Bird & Bird has expanded its practice in the Asia Pacific with the appointment of Jane Owen as a partner to head its IP practice in Australia. Owen, who will be based in Sydney, joins from K&L Gates where she was a partner. She has over 20 years’ experience in all aspects of intellectual property, including portfolio establishment, IP strategisation, commercialisation and enforcement. Her main sector focus is within life sciences, health care and education. A specialist in contentious IP, Owen focuses on patent litigation, particularly life sciences disputes. Her experience ranges across complex patent infringement/revocation, trade mark and passing off, design infringement, IP ownership disputes and appeals of decisions made by the Commissioner of Patents and the Registrar of Trade Marks. She holds a BA and an LLB with first class honours from the University of Queensland and an LLM with Merit from the University of London. She is admitted as a Solicitor of the Federal Court, High Court and Supreme Courts of New South Wales and Queensland.



Debevoise & Plimpton has added Mark Johnson as a litigation partner in Hong Kong. Johnson joins from Herbert Smith Freehills in Hong Kong, where he has been a partner for more than 20 years. While a partner, he oversaw the opening of the firm’s disputes practices in Singapore, Jakarta, Bangkok, Beijing, Seoul, Shanghai and Tokyo. Johnson first moved to Hong Kong in 1987 and has become one of the region’s most respected and experienced litigators, working with an Asian and international client base largely on white collar and regulatory defense matters. For more than 25 years in the region, he has built a successful practice advising on shareholders’ and directors’ disputes, internal and regulatory investigations, commercial litigation and inquiries from a range of regulatory bodies, both in Asia and elsewhere. These include matters involving the Hong Kong Securities & Futures Commission, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority and the HKSE.

Latest Moves
Latest Articles