The Financial Times is now compiling its sixth annual list of European law firms that specialise in securing patents and protecting European innovation. As before, we propose to rank the firms in six broad sectors:
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Chemistry & Pharmaceuticals
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Electrical Engineering
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Mechanical Engineering
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Biotechnology, Food & Healthcare
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Materials & Nanotechnology
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IT & Software
The FT’s research partner, Statista, will compile these rankings based on a survey made available to our readers.
A special report featuring the final rankings — plus articles on the work of patent attorneys and challenges they face, such as the increased use of artificial intelligence — will appear on FT.com and the FT app in June.
The survey will collect peer recommendations from patent attorneys that are registered with the European Patent Office (EPO), as well as nominations from clients who have used a patent law firm in one of the 39 member states of the Munich-based EPO*.
The deadline for submissions is March 15, 2024.
Separately, Statista will invite selected patent attorneys and clients to participate via email. If you have not received your invitation yet, you can also take part in our survey via this link.
Participation is free and the survey takes just a few minutes to complete. All responses will be anonymised for publication. No self-recommendations are allowed. The survey is available in English, German, French and Italian.
The FT will publish the list online as an interactive table with firms grouped in one of three categories.
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🥇 Gold for “very frequently recommended”
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🥈 Silver for “frequently recommended”
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🥉 Bronze for “recommended”
*Firms from EPO member states are eligible: Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malta, Monaco, Montenegro, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, San Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and the United Kingdom.
