John Allen (1970-2014)

It is with great sadness that the IPKat has learned of the untimely death of a popular member of the intellectual property community, NautaDutilh partner John Allen.  The firm's website this morning states thus:

"We were shocked to learn that our much-loved colleague John Allen, his wife Sandra and their sons Christopher, Julian and Ian were on board the Malaysia Airlines flight on route to Kuala Lumpur that crashed in the Ukraine on July 17. Our thoughts are with John’s family and his friends in and outside the office.

John joined our firm in 1996 and became a partner in 2007. He was very important in building the intellectual property practice group, where his expertise and skills in patent litigation and technology- related disputes were highly praised by his clients and peers. ... He was a person with many talents, and in addition to his professional contribution to our firm he generously shared his musical and athletic abilities with us ...".

John spent some 18 years at NautaDutilh, during the course of which this Kat had the pleasure of getting to know him and almost persuaded him to write an article for JIPLP. In a world in which we all depend on the support, the encouragement and the constructive contributions of others for our own well-being, each of us is that little bit diminished by the loss of any one of us -- and we are all diminished by the loss of John, and of those contributions to life and to law that he is now never to make.

The IPKat, Merpel and the whole of the blog team offer their condolences to John's family, friends and colleagues. May we live to see years of peace in which we are spared all further tragedy and sorrow.