Mark van Gardingen

Partner

Mark is a partner at Brinkhof and one of the founders of our law firm. He specialises in litigation and providing strategic advice on European patent disputes. Mark’s science grammar school education, combined with his Master’s in Patent and IP law from Utrecht University, enables him to quickly grasp any kind of technology and translate it into legal opportunities, be it in the field of electronics, chemistry, biochemistry, mechanical engineering, or any other area.

An energetic approach focused on the end result

Mark’s style is personal, energetic, passionate, pragmatic and always focused on the often-broader end result – the ‘end game’. Last but not least, it is fun to work with him. The cases Mark works on are often international in nature.

Experience & ancillary activities

Mark has extensive experience advising on and litigating high-stakes patent disputes with a
pan-European — and frequently global — scope. Such cases demand a thorough command of the available options and risks, and of the particularities, legal tests, procedural aspects and timelines of European patent litigation before national courts and the Unified Patent Court (UPC), of oppositions before the European Patent Office (EPO), and of litigation outside Europe — in particular in the United States (ITC, USPTO and US federal court proceedings) and in Asia (notably Japan, Korea and China).

Mark has been closely involved in shaping the UPC — the European patent court common to the (currently 18) EU contracting member states that opened its doors on 1 June 2023, and which adjudicates patent infringement and validity for those countries as a single territory, in a single set of proceedings. He is the 2026 President of the European Patent Lawyers Association (EPLAW), which holds official observer status granted by the UPC Administrative Committee. EPLAW is also the organiser of the annual European Patent Judges Conference in Venice, where European patent judges, the EPO and a selected group of European patent lawyers discuss the harmonisation of European patent law. In addition, Mark is a Board Member of the UPC Standing Committee of the international IP association AIPPI, a member of the IP Advisory Committee of the Dutch Bar, and a member of the so-called ‘Commission of Eight’, a consultative body for the Netherlands Patent Office and the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy. Mark also plays an active part in the EPO’s training programme for (prospective) UPC judges, regularly pleading in mock trials to help educate participants on the UPC’s new procedural rules and evolving legal tests.

Selected matters

• Genevant and Arbutus v. Moderna — UPC litigation concerning the infringement and validity of our clients Genevant and Arbutus’ exclusive rights to lipid nanoparticle technology, with parallel proceedings before the EPO and in various other jurisdictions, including the US and Japan.

• Halozyme v. MSD — cross-border litigation concerning the infringement and validity of our client Halozyme’s exclusive rights to a class of novel modified hyaluronidase polypeptides, with parallel proceedings in, among others, Germany, the UK, France and the US (including before the USPTO).

• OPPO v. Panasonic — UPC litigation concerning our client OPPO’s right to use standardised technology claimed in Standard Essential Patents (SEPs), including FRAND defences, with parallel proceedings in Germany and the UK.

• Samsung Bioepis v. Bayer and Regeneron — Dutch national litigation concerning our client Samsung Bioepis’ freedom to operate in respect of patents for aflibercept (EYLEA), with parallel proceedings before the EPO and parallel litigation in Korea, the US, the UK and Germany.

• HEINEKEN v. ABI — cross-border litigation concerning our client HEINEKEN’s freedom to operate and its own exclusive rights relating to ‘bottle-in-bottle’ technology, including the coordination of EPO oppositions and parallel litigation in the US (ITC).

• CibaVision / Alcon — acting for different international eye-technology companies in patent disputes concerning contact lenses and laser eye-surgery technology, including parallel proceedings before the EPO and in other jurisdictions such as the UK and the US.

• Dow Chemical v. Organik Kimya — Dutch national litigation for Dow concerning the misappropriation of Dow’s trade secrets and the spoliation of evidence, with parallel litigation in the US (ITC).

• Boston Scientific — a range of patent matters involving many different medical devices, including cardiovascular stents, delivery catheters and heart valves.

• J&J v. AbbVie — representing J&J in non-infringement and invalidity proceedings against AbbVie concerning anti-IL-12/IL-23 antibodies.

• Carl Zeiss SMT (together with ASML) v. Nikon — advising and representing Carl Zeiss in a global patent dispute against Nikon concerning immersion lithography technology.

• Novozymes v. DSM — representing Novozymes and its Dutch distributor in a cross-border patent dispute concerning enzyme technology.

• Generic medicines (Accord, Sandoz, Synthon and others) — representing various international pharmaceutical companies in relation to the introduction of generic versions of branded medicines whose compound patent protection has expired, often including parallel proceedings before the EPO and parallel litigation in various other jurisdictions, including the UK, Germany and the US.

Rankings

• Managing IP | 2025 – Practitioner of the Year (The Netherlands)
• Legal 500 | Mark van Gardingen – Leading Partner
• Chambers & Partners Europe – Band 1
• Chambers & Partners Global – Band 1