Rouse has launched a joint venture with South African specialist IP firm Von Seidels. The joint venture will trade as Rouse Africa, and will be headquartered in Cape Town, with an office in Windhoek handling ARIPO work. Von Seidels already boasts a thriving sub-Saharan Africa practice, with a team of locally-qualified lawyers and patent specialists from Cameroon, Nigeria and Kenya working with clients HONG KONG INDIA from across the world. Rouse Africa will look to build on this by creating a network of offices in further markets in the near future. Rouse Africa will be led by Maura Canavan from Rouse.

Rouse, which has opened offices in Russia and Myanmar in the past two years, has more than 600 staff in 16 offices around the world. “Rouse was founded in London, but it has always been a truly global firm – we opened our first office in China in 1993 and since then we have continually worked to expand our reach and expertise across the world, ” said Nick Redfearn, the firm’s Jakarta-based deputy chief executive. “We’ve been keen to establish a successful presence [in Africa] for some time.”