The Legal 500

France

Media and entertainment

Within: Media and entertainment

Dentons' David Masson recently acted for several high-profile luxury brands on a host of issues pertaining to their advertising campaigns, including intellectual property, contentious and regulatory matters. Senior counsel Isabelle Leroux is currently advising a major food and drinks company on a free riding and copyright dispute arising from the broadcasting of one of its festive advertising campaigns, while counsel Clément Monnet is part of the team which provides ongoing advice to an international agency on a variety of issues, most recently regarding actions brought by parties alleging illegal advertising.

[back to top]

France: Industry focus

Industry focus: Healthcare and life sciences

Within: Industry focus: Healthcare and life sciences

The 'involved' healthcare offering at Dentons is noted by clients for its 'responsiveness and accuracy', especially in the area of 'regulations and compliance issues'. Practice co-head Pascale Poupelin 'knows exactly what in-house lawyers expect' and is distinguished by her 'pertinent legal advice regarding market access for drugs'. In recent highlights, team co-head Jean-Marc Grosperrin collaborated with tax expert Sandra Hazan and IP specialist David Masson to advise Servier on several investment ventures with startups operating in the connected devices space; the team also acted for Servier in a strategic partnership with Swiss biotech company GeNeuro to develop and commercialise products to treat MS. On the M&A front, François Vignaud represented longstanding client Pfizer in the sale of its global infusion therapy business to ICU Medical. Marianne Schaffner recently joined the firm from Dechert LLP with counsel Pierre-Olivier Ally to strengthen the intellectual property and contentious offering.

[back to top]

Industry focus: IT, telecoms and the internet

Within: Industry focus: IT, telecoms and the internet

Dentons' senior counsel Isabelle Leroux recently obtained a favourable decision at the appeal stage of a software and unfair competition claim brought by Dassault on behalf of the Airbus Group, and David Masson is advising Nokia throughout Europe on the GDPR compliance of its recording of street-level data. The firm is also assisting Scalefast with all contractual issues relating to its cloud platform and e-commerce structure.

[back to top]

Industry focus: Luxury goods

Within: Industry focus: Luxury goods

Odile Caron is senior counsel within Dentons' commercial and distribution practice and a key name to note within the luxury group alongside intellectual property specialist David Masson, tax expert Sandra Hazan and corporate partner Jean-Marc Grosperrin. Pascal Chadenet is part of a multi-disciplinary team advising an independent designer fashion house on its strategic partnership with an international group, while Olivier Genevois assisted Piquadro with its acquisition of the entire share capital of Lancel. The team was recently strengthened by the arrival of Marianne Schaffner from Dechert LLP; she represented a heavyweight luxury client in a major cross-border trademark infringement and unfair competition action against a fashion group. Other key names include senior counsel Isabelle Leroux and Frédérique Meslay-Caloni, who is part of the employment and labour team.

[back to top]

France: Intellectual property

Intellectual property: Patents

Within: Intellectual property: Patents

Dentons recently recruited the 'hard-working, extremely responsive and strategically brilliant' Marianne Schaffner from Dechert LLP; one client describes her as 'by far the most knowledgeable and best prepared patent litigator in Paris'. She joins David Masson, who is currently representing a global technology leader in French proceedings against a competitor in the telecoms space, and leading the advice to clients regarding FRAND and European patent law issues. Of counsel Pierre-Olivier Ally and associate Clémence Boland arrived alongside Schaffner to join the ranks of counsel Clément Monnet and consultant Michel Vivant. The firm also gained a number of new clients including Essilor, Pierre Fabre and St-Gobain.

[back to top]

Intellectual property: Trade marks and designs

Within: Intellectual property: Trade marks and designs

At Dentons, the intellectual property team recently gained Marianne Schaffner and her team, who arrived from Dechert LLP, as well as several new clients including Sandoz. Associate Clémence Boland - who arrived with Schaffner and Pierre-Olivier Ally - recently acted for Square in several trade mark infringement cases in the French and European courts, and senior counsel Isabelle Leroux is currently representing Merial in litigation against Virbac arising from the defendant's registration of the European 'Frontline' mark. David Masson leads the practice and recently collaborated with counsel Clément Monnet to assist Polaroid with the protection and enforcement of all of its European assets, including R&D arrangements. Other key clients include Wavestone, CGI, Delta Air Lines and Lactalis.

[back to top]