Germany's Noerr is set to launch an office in Alicante with a double hire from Hogan Lovells.

The office, which will open in the middle of this year, will focus on intellectual property (IP) litigation, strategic trademark management and the management of international trademark and design portfolios.

Joining the office from Hogan Lovells' local base will be counsel Tobias Dolde, who will join as a partner, and senior associate Michael Hawkins. Noerr's media, IP and IT co-head Georg Jahn will take responsibility for the office.

Dolde, who joined Hogan Lovells' Dusseldorf office in 2002 before relocating to Alicante in 2004, has worked with clients including BASF, Deutsche Telekom and the International Tennis Federation, while Hawkins' clients include Caterpillar and PepsiCo.

The firm plans to open the base by 1 July. It will initially be a two-lawyer practice with plans to add further lawyers as soon as possible, including secondments from the firm's German offices.

Jahn commented: "We are launching a new office there because we want to strengthen our IP practice, not just to open a new office. We feel that Alicante will fit nicely within our overall plans.

"There is enough room there for others to successfully open offices there and we are all too aware of the numbers of US and Asian companies making use of the community trademark system from Alicante. It's a good place for us to be."

The launch comes after Noerr announced its annual partner promotions in January, making up seven to the firm's equity partnership across its London, Munich, Frankfurt and Berlin offices. In addition, the firm made up five lawyers to salaried partners across Munich, Warsaw, Moscow and Frankfurt.