Jean-Francois Merdignac

Jean-Francois Merdrignac

Intellectual Property and Sports Counsel, Paris

"I advise and assist international clients in highly strategic national and pan-European patent, trademark and design litigations, and provide responsive, technically sound and commercially focused advice on all intellectual property aspects of M&A transactions and complex restructuring."

Overview

Professional experience

Education and qualifications

Published works

Overview

Jean-François advises international clients on their intellectual property rights enforcement strategies and is notably used to manage cross-border patent and trademark litigations. He has a particular expertise in the pharmaceutical field and has a significant experience and knowledge of the electronic sector.

Jean-François also assists clients with negotiating and drafting contracts related to intellectual property rights. He notably advises banks, private equity funds and companies in all intellectual property issues raised by M&A transactions and complex restructuring operations.

Prior to joining Linklaters in Paris, Jean-François worked within a European intellectual property boutique in Paris. He also completed internships in French and European law firms, and in a major company in the cosmetic industry.

Jean-François also co-leads the Sport Sector of the firm in Paris.

Work highlights
  • Assisting a US pharmaceutical innovator in a patent litigation action (including preliminary injunction action) against generic companies about to launch their generic products on the French market.
  • Assisting a pharmaceutical company specialising in the development of therapies for HIV infection in a multi-jurisdictional patent infringement action initiated against another innovator in relation to the marketing of an anti-HIV drug.
  • Assisting a US pharmaceutical company (defendant) against a generic company in a revocation action about a patent covering a nanoparticle composition of an anti-emetic drug.
  • Assisting a leading luxury group against a former employee claiming for patent ownership and additional remuneration in relation to inventions performed in the course of her employment agreement.
  • Advising a mechanical and engineering group in the course of a bidding process for purchasing the defence activity of a major automotive group.
  • Advising a public investment fund with respect to a transitional trademark license agreement to be entered into by a major hotel company and the subsidiary handling the assigned business

Professional experience

Jean-François is an active member of the Pro Bono and Community Investment team. He is an associate Member of the AIPPI (International Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property), APRAM (Association of Trade Mark and Design Law Practitioners) and of the ACE (Lawyer Legal Counsel, intellectual property and sports law).

Education and qualifications

Jean-François holds a master’s degree in international business law from the University of Law and Political Sciences of Rennes I. He is also graduated from the University of Exeter (LL.M International Business Law).

Published works

  • Chapter “France” of the book “Patent Litigation Law Review”, co-authored with Pauline Debré (2017 to 2021)
  • “Copyright liability for online content-sharing platforms: Where are we now?”, Managing IP, to be published, August 2021, co-authored with Lisa Bauer, Katherine Berry and Tom de Coster
  • “Balancing public health safeguards and the promotion of alcohol in sports: a message in a bottle?”, SportingLinks, 3 March 2021.
  • “Copyright infringement: is the YouTube case a new pirate tale?”, Bloomberg Law, 19 August 2020, co-authored with Lisa Bauer, Tom De Coster and Natalie Ellerby. Available here.
  • “From Milan to Miami: an Inter-national trademark battle”, The Licensing Journal, June/July 2020, vol. 40, n°6.
  • “End of the line, nobody gets off! The French administrative Supreme Court suspends the relegation of Amiens and Toulouse to Ligue 2”, SportingLinks, 11 June 2020, co-authored with Nathanaël Caillard.
  • “Football club ownership rules: the view across Europe”, SportingLinks, 4 June 2020, co-authored with Matthew Taylor and Leonard Pellet. 
  • Participation to the report of the French group of the AIPPI 2020 | Copyright question: “Protection of data”
  • “Claiming for patent ownership: the harder they fall…”, Propriété Industrielle, November 2019, co-authored with Pauline Debré
  • Participation to the report of the French group of AIPPI 2019 | Transversal question: “Damages for acts other than sale”
  • “Applying statutes of limitations to patent revocations in France”, EPLAW Patent Blog, 9 November 2017, co-authored with Pauline Debré. Available here.