Bird & Bird is one of the leading law firms in the UK for contentious and non-contentious IP work. It is often involved in high-profile IP disputes in the UK. The firm is also recommended in European jurisdictions such as France and Germany, making it one of the most reliable firms for pan-European IP litigation. It also has a representative US office in San Francisco, California. The firm has experienced lawyers that can handle patent litigation in different fields, including pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, and telecommunications.
Notable patent litigators: Patrick Kelleher, Jane Mutimear, Richard Vary, Mark Hilton, Morag Macdonald, and Katharine Stephens.
Notable trademark practitioners: Emma Green, Allan Poulter, Christine Danos, Peter Brownlow, and Mark Holah.
Notable IP transaction lawyers: Sally Shorthose and Tom Snaith.
Notable copyright and design practitioners: Ewan Grist, Christine Danos, Rebecca O’Kelly-Gillard, and Phil Sherrell.
The soft IP team is supported by copyright scholar Eleonora Rosati. Ewan Grist is an all-rounder in IP litigation.
2025
"The team is very astute and great to work with. They offer a great mix of very skilled technical people coupled with very good strategists.
"They work very well with our internal teams and form good relationships with experts and other external [providers]. They are able to work smoothly with other legal teams in other jurisdictions, which is crucial for global litigations."
"Bird & Bird are responsive and provide practical, commercial advice."
"The team are exceptionally knowledgeable, always commercial in their approach. They get to the heart of the issue quickly and are an invaluable resource to our team."
"Both the in-house team and the business really enjoy working with them."
A client praised the firm's "expertise, timeliness and overall strategic guidance".
"They are the consummate professionals. On every occasion when I have worked with them, they have excelled in terms of experience, strategy and effectiveness. Their people are of the highest calibre and are always a pleasure to work with. I have often also worked on the opposite side to them, and they make a formidable opponent."
"They are excellent. They run down every detail, have razor-sharp recall of information, come up with novel and interesting arguments to achieve business goals, and are true professionals."
"Bird & Bird's team members are well prepared. They understand the science and the legal positions and are able to express detailed arguments effectively."
"Client relationship is at the centre of their work and excellent delivery of advice. [They showed] commercial awareness at every stage of the case."
A client uses the firm because of the "knowledge, thoroughness in analysis, and timely delivery of work".
"User-friendly, good value for money and a demonstrably strong reputation."
"They immediately understand what is required and why and get on with things."
Christine Danos
"Christine Danos and her team are efficient, commercial and pragmatic. An absolute pleasure to work with [them]."
2024
"Bird & Bird are the consummate professionals. On every occasion when I have worked with them, they have excelled in terms of experience, strategy and effectiveness. Their people are of the highest calibre, and are always a pleasure to work with. I have often also worked on the opposite side to them, and they make a formidable opponent."
"They are knowledgeable, diligent, and easy to work with."
"Bird & Bird has technical expertise, is well regarded in the market, provides high-quality legal advice for a reasonable price. The IP team are very easy to work with, they provide excellent advice that is practical and aligned with our commercial objectives."
Patrick Kelleher
"He has a pragmatic approach to issues in a case, with a good sense of the strong points on which to push hard and the weaker points on which to row softly."
Eleanor Root
"Has great communication, good understanding of the sector, and excellent collaboration."
Ewan Grist
"Ewan provides excellent advice, is responsive and practical. Ewan understands the commercial objectives at play for our organization and his advice takes these into account."
Emma Green
"Emma is very responsive and provides excellent trademark counsel."
2023
"They are professional and quick to respond, and were able to deal with a very tricky counterpart who tried every trick in the book."
"They provide an excellent service. It is a responsive team, who are experts in their field."
"They are great value for money."
"They have been thorough, insightful and responsive to our needs. They are technically extremely capable and very commercially astute and practicable. In particular, I have worked with Toby Bond and always found him to be a sound and strategic leader. His ability to combine strong technical yet practical direction with the details of management of his team allowed him to deal with our instructions extremely competitively and efficiently, which has been excellent value for money, whilst still being extremely responsive to our entire team."
"They are very strong strategically and easy to work with."
"They are very easy to work with."
"All of the partners and teams I have worked with at Bird & Bird have been extremely smart, hard-working and professional. As a barrister it is incredibly valuable to work with a solicitor team who are fully immersed in the technology and case strategy and whose support you can count on in all aspects of preparing a case for trial. Bird & Bird provide that."
"The team are highly engaged and innovative."
"They are very strategic."
"They are innovative and think outside the box."
"They are very active, approachable and clear in their advice. Decisive."
Case studies show contentious and non-contentious copyright and related rights work. The firm represented Crypto Open Patent Alliance and Stability AI in their respective high-profile IP disputes.
TuneIn and Codeplan are among the clients the team advised on copyright issues. Internet and IT law expert Graham Smith, who can also advise on copyright, is now a consultant.
Case studies show a range of commercial IP work, including advising on M&A deals involving IP rights. Clients include Freenome Holdings and 30 Technology.
Case studies show design protection and disputes work for a range of companies. Clients include Betafence, Uniqlo, Aspinal of London, Rogue Fitness and Rothy’s.
Patent case studies show court and EPO disputes in different technical fields. The firm represented companies such as Dexcom, InterDigital, The Broad Institute, CureVac, Celltrion, Nokia, and NEO Performance Materials.
Veteran patent litigator Trevor Cook rejoined the firm in October 2022 after spending eight years in New York at a US law firm. Life sciences patent litigator Nicole Jadeja joined the firm in 2023. The firm welcomed Mario Subramaniam as a partner in its patent practice in 2024. Patent litigation partners Robert Williams and Neil Jenkins have retired.
Case studies show trademark protection and disputes work for a range of brand owners. Clients include Lidl, Merck KGaA, Sinocare, Dream Pairs Europe, Monster Energy, and Interflora.