AWA is a leading IP firm with over 370 employees across 22 offices in Belgium, China, Denmark, Hong Kong, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland.
We believe tomorrow is today’s emerging business – rising up from untapped potential within established industries and start-ups. No matter the size or industry, we help our clients create business out of their ideas and innovations.
AWA was founded in 1897 by Swedish engineer Anders Wilhelm Anderson. His initials form our company name and remind us of our proud history.
We supply a full-service offering of IP law services in prosecution, dispute litigation, aftermarket services, legal advice, strategy and commercialisation. Our IP professionals are experts in patents, trademark, design, copyright and domain names.
What sets up apart
Global: AWA has a presence in Europe and Asia with an extensive network of qualified preferred partners all over the world. We can handle your IP needs globally and follow-up in real-time.
Diversity and Colloboration: Our people come from diverse backgrounds with practical industry knowledge. Their technical capability means they understand the small details and how this differentiates you in the marketplace. Our teams comprise engineers working closely with attorneys at law and vice versa. This seamless collaboration ensures that the right skillset and legal knowledge is available and utilised for our client’s innovations. We pride ourselves on our comprehensive trainee programme for future IP leaders.
Strategy: We focus on the long-term – building a business is a journey that requires strategy. We support companies throughout the corporate cycle to protect and enforce IP rights, but to also identify and capture the value of intellectual assets.
Digital Innovation: We live in the digital era and are constantly looking at tools that reduce workload and save time. From the AWA Client Porta, to our domain management services – we are innovating the IP tools of the future.
Employee Owned: AWA is 100% owned by the employees with more than 50% of us choosing to invest or hold shares in the Group. This reflects our personal and long-term commitment to both our firm and our clients.
AWA Asia
Part of the AWA Group, AWA Asia supports and manages international clients’ IP needs throughout the region with a head office in Hong Kong – a location known for its successful business environment, world-class infrastructure and effective legal system.
Our Beijing office is our wholly owned licensed trademark agency, allowing us to file and enforce trademarks directlybefore the China Trademark Office and the administrative authorities, without the need to use local third-party agents.
Today, China is one of the largest IP markets in the world and is increasingly being selected as a key venue for IP litigation by foreign and local entities alike.
AWA Asia has strong value proposition that consists of an East-meets-West approach, with a bilingual and bicultural team of IP professionals (trademark lawyers, patent attorneys and IP strategists). Our international-level service delivery comes with deep local knowledge and is business minded, pragmatic and tailored.
Network memberships: AIPPI, APAA, ECTA, epi, FICPI, INTA, The Lawyer Network, LES Scandinavia, MARQUES, Union-IP
ThomannFischer was founded in 1998. All the partners have a long history of professional experience and comprehensive knowledge in their areas of practice. Our spacious offices and modern infrastructure meet the highest standards.
We work with a network of selected, highly qualified foreign firms of lawyers and advisers and with various international banks in order to ensure that international transactions are conducted successfully and cross-border legal transactions handled professionally.
PRINS with its mixed team of patent attorneys, trademark attorneys and attorneys-at-law (admitted to all Swiss Courts) is one of the few IP law firms in Switzerland that can offer full-service advice in all fields of intellectual property. Together with our clients, we develop tailor-made IP strategies to strengthen relevant business areas, achieve strategic goals and successfully implement change.
Boutique firm IPrime fields a team of leading patent attorneys and attorneys-at-law with extensive experience in dealing with complex national and cross-border intellectual property matters across a broad range of technologies.
Relying on a unique combination of experienced business lawyers and litigators, patent attorneys and technology experts, IPrime is able to offer high-end legal and strategic advice and advocacy services in connection with the protection and commercialization of innovations, investments into technology, as well as complex IP and commercial disputes. Key strengths of the team are its independence and close collaboration between Swiss and European patent attorneys with a profound understanding of technology and science (including AI, robotics, big data, cyberphysical systems and block chain, pharmaceuticals, life sciences, chemicals and biotechnology as well as medical technology), and highly experienced dispute resolution specialists, who routinely represent parties in legal proceedings before courts, authorities and arbitral tribunals. IPrime has for years regularly handled a relevant share of all patent litigation matters in front of the Swiss Federal Patent Court.
As a part-time judge at the Federal Patent Court and experienced patent litigator, Dr. Rudolf A. Rentsch is involved in many high-stake patent cases in various technology sectors, while Dr. Moritz Kälin, Thomas Kretschmer and Martin Willy bring a wealth of experience in their respective scientific fields as well as in all aspects of patent law. Dr. Rudolf A. Rentsch, Dr. Ronny D. Banchik, Dr. Raphael Zingg and Ernst J. Brem are experienced commercial lawyers, advising clients in contract negotiations and representing them particularly in IP disputes. This interdisciplinarity, as well as the many years of experience which its lawyers gained in other firms and in in-house roles in the technology sector, allows IPrime to provide cutting-edge legal and strategic support to domestic and international clients at the intersection of technology and law.
Other key differentiators are the boutique structure and the discretion and substantially reduced risk of conflicts of interest, thanks to which IPrime can provide a broad range of services in contentious matters, from counsel mandates in litigation and arbitration, over strategic advisory in IP matters to settlement facilitation in situations requiring not only legal knowledge but also a thorough understanding of the underlying technical and commercial issues.
IPrime’s IP department covers both patent prosecution and patent litigation cases at Swiss, European and international level, providing strategic and legal advice with respect to the protection of intellectual property, whether under patent, trademark, copyright, trade secret, design or unfair competition laws. In particular, IPrime frequently advises IP departments of large leading global high-tech companies as well as SMEs, universities and start-ups in all areas of IP. IPrime also offers comprehensive services for the registration and administration of patent and trademark portfolios throughout Europe and overseas. In addition, IPrime’s patent attorneys and lawyers regularly assist clients in complex IP disputes, particularly in the patent area, and have accompanied a number of companies in patent cases in the U.S., China, Japan as well as many countries within Europe, in particular Germany and England. IPrime also routinely advises on the commercialization of intellectual property and related financing and structuring considerations and has set up a partnership with a large Swiss tax and accounting firm to assist companies in the tax-optimal structuring of patent portfolios, in accordance with the so-called patent boxes into Swiss law. Since many years, IPrime also runs a China desk and has strong connections to Japan.
IPrime has offices each in the heart of the cities of Zurich and Dusseldorf and since summer 2021 in Liechtenstein.
In 2024, BianchiSchwald, GHR and PYTHON merged to form a new law firm called Valfor. BianchiSchwald was the firm previously ranked in IP STARS. Christoph Gasser, who also serves as a judge at the Swiss Federal Patent Court, is the key IP contact in the firm.