Hogan Lovells announced today that Edward Kwok, Jennifer Lantz, Steve Levitan, Christian Mammen, and Clark Stone have joined as partners in the Intellectual Property (IP) practice. Kwok, Lantz, Levitan, and Stone arrive from Haynes and Boone LLP, and will be based in the Silicon Valley office, while Mammen joins from a private practice and will be based in San Francisco.

“We are seeing tremendous growth in our global Intellectual Property and Patent Litigation practices, and these new partners give us additional capabilities and critical mass in one of the most important technology and IP markets in the world,” said Hogan Lovells Co-CEO Warren Gorrell. “We see great opportunities to expand our market share of IP litigation in the Bay Area, and we anticipate there will be new and expanded opportunities to provide value to clients both in California and around the world.”

The incoming partners will focus on IP litigation in federal courts, state courts, the International Trade Commission (ITC), and arbitration proceedings, with an emphasis on patent and trademark litigation for West Coast and Asia-based technology clients. The group has deep experience in electrical engineering and computer science-related fields, and in other areas, including Internet search, high-temperature superconductivity, mobile telecommunications, digital video and audio, and biotechnology. Collectively, the team has handled cases in federal and state courts throughout California; federal courts in Delaware, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Oregon, Texas, Virginia, Washington, D.C.; and in the ITC.

“Clients need a single source to handle global IP disputes, and Hogan Lovells is extremely well positioned to manage those global cases, regardless of jurisdiction or country of origin,” said Korula T. “Sunny” Cherian, Co-Head of the U.S. Intellectual Property practice. “With the addition of this new group of partners, our ability to handle significant cross-border IP disputes has never been stronger.”

Hogan Lovells’ Intellectual Property practice group has more than 390 lawyers, specialists, and paralegals worldwide, combining a strategic, global outlook with local knowledge and a keen understanding of the technological and business factors involved in this area of law. Hogan Lovells has one of the few truly global Intellectual Property practices. The team handles IP litigation in U.S. and European courts, the ITC, and other forums throughout the world, and handles the IP and technology law aspects of major corporate and commercial transactions.

“We are thrilled to welcome these incredibly talented, seasoned, and well-connected lawyers,” said Megan Dixon, Managing Partner of Hogan Lovells’ San Francisco and Silicon Valley offices. “Their strong credentials and track record in the Bay Area are a great addition to the team, and the international networks they have developed will forge important connections between our West Coast IP capabilities and our leading IP practice in Asia.”

This influx of IP litigation talent in the Bay Area closely follows the recent additions of Mark Goodman and Ethan Miller who joined the San Francisco office as partners in the Litigation, Arbitration and Employment practice in early September. These recent additions also add fuel to the growth that began in 2011 when a team of five IP litigation partners, led by Sunny Cherian and Scott Wales, joined the Intellectual Property practice in the San Francisco office.

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