), six Silver and ten Bronze rankings for various offices. We are a Recommended firm in the International category.
For trademark enforcement and litigation, we received three Gold rankings (Hong Kong, Taiwan and Russia), a Silver ranking for Spain and Bronze rankings for Switzerland and Turkey. We were listed as a recommended firm in Indonesia and Singapore.
In trademark prosecution and strategy, we reaped four Gold rankings (Hong Kong, Indonesia, Russia and Singapore), three Silver rankings (Spain, Switzerland and Taiwan), and a Bronze ranking in New York. We were also Recommended in Turkey, and Highly Recommended in Australia and China (Foreign Firm category).

Managing IP

In the 2017 IP Stars of Managing IP, the Firm earned Tier 1 rankings in both Trademark Contentious and Trademark Prosecution categories:

Tier 1 in TM Contentious: Australia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Colombia, Russia, and United Kingdom.
Tier 1 in TM Prosecution: Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Colombia, Poland, Russia, and United Kingdom.
Tier 1 for general Trade Marks in Egypt, and for Trade Mark – Foreign Firms in Japan.

We were named the Global IP Firm of the Year in 2017 as well as IP Transactional & Advisory Firm of the Year in Asia, and Firm of the Year in Malaysia, Russia and Thailand.