Răzvan Dincă

Career

Răzvan Dincă is the founding partner of Dincă & Speciac and Dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Bucharest. He has spent over two decades building a practice in intellectual property and civil law that is, by any measure, among the most recognised in Romania. What makes his profile unusual is not the volume of accolades but the fact that his academic career and his legal practice have developed simultaneously and at equal depth, each reinforcing the other in ways that are genuinely rare in the profession.

Chambers Europe describes him as "brilliant." IAM Patent 1000 has listed him as a recommended expert continuously since 2013. The International Law Office awarded him Individual Client Choice Winner for Intellectual Property in Romania in 2011. Clients describe him as "a visionary lawyer who understands instantly the core of the case" and as someone who is "available and down-to-earth" despite his standing. One long-standing client put it simply: "a brilliant lawyer who is careful to understand and adapt to the needs of the client, always looking for practical solutions." These are not descriptions of a remote academic figure. They are descriptions of someone who shows up, engages with the problem at hand, and gets results.

Răzvan Dincă's formation was international from the start. He holds dual law degrees from the University of Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne and the Faculty of Law of the University of Bucharest, both completed in 1999. He followed this with a Master in Private Law from Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne, then a Master in Comparative and International Intellectual Property Law at the University of Turin in partnership with the WIPO Worldwide Academy, graduating cum laude and as class head. His doctoral degree was awarded summa cum laude by the Faculty of Law of the University of Bucharest in 2008.

This is not a standard CV. Training across three of Europe's serious legal traditions, with a dedicated IP overlay from the world's leading IP institution, gives Răzvan a comparative perspective that most practitioners never develop. It means he approaches problems with reference to underlying doctrine, not just precedent, and can identify arguments and strategies that a narrower formation would not produce.

His academic career followed a steady upward path at the University of Bucharest: lecturer, then Associate Professor from 2012, full Professor from 2016, Vice Dean from 2012 to 2020, and Dean from 2020 to the present. The Faculty of Law at the University of Bucharest is Romania's most prestigious law school, and leading it while simultaneously running an active contentious practice is an unusual combination. It is also a demanding one, and the fact that Răzvan has sustained both at a high level for over a decade says something about how he works.

His teaching covers contract law and intellectual property. His reach beyond Bucharest includes invited professorships at the University of Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne, the University of Poitiers, and the University of Dubrovnik. He is Academic Director of the Legal French, Romanian College of European Studies, and has served as a tutor in intellectual property at Romania's National Institute of Magistracy. That last role is worth noting: Răzvan has directly trained many of the judges who now hear the IP cases in which he appears as counsel.

His institutional roles reflect consistent engagement with IP policy at the European and international level. He has served as an EU Senior Expert in Intellectual Property and as Romania's National Coordinator for intellectual property within the Head of Legislation Experts Group. At the WIPO Worldwide Academy, he has served as Head Reviewer of the Biotechnology and Intellectual Property Advanced Course. He coordinates the intellectual property section of the Romanian Private Law Review and contributed for years as Romania's exclusive correspondent to the European Copyright Reporter published by Kluwer Law International.

Răzvan Dincă has published more than 100 studies and 10 books across three continents. His most recent major scholarly engagement was serving as Rapporteur Général at the Association Henri Capitant's Korean Days at Seoul National University, where his general report on Artificial Intelligence and Copyright Law drew on national reports from 29 jurisdictions across five continents. This is the kind of commission that goes to someone trusted to synthesise a genuinely complex and contested body of law with authority. It also signals where his academic attention is currently directed: at the boundary between copyright doctrine and AI-generated content, which is as contested a question in IP law as currently exists anywhere.

Turning to his legal practice: Răzvan Dincă founded Dincă & Speciac in 2012 together with a team that had previously built international-level expertise within one of Romania's most reputable IP groups. The firm has grown to become Romania's leading IP boutique by most serious measures, ranking Tier 1 with Chambers Europe, IAM Patent 1000, World Trademark Review 1000, and IP STARS across patent litigation, patent prosecution, trademark enforcement, and trademark strategy.

His own practice focuses on patent litigation, trademark disputes, copyright, unfair competition, and geographical indications. He represents clients both as claimants and defendants before Romanian civil courts, OSIM, EUIPO, and the EPO, and he also sits as an Arbitrator at the International Court of Arbitration of the Romanian Chamber of Commerce.

Patent work has been a consistent strength. Răzvan Dincă has acted for major international pharmaceutical manufacturers in infringement proceedings before Romanian courts, coordinating domestic litigation strategy with parallel EPO opposition proceedings. Life sciences patent work of this kind requires the ability to operate fluently across Romanian civil procedure, EPO practice, and underlying patent doctrine simultaneously. It also requires an understanding of the commercial context: the stakes in pharmaceutical patent disputes, whether involving branded manufacturers defending market exclusivity or generic challengers contesting validity, are substantial, and the strategic decisions made early in proceedings often determine the outcome.

In trademark law, Răzvan has handled some of Romania's most significant disputes. He has acted for the holder of Romania's largest trademark and design portfolio in national and EUIPO proceedings, covering enforcement, opposition, and portfolio strategy. He acted as counsel in the Rapid 1923 SA litigation, a case that required a reconstruction of over a century of corporate history, tracing the succession of entities involved in administering the Rapid football club and the legal consequences for IP rights. The case turned on questions of civil law and IP succession that were genuinely novel on the Romanian market, and the outcome secured full recognition of the client's senior rights over the "Rapid" marks.

His copyright practice has addressed infringement disputes for major media groups, authorship and economic rights claims in software litigation, and database rights. Increasingly, his academic work and his contentious practice are converging around questions of copyright and artificial intelligence, where Romanian courts, like courts across the EU, are being asked to address questions for which existing doctrine provides only partial guidance.

Beyond IP, Răzvan Dincă advises on civil and commercial litigation involving contract disputes, professional liability, and regulatory matters. His civil law background, which includes co-directing a long-running research project comparing the Romanian Civil Code with the reform of the French Civil Code in the field of obligations, means his commercial litigation practice is grounded in the same doctrinal depth as his IP work.

The consistent thread across everything Răzvan Dincă does, in the courtroom, in arbitration, and in academic writing, is an approach to legal problems that starts from principle. He is not primarily a proceduralist, though he is a highly effective one. He is someone who works out what the law should say, constructs the argument for that position with care, and then deploys it with the confidence of someone who has tested it intellectually before bringing it to court. Clients note that he identifies the core of a problem quickly and advises clearly, without obscuring uncertainty behind jargon or hedging every position into uselessness.

Recognition across the major directories has been consistent and sustained.

IAM Patent 1000 has listed him as a Recommended Individual since 2013, and Dincă & Speciac is the only Romanian firm with three practitioners simultaneously holding Highly Recommended status in those rankings. World Trademark Review 1000 has recognised Răzvan as a Recommended Individual for trademark work. IP STARS places the firm at Tier 1 for patent litigation and prosecution.

He was awarded the Ordre des Palmes Académiques by the Government of France, conferred by the French Ambassador to Romania, in recognition of his contribution to legal scholarship and to academic ties between Romania and France. It is an unusual distinction for a practicing lawyer, and it reflects the fact that Răzvan Dincă is taken seriously in both worlds.

For clients with IP matters in Romania, whether those matters involve pharmaceutical patent disputes, trademark enforcement at the national or European level, copyright litigation, or the growing range of questions at the intersection of IP and emerging technology, Răzvan Dincă is a consistent first call. His combination of doctrinal authority, courtroom experience, and sustained engagement with the development of IP law across Europe is not something that is easily replicated.