Taylor Wessing (TW) bolstered its strong IP credentials last month, recruiting the head of Harbottle & Lewis’ IP group Mark Owen into its City TMT team.
The arrival of Owen will add further strength to TW’s leading soft IP practice. The former Clifford Chance lawyer has advised significant media and entertainment clients on copyright, designs, trade mark, database rights and data privacy issues for the last 25 years.
Owen said that he looked forward ‘to making the most of the opportunity that will be afforded by the strength and breadth of Taylor Wessing’s international IP platform’, underlining the attraction of a large international group in contrast to Harbottles’ well-regarded boutique practice.
‘Mark has fantastic connections in the US – that’s another area where we’re strong but want to build on,’ said Niri Shan, head of the firm’s IP and media and entertainment group. He also confirmed that Owen will bring other ‘good brand clients with him’.
Owen recently enhanced his international profile, representing Lucasfilm in a five-year battle with prop designer Andrew Ainsworth over rights in costume design that ended in the Supreme Court in 2011.
TW’s hire of Owen is the second significant move for the firm’s TMT practice since the turn of the year. In January, the firm added technology lawyer Mike Turner from Osborne Clarke to head its UK TMT sector group.
Owen’s arrival adds another name to a suite of well regarded soft IP experts in TW’s highly ranked practice, according to The Legal 500, including Charles Lloyd, Roland Mallinson and Shan himself.
As for the future of TW’s burgeoning practice, Shan said it will look for strategic hires in areas ‘where we think there’s growth out there’.
‘TMT is one of those spaces and is a buoyant sector,’ he added. ‘There’s not much M&A activity expected in that space, but people are exploiting technology,’ he said.