The consolidation of Europe's patent attorney landscape continues to gather pace. Swedish investor Consolid has taken one of the biggest private equity investments in European patent firms so far. It is backing a new group that pools the Dutch firms V.O. and De Vries & Metman with Sweden's Ström & Gulliksson and Dutch trademark specialist Knijff under shared management.

With French firm Plasseraud having opened its doors to investor Andera Acto, and earlier PE deals involving Rouse, NLO/Ipsilon and House of IP, the question is no longer whether private equity belongs in the IP world, but which firms will be next to take on PE funding. One of the key challenges here is whether creative minds will succeed in finding a solution for investment in German patent firms. In Europe’s largest IP market, the professional regulations governing this are particularly restrictive. But the common driver: substantial investment requirements in AI tools and infrastructure that traditional partnership models struggle to finance alone.

Meanwhile, Nokia has drawn a line under its April 2025 video-coding litigation campaign. Following agreements with Hisense and Acer, the Finnish company has now reached a licence agreement with Asus, structured around an arbitration clause that mirrors the model endorsed by the UK Court of Appeal in May. Asus and Acer can now resume sales in Germany after a four-month halt triggered by injunctions from Munich.

In the UK, High Court judge Meade has set the interim payment rate in Nokia's UK rate-setting case against Warner Bros. and Paramount — offering further guidance on how English courts approach such applications. Meade is set to move to the UK Court of Appeal later this year. His promotion had long been regarded as a foregone conclusion in London’s IP circles, and the search for a successor to Meade is now in full swing. JUVE Patent understands that the decision has already been made and that there may well be two new IP judges. However, there has been no official confirmation of this as yet.

And in France, the long-running high-profile dispute between Intellectual Ventures and France's major telecoms operators has finally concluded at the Cour de Cassation, without success for the NPE.