Broadcom and Grünecker initiate litigation against Deutsche Telekom at the UPC
Three subsidiaries of Broadcom have sued Deutsche Telekom at the UPC. The German telecommunications provider has worked closely with VMware for a long time. The companies are now arguing over the extension of a licence agreement.
5 March 2026 by Mathieu Klos
It has been a long time since Germany’s largest telecommunications provider, Deutsche Telekom, hit the headlines due to patent disputes. After less favourable experiences in the 2010s against IPCom and other NPEs, the German company changed its litigation strategy and reorganised its in-house department. Since 2022, former Bardehle Pagenberg partner Alexander Haertel has been responsible for Deutsche Telekom’s fortunes in patent litigation in his role as cluster lead patents.
In 2015, NPE Intellectual Ventures launched a large series of lawsuits against Deutsche Telekom and two other major telecommunications providers. However, this series ended in 2024 without any significant success for the NPE. The German company has otherwise rarely been involved in patent litigation in recent years.
Now Deutsche Telekom is facing three patent infringement claims at the UPC. The claims come from CA Technologies, VMware and Avago. All companies belong to Broadcom.
The chip giant bought CA Technologies in 2018, a company specialising in management software for networks. On 6 February, it sued Deutsche Telekom for infringement of its EP 1 955 151 at the Munich local division. The patent protects an automated deployment and configuration of applications in an automatically controlled distributed computing system (case ID: UPC-CFI-0000515/2026). CA Technologies had already sued Telefonica at the UPC on the basis of the same patent. The dispute has now been settled.
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- Daniel Voß
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- Georg Werner
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- Walter Schober
Newly filed second case
On 16 February, Broadcom subsidiary VMware filed another lawsuit with the Hamburg local division. Four days later a third lawsuit followed at the same division, this time from Avago (case IDs: UPC-CFI-0000627/2026 and UPC-CFI-0000680/2026). Avago acquired Broadcom in 2016, but the joint company trades as Broadcom.
Both lawsuits were only recently made public. Avago’s claim concerns EP 3 115 897, which protects a system for an intelligent load balancer selection in a multi-load balancer environment. VMware’s claim concerns EP 2 140 366, which protects a method and system for managing virtual and real machines.
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- Sabine Klepsch
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- Stefan Schilling
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- Peter Agergaard
The same panel will hear both cases. This includes the two permanent judges of the Hamburg local division, Stefan Schilling and presiding judge Sabine Klepsch. The presiding judge of the Copenhagen local division, Peter Agergaard, will also be on the panel.
VMware’s lawsuit against Deutsche Telekom is particularly notable. The two companies have been working together for many years. In 2024, both firms announced that Deutsche Telekom subsidiary T-Systems and Broadcom had expanded their nearly 20-year collaboration. T-Systems became a VMware Cloud Service Provider Pinnacle tier partner, the highest and most strategic level in the Broadcom Advantage Partner Programme.
Neither Broadcom nor Deutsche Telekom responded to JUVE Patent’s request for comment. It is assumed the lawsuits concern Broadcom’s portfolio and the extension or conclusion of new licence agreements. JUVE Patent is not aware of any cases with national courts but, according to insiders, it is likely that Broadcom initiated further claims with the UPC that are not yet public.
Grünecker again for Broadcom
A team led by Grünecker filed the three lawsuits for the Broadcom subsidiaries. To date, Broadcom has conducted patent litigation in Germany primarily with Grünecker. After filing the new claims, Broadcom became one of the most active claimants at the UPC. Most of the cases are against carmakers including Tesla, Stellantis Group as well as ongoing cases against Renauld, Nissan and Hyundai. Broadcom also sued Telefonica at the UPC. Grünecker lawyers filed most of the cases.
Bird & Bird also has good relations with the chip manufacturer. Relatively recently, CBH lawyers and patent attorneys from Dilg Haeusler Schindelmann won a case for Avago against Renault at Munich Regional Court. Both firms are also active in UPC cases against car manufacturers Nissan and Hyundai.
But it is once again Grünecker partner Bernd Allekotte who leads the campaign against Deutsche Telekom. Lawyers Sebastian Ochs and Björn-Alexander Bockelmann are registered as main representatives in the UPC cases.
However, it was Bosch Jehle (EP 897), Maucher Jenkins (EP 151) and Appleyard Lees (EP 366) which filed the patents.
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- Bernd Allekotte
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- Sebastian Ochs
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- Klaus Haft
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- Alexander Haertel
It is considered certain that Hoyng ROKH Monegier and Munich patent attorney firm Braun-Dullaeus Pannen Emmerling will once again take over the defence of Deutsche Telekom. In the past, both law firms have defended Deutsche Telekom when in patent infringement cases.
Hoyng ROKH partner Klaus Haft is already registered as main representative in the first lawsuit filed by CA Technologies. Client partner for Deutsche Telekom at the law firm is Kay Kasper, who is also likely to be involved.
