Industry moves and mergers

Simmons & Simmons has expanded its IP practice in Beijing with the appointment of George Chan, who joins the firm as a partner. Formerly a partner at Rouse, Chan heads the firm’s new China IP agency.

President Obama has nominated Danny Marti, managing partner of Kilpatrick Townsend’s Washington DC office, as US IP enforcement coordinator.

Deborah Cohn, the US Patent and Trademark Office’s Commissioner of Trademarks, has announced plans to retire. Cohn will stay on until the end of the year to help appoint a successor.

Domain management firm BrandIT has announced the opening of its legal department, BrandITLegal.

Five lawyers – Juliane Messner, Rainer Schultes, Constantin Kletzer, Alexander Schnider and Max Mosing – have launched GEISTWERT, a new Vienna-based law firm specialising in intellectual property and technology.

UK firm Withers & Rogers has opened a permanent office in Munich. The move was made possible by a collaboration with Munich-based IP firm Fleuchaus & Gallo.

IP consultants GEVERS and ORÈS have announced the combination of their practices in France. While GEVERS France has become the main shareholder of ORÈS, GEVERS and ORÈS will continue to carry out business under their existing identities and with their existing teams operating from their current premises.

Jonathan Day

IP boutique Carpmaels & Ransford LLP has announced a significant expansion of its litigation practice with the appointment of two leading IP litigation specialists, partners Ian Kirby and Jonathan Day from Arnold & Porter.

Susan M Richey has been named deputy chief administrative trademark judge at the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board. Richey comes to the board from the University of New Hampshire School of Law.

Gide has announced the appointment as senior counsel of Alain Carre-Pierrat, a former magistrate and IP law expert.

Walker Morris has appointed Rupert Bent as head of intellectual property. Bent, who was previously head of IP litigation at Pinsent Masons, joins as partner.

SorinRand, a leading adviser to early-stage and emerging growth companies in technology and tech-enabled industries, has joined forces with McCarter & English. The transaction, which became effective on October 1, will give the combined firm nine offices and approximately 425 attorneys. It will continue to be known as McCarter & English.

Osterberg LLC has announced that it has opened an office in Boston, Massachusetts.

Marcos Antunes

IP management and software specialist CPA Global has appointed Marcos Antunes as general manager, Asia-Pacific.

Dragos Vilau has left Vilau & Mitel to set up his own practice, VILAU | ASSOCIATES. The new firm consists of four out of seven partners of Vilau & Mitel – Dragos Vilau, Iuliana Dejescu, Ionut Lupsa and Andrei Stefanovici – accompanied by their teams.

Dragos Vilau

Rouse has announced the expansion of its Moscow office with the launch of new trademark and patent portfolio management services. These will be delivered by two new attorneys, Mikhail Pasynok and Andrey Cherskasov.

Toshiaki Iimura, former president and chief judge of Japan’s Intellectual Property High Court, has joined Yuasa & Hara in Tokyo as special counsel.

Patricia Collis has joined Bird & Bird, working as a trademark attorney in the firm’s London office. She was previously at Bristows LLP.

Peter Rouse, founder of the international IP firm Rouse, has returned to the IP world by joining Brandstrike, the provider of the IPCurator platform, as vice president services.

The White House has nominated Michelle Lee to be the under secretary of commerce for intellectual property and director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Currently deputy director, before joining the USPTO Lee worked in private practice before becoming deputy general counsel for Google.