Amsterdam

Dentons has boosted its intellectual property and technology practice with the hire of partner Alexander Odle, who will join the firm's Amsterdam office.

Odle joins from Dutch firm Nineyards Law, which he co-founded in 2015, prior to which he had been a lawyer at Baker McKenzie for more than 13 years.

His practice focuses on setting up and managing European anti-counterfeiting programmes and national and international IP structuring and transactions, including licensing and technology transfers.

Odle is the second hire this year for Dentons' Amsterdam office, which is known as Dentons Boekel after a tie-up with a local firm. The firm recruited IP lawyer Tjibbe Douma as head of its Amsterdam patents practice from Dutch firm De Brauw Blackstone in February.

Odle told Law.com that his decision to join Dentons was because of how the firm had responded to the challenges of operating at a globally integrated level.

"In the legal market, everything is about globalisation, and the Dutch IP market – with its mature IP practice – traditionally has a strong international focus," he said.

He added that many big-name international law firms in the Dutch legal market no longer had IP capacities that were as strong as Dentons', which he said is "clearly is willing to invest in strong IP offerings globally".

"[The firm] is one step ahead of other firms and has taken over from other firms in moving to another level of global integration. You can do that running or walking. Dentons is running."

Marc Elshof, head of Dentons intellectual property and technology practice, said in a statement: ''Alexander's broad experience on all aspects of intellectual property, and in particular his knowledge of trademarks, will complete our intellectual property and technology team in Amsterdam.''

He added: "With the addition of Alexander to the team, we now [have] a full-service offering covering intellectual property, patents, technology and data privacy."

Including Odle, Dentons now has three partners in its Netherlands intellectual property and technology practice.

In July, Dentons expanded its Netherlands managing officer Marien Glerum's role to cover the firm's Amsterdam, Brussels and Luxembourg offices.