View From the Top
An interview with Nèstor Corominas, Partner, CURELL SUÑOL
with David Adams, Managing Editor, Top Ranked Legal
Tell me a little about the firm and your place in it, Nèstor. I know it was founded in the 1940s, so you haven’t been there since the beginning…
I’m one of the partners here and the firm which, as you already said, is more than 75 years old. It started in 1946. And it was a family firm until 2008 when the family decided little by little to open up to new partners. It was succession planning really. The founding partner, Mr. Marcel·lí Curell Suñol, and his successors, Mireia and Marcel·lí, wanted the firm to modernise and open up to new partners.
When did you join?
I joined the firm in 2005 and got into the second wave of new partners in 2013. We are now firmly established as an IP boutique comprising 15 lawyers and patent attorneys, four of whom are European pattern Attorneys. We have litigation, trademark, patent and design departments and total about 45 people. This means we are mid-sized for the Spanish market.
Based in Barcelona?
Our headquarters are in Barcelona yes, but we also have small offices in Madrid and Alicante from where we traditionally made all the European filings. Ten or 15 years ago when IT was less developed it made perfect sense, but things are set up so well for e-filings now that we could do it from anywhere. But for historical and client facing reasons we keep the offices and when we have cases in Alicante, for example, before the EUIPO, we can work from there so it’s also really convenient.
Are you a full-service firm?
Yes, we are a full-service IP firm, and we litigate. We litigate before the Spanish courts and in terms of patents, we also lead oppositions and appeals before the European Patent Office and every kind of opposition before the Spanish office. So, we are a one stop firm in terms of IP and exclusively IP. We do not deal with other fields of law.
Do you have a scientific background as well as legal?
Yes that’s what I wanted to say I’m not a lawyer. I’m one of those in the firm who is a partner and European Patent & Trademark Attorney but not a lawyer. My background is in Mechanical engineering. It’s one of the strengths of the firm that we always try to recruit people with experience beyond law school. Scientists and engineers have already worked in the industry or laboratories, and seen the manufacturing processes and the business world.
What did you do before joining the firm?
I was a design engineer at Mercedes. I was responsible for the design of the differential gear of the rear axle of the Vito and the Sprinter. I was in Stuttgart for five years, four of them with Mercedes. So that’s one of the great things about the firm: most of our lawyers and patent attorneys, have both technical and varied language backgrounds. We are all fluent in English and Spanish of course but most of us have at least a third language. French and German in my case myself. We even have Chinese speakers among our lawyers too. We are very internationally oriented.
So, what does your practice focus on?
I’m responsible mainly for electro-mechanical inventions, drafting, prosecution, FTOs, everything all over the world, as well as design patent applications. I mainly focus in two fields – the Spanish and the European and try to get the best possible scope of protection for my clients.
Unlike most other firms in Spain, we do all the design work in the patent department instead of the trademark department. It’s a more US orientated approach to work but also stems from historic reasons because our founding partner was an engineer too. He put a lot of value in the engineering work and the point of view of engineers when analysing drawings. In trying to get the best global protection we often deal with people who are not engineers, so this technical approach is really helpful.
Are your clients mainly Spanish or international?
I would say about 50/50. We also have a good portfolio of foreign clients coming from overseas IP firms from all over the world. We are very well known in Europe. Our founding partner was keen on travelling and attended congresses as far back as the 60s which provided us with a wide portfolio of foreign clients. In terms of national clients, traditionally they were the inventors, but as we have grown, so too have our clients. I think they are about 80% SMEs now. Their sophistication and need for global protection have also increased. I guess 15 years ago many would not have bothered filing a European patent, now it’s a must. We protect our clients’ rights globally through our vast network of associates all over the world. We also attend all the most relevant IP congresses – INTA, AIPPI, FICPI, ECTA, MARQUES and so on.
IS your network an informal or formal network? Or a best friends alliance?
We are an independent firm with reliable professional connections and good relationships. Being able to select the best representation for any given situation works out best for us and our clients.
Where are the growth areas for you in terms of sectors or FDI?
We are seeing strong growth in the Asian and US markets. In China, we are seeing growth of 15% a year in term of in terms of European patent applications in recent years. As for industry sectors in the last 10 years, telecoms, and biotech for sure.
Our place in the market has changed over the last 10 years or so. Maybe a decade ago, a mid-sized Spanish IP boutique would not have been trusted to prosecute a European patent or trademark by a Chinese, Japanese or US firm or client. They would have probably sought out a British, German or French IP firm. Now they are much more comfortable with the idea that there are good local IP firms in Spain offering full services of the highest quality.
Did Brexit have much of an impact on your practice?
Not that much. We really haven’t noticed that we are getting any less work. Maybe there’s even more work because clients must now protect in the UK as well as the European level due to the importance of the UK as a market. On the flip side, many UK firms have opened offices in Europe to be able to practise before the European Community, but these developments haven’t had a very large impact on us.
If you hadn’t joined an IP boutique, what would you have done? Would you have stayed as an engineer?
I guess so. It was a weird situation because after I left university I worked as a translator. I learned German at university and when I was done, I did some small translating work, but I was following my engineering path too in Germany. When the offer came to join the firm, I felt it was the right time to move back to Spain. It was such an interesting direction for me. If I hadn’t accepted, I guess I would still be in industry. I don’t know if it’s different in the UK but in Spain the IP world is very unknown, I mean it’s not that easy to start working for an IP firm because nobody knows about it or tells you about it. There’s little patent and trademark culture in Spain in terms of university teaching. During my engineering career and my university times, nobody told me about patents. I mean we had to design things, but nobody explained to me what patents were.
What are the best things about living and working in Barcelona?
There’s so much going on here nowadays, and of course, nice weather and nice food. It’s a great city to work and live in. Although we are in the South of Europe, Barcelona is an Industrial area of Spain. So, there’s a lot of work and many opportunities. It’s a great place to raise a family too. I live a little outside the city and the commuting is easy. Especially with our hybrid working model.
Is the hybrid model applicable to everyone? Support staff too?
Yes. We all go to the office between two or three times a week. How often and for how long depends on the workflow and the team structure. But yes, it’s available to everyone. We invested heavily in the IT infrastructure to make things work. We could see the pandemic coming and knew things would be tricky, so we acted quickly bought all the computers and IT infrastructure we needed and had things up and running before everything was locked down. We tested the systems by sending about 20% of the staff home and then suddenly everyone had to go home. But we were well prepared.
Did you notice any loss in productivity?
No problems. We have been operating the hybrid system for a couple of years now. It’s the new normal for us. We have regular meetings with the staff on Teams or on site. Most people like to go to the office, but at the same time they also benefit from private life control from working from home. Our work is deadline driven and benefits from a high level of technology. So, the work gets done regardless of where it gets done.
And in in terms of your free time, what do you like to get up to?
I’m a family man and love spending time with them. I like jogging, hiking and bike riding now. When I was younger football was my thing. I would love to play again but the age prevents that these days.
I guess you’ll just have to watch your kids play now?
No, my kids, surprisingly, are not football players. My oldest kid is really into kayaking. He started football as a kid but didn’t really like it and went over to Kayaking. The middle one isn’t really into sport. He’s an artist. He wants to become an architect and after two years of football, he said I want to go and learn how to how to design and to draw. He’s 16 now and has known what he wanted since he was ten. Amazing! The girl she is a dancer.