Bird & Bird, which last month announced that it was opening an office in Helsinki following a merger with Finnish firm Fennica Attorneys, was named UK contentious firm of the year and European firm of the year, and won the European patent case of the year award for its work advising Nokia in its dispute with InterDigital.

Baker & McKenzie won awards for UK trade mark prosecution firm of the year and firm of the year in Russia. Its associated firm Hadiputranto Hadinoto & Partners was named firm of the year in Indonesia.

Winner of the US firm of the year in Europe, Howrey, has made a big commitment to the market over the past 15 months. Last year saw it open an office in Munich and boost its IP presence in Paris with the appointment of Denis Monégier du Sorbier from Linklaters.

This year the US firm hired Mark Hodgson from Taylor Wessing for its London office and partner Luis Fernández-Novoa and three associates from Gomez-Acebo & Pombo to launch an IP practice in its Madrid office.

The award for French IP prosecution firm was made to Cabinet Lavoix, while Veron et Associés was named French contentious IP firm. In Germany, the prosecution award went to Hoffmann Eitle, and the contentious work award went to Rospatt.

In total, more than 50 awards were presented to the leading firms in Europe, Asia and Latin America at a black-tie dinner held at Claridge's in London.

IBM was named in-house team of the year, and a series of awards were made to the law firms who advised on cutting edge patent, trade mark and copyright cases in Europe and Asia.

Some 250 guests attended the dinner from some 35 countries.

Managing IP presented two outstanding achievement awards during the evening.

The first was a posthumous award to Lord Justice Pumfrey, the highly respected UK patent judge who died in late December. The award was collected by Mr Justice Floyd and Pumfrey's former clerk Richard Trout.

The second outstanding achievement award went to Joao Miranda de Sousa, director of general affairs and external relations at OHIM.

A full list of awards winners is available here .

Full reports, and photos, from the awards dinner will be published in the May 2008 issue of Managing IP , available online on May 1. It will also carry pictures and reports from the magazine's first IP North America Awards ceremony, held in Washington DC on April 3. A full list of winners from that event is available here and a report is here.