Our History

The practices of Cabinet Bonnet-Thirion and Rinuy Santarelli cooperated but operated independently for more than 20 years before merging in 2003 to form Santarelli.
Thanks to the complementarity of their respective practices, Santarelli rapidly became a leader in Intellectual Property both in France and abroad

Commitment to IP

Cabinet Bonnet-Thirion was founded in 1852 by Charles Thirion. Charles Thirion authored numerous papers and works on Intellectual Property, and was active in promoting the signature of the International Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property in 1883. Santarelli is committed to perpetuating Charles Thirion's example.
Rinuy, Santarelli was founded in 1977 by Guy Rinuy and Marc Santarelli.
In 1979, Marc Santarelli became a non-executive partner of Cabinet Bonnet-Thirion. 23 years of fruitful cooperation between the two firms followed.

Complementarity

The client profiles of Cabinet Bonnet-Thirion and Rinuy, Santarelli were highly complementary. Cabinet Bonnet-Thirion was especially oriented towards domestic clients, both large corporations and small enterprises, mainly in the mechanical, optical and electrical fields and the physical sciences.
The clients of Rinuy, Santarelli were principally international and mainly from the fields of chemistry, pharmacy, biotechnology, mechanics and electronics.
In 1996, Cabinet Bonnet-Thirion and Rinuy, Santarelli moved to shared premises on the Avenue de la Grande-Armée in Paris. The merging of the two practices into Santarelli, began in 1998 at the retirement of the senior partner of Cabinet Bonnet-Thirion, Georges Foldès, and was consummated in 2003.

Defining Moments

As from its inception in 2003, Santarelli has continued its development through a number of ways:

• The co-opting of five new partners in 2009, which marks the continuing vitality of the firm,
• The designation of managers with responsibility for individual clients,
• The high percentage of success of our candidates for IP professional examinations, attesting to the high quality of training provided in-house by our senior Intellectual Property attorneys,
• The establishment of a computer system for the management of Intellectual Property rights to the highest standards of the profession, with direct client access via the firm's Internet site.