London—Dentons is to launch a Patent Prosecution and Opposition practice in the UK with the recruitment of a team of leading Patent Attorneys, who will be joining the Firm from Olswang in May 2017. The Dentons team will be headed by Dr. Justin Hill, who is also joining from Olswang.

Justin is ranked by Chambers as an elite Band 1 patent attorney and has been described by The Legal 500 as 'one of the pre-eminent patent prosecution attorneys in the EU'. He will join Dentons as a Partner. The team will include:

• Counsel Alexander Rees – UK and European Patent Attorney with over 20 years' experience in private practice and in-house, specialising in electronics, telecommunication and computer technology.
• Senior Patent Attorney Marie Jansson Heeks – UK and European Patent Attorney and Solicitor-Advocate, with experience across a broad range of technical disciplines.
• Senior Patent Attorney Dr. Louis Trichard – UK and European Patent Attorney specialising in telecommunications and computer technology.
• Patent Attorney Gemma Sparrow – UK and European Patent Attorney specialising in telecommunications, software and computer-implemented inventions.
• Senior Docketing Clerk Michael Folan, and Paralegal Paul McEvaddy.

Dentons' UK Managing Partner Brandon Ransley said, "Our objective as a Firm is to build a leading global patent capability. We already have a very strong patent litigation and prosecution practice in the US, where Dentons is ranked as the number-one patent firm in the Juristat Top 100. Clients from North America and Asia increasingly require patent advice in Europe and the arrival of Justin and the team will immediately propel us into a major patent player in this very important market."

Head of the UK TMT practice Andy Lucas added, "Our strategy in the UK is to 'put the Tech back into TMT', which means focussing on 'rocket scientist' hard IP work. Justin and the team joining us means that we will be able to offer clients heavyweight patent filing capability, adding to the patent litigation experience of Campbell Forsyth who joined us last year."

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