• Firm
• People
• Practice
• Advantage
• Locations
• News & Events
• Careers

• Newsroom
• Announcements
• Awards & Recognition
• Calendar
• Library

Novak Druce + Quigg and Connolly Bove in Discussions to Become Powerhouse IP Boutique

The partnerships of Houston-based Novak Druce + Quigg LLP and Wilmington, Del.-based Connolly Bove Lodge & Hutz LLP, have each voted to enter into exclusive merger discussions with the other. Subject to final discussions and certain closing conditions and partnership voting, it is expected that the merger of these two intellectual property law firms will occur on January 1, 2013, creating the 7th largest intellectual property boutique firm in the country.

The merged firm will be known as Novak Druce Connolly Bove + Quigg LLP, and will boast a roster of approximately 140 attorneys, agents and technical advisors. The combined firm will be headquartered in Houston, and will continue to be the largest intellectual property firm based in Texas. The firm will also have offices in San Francisco, Silicon Valley, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Wilmington, Del., and West Palm Beach, Fla.

"When we left Howrey and launched Novak Druce + Quigg in early 2005 with six attorneys, we had a collective vision of building a truly national platform to serve the specialized needs of our clients in intellectual property," said Gregory V. Novak, the current managing partner of Novak Druce, and who will retain that role at the merged firm. "Now, with our anticipated combination with Connolly Bove we are well on the road to emerging as an IP super boutique with an unparalleled national platform and presence."

"We share fully the vision laid out by Novak Druce. Our combined firm will flourish with an even larger, more focused national platform. Without doubt, our respective clients will benefit from the combined synergies of our new firm, and we could not be more excited about those possibilities.  The combination fits perfectly with our long-term strategic goals," remarked Jeffrey B. Bove, the managing partner of Connolly Bove. Bove will remain at the merged firm as senior partner, along with Novak Druce's Donald J. Quigg. Quigg served as the Under Secretary of Commerce and United States Commissioner for Patents and Trademarks, under President Ronald Reagan. Nationally renowned litigator Rudy Hutz will also remain with the new firm.

"In building this national platform we were always fortunate to have excellent clients and people within the firm. When this merger is completed we think that our model will prove that it's all about the people—meaning our people and our clients—and serving clients’ needs seamlessly from prosecution to post grant and litigation. The IP super boutique lives and thrives," commented Novak.

Connolly Bove is strong in the chemical, life sciences and pharmaceutical areas, which complements Novak Druce's high-tech centric practice. The combined firm’s top clients will be chemical, biopharmaceutical, and computer/smart phone based.

Post grant practice is an important aspect to modern patent infringement litigation and Novak Druce has earned national recognition for representing companies utilizing patent reexaminations as a litigation tool having been a leading filer of reexamination requests since the inception of the United States Patent and Trademark Office’s Central Reexamination Unit in 2005.

Perhaps more importantly, Novak Druce and Connolly Bove each have a prosecution practice group focused on maximizing the potential value of a client’s technology by prosecuting patents with a technical litigation perspective. This combined pool of technical backgrounds and Patent Office experience provides maximum value for clients seeking to develop and protect emerging technologies.

Connolly Bove has one of the oldest and most preeminent patent litigation practices in the nation. At both trial and on appeal, the firm has frequently handled notable cases of first impression and it continues to set new standards in patent law. Attorneys of the firm have protected some of the most economically and technologically important inventions of our time, including successfully protecting Pfizer’s patents covering Lipitor^®, the largest selling drug in the world.

Connolly Bove is listed as one of the country’s largest IP firms by IP Law360.  The firm has frequently been ranked among the top 25 U.S. law firms for patent litigation by Corporate Counsel Magazine, is listed by IP Today as a top 50 U.S. trademark firm and a top patent firm, and has been ranked the top intellectual property firm in Delaware by Chambers USA for seven consecutive years. The firm was listed on the National Law Journal’s “Midsize Hot List” in 2010.

Novak Druce + Quigg LLP is a national law firm focused exclusively on complex intellectual property matters. With a renowned patent reexamination practice, Novak Druce’s attorneys help its clients navigate the complexities of U.S. intellectual property law by securing, enforcing, and defending their intellectual property rights. The firm was listed on the National Law Journal’s “Midsize Hot List” in 2011 and 2012, and has been listed by IP Today since 2008 as a top U.S. trademark firm and a top patent firm.