Asialaw Profiles
The Guide to the legal markets of the Asia-Pacific

The Hogan Lovells IP practice is led by office managing partner Lloyd Parker, US patent litigation specialist Phillippe Riesen and bengoshi partner Eiichiro Kubota. The firm has all the resources it needs to advise on domestic and international IP matters, ... [more]

The Hogan Lovells IP practice is led by office managing partner Lloyd Parker, US patent litigation specialist Phillippe Riesen and bengoshi partner Eiichiro Kubota. The firm has all the resources it needs to advise on domestic and international IP matters, and remains firmly in the top tier of the rankings. Its global network of offices means that clients can trust the firm with their IP issues in almost any part of the world. For example, the firm advised Panasonic Group on trade mark portfolio management work in over 100 countries.

On the contentious side, Riesen is representing IPS Alpha, Panasonic, Hitachi, Hitachi Displays and Toshiba in a patent infringement case in New York concerning liquid crystal display panels. In addition, the firm can count the likes of H&M, Kanebo Cosmetics, PepsiCo and Sony as some of its active clients.

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The comprehensive and on-the-ground IP operations of Morrison & Foerster make it a recognised leader in this area among foreign firms in Tokyo. The firm’s expertise in the electronics sector has attracted mandates from leading Japanese corporations like ... [more]

The comprehensive and on-the-ground IP operations of Morrison & Foerster make it a recognised leader in this area among foreign firms in Tokyo. The firm’s expertise in the electronics sector has attracted mandates from leading Japanese corporations like Fujitsu, TDK, Fujifilm, Hitachi and Toshiba. Notably, the team has been defending Nikon Corporation against 10 patent infringement cases, with claimed damages of US$50 billion, and debated issues involving the extraterritorial reach of US patent laws.

Its first class M&A practice, coupled with its IP expertise, is an important asset to clients. For example, partners Stuart Beraha and Masato Hayakawa advised On Semiconductor in its US$600 million acquisition of Sanyo Semiconductor and its patent portfolio. Practice head Max Olson is the key contact of the group.

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The IP team at Baker & McKenzie’s Tokyo office excels in trade mark work and is getting more active in patent matters. Kenichi Nakayama is defending a Japanese telecommunications equipment manufacturing company in a patent infringement litigation. The ... [more]

The IP team at Baker & McKenzie’s Tokyo office excels in trade mark work and is getting more active in patent matters. Kenichi Nakayama is defending a Japanese telecommunications equipment manufacturing company in a patent infringement litigation. The damages claim is more than US$1 million and the case generated much media attention as the plaintiff has filed claims on behalf of many other companies. The Bakers team also advised QVC Japan in 2011 in the negotiation of naming rights in a deal valued at ¥2.75 billion (US$35.8 million). Partners Yasunori Hashiguchi and Daisuke Tatsuno are respected in the market.

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The Japan IP practice at Foley & Lardner, headed up by partners Etsuo Doi and Michael Kaminski, remains a steady presence in the market and can often be found on complex litigation. An important achievement for the Foley team in 2010 was its successful ... [more]

The Japan IP practice at Foley & Lardner, headed up by partners Etsuo Doi and Michael Kaminski, remains a steady presence in the market and can often be found on complex litigation. An important achievement for the Foley team in 2010 was its successful defence of Takeda Pharmaceutical. This ended a 12-year ex-parte reexamination proceeding and the litigation arising out of it. The case is the longest patent reexamination in US history and involves the patent of a fundamental key compound relating to antibiotics. Another noteworthy case saw the firm act as counsel to Toshiba in patent litigation relating to the client’s portable computers.

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The Tokyo branch of Finnegan Henderson combines US IP law advice with an appreciation of the local business culture. This makes it a trusted counsel for many Japanese corporations on their IP matters in the US. Some of the firm’s highlight work over ... [more]

The Tokyo branch of Finnegan Henderson combines US IP law advice with an appreciation of the local business culture. This makes it a trusted counsel for many Japanese corporations on their IP matters in the US. Some of the firm’s highlight work over the past 12 months includes helping Otsuka Pharmaceuticals gain a favourable decision that protects its largest selling drug against generic competition, and defending Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in an ITC investigation where General Electric accused the client of infringing one of its patents.

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Herbert Smith’s intellectual property practice debuts in our rankings with solid client feedback and a portfolio of interesting work. In particular, the joining of Dr. Frederick Ch’en from Linklaters last year has boosted the group’s profile and capability ... [more]

Herbert Smith’s intellectual property practice debuts in our rankings with solid client feedback and a portfolio of interesting work. In particular, the joining of Dr. Frederick Ch’en from Linklaters last year has boosted the group’s profile and capability to handle high-level contentious and non-contentious IP mandates. As the leader of the UK firm’s IP practice in Tokyo, Dr. Ch’en is praised by a pharmaceuticals client as having “the highest ability as a legal professional” and that “he had a clear grasp of the legal issues, the needs of the business and rendered extremely prompt and coherence advice”. A leading telecommunications company enlisted the firm to help it establish a world-wide patent licensing programme from scratch. In another highlight, the firm’s top-tier disputes practitioners have teamed up with the IP group to advise a premier Japanese technology company in a €400 million (US$560 million) patent licensing battle.

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Ropes & Gray continues to beef up its IP practice following the arrival of Maxwell Fox in early 2010 together with dedicated partners Hiroyuki Hagiwara and James DeGraw. The trio is active in many contentious and commercial IP matters in Japan and abroad. ... [more]

Ropes & Gray continues to beef up its IP practice following the arrival of Maxwell Fox in early 2010 together with dedicated partners Hiroyuki Hagiwara and James DeGraw. The trio is active in many contentious and commercial IP matters in Japan and abroad. For example, Hagiwara is representing Ricoh Americas in two related multi-defendant patent litigations against a licensing entity who is also suing a number of leading technology companies. On the commercial IP side, Fox and DeGraw advised Quanta Computer on the formation of a joint venture with 3M in Singapore, which involved corporate structuring, IP licensing and ownership issues.

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