JUVE Comment

Alongside renowned pure law firms, this litigation-experienced patent attorney boutique has developed its active representative role in UPC proceedings. Clients such as HP, Lenovo, Motorola, Oppo, Phoenix Contact and Xiaomi trust the team with their UPC cases. This client list also demonstrates the team’s proven expertise in mobile communications and shows that numerous regular clients also retain the firm for UPC cases. Although the patent attorneys do not act as lead main representatives in proceedings and are therefore not yet as visible as their regular sparring partners in law firms, Maikowski & Ninnemann is still one of the few patent attorney litigation boutiques whose business has already largely switched to UPC proceedings.

The team around Gunnar Baumgärtel is clearly positioned on the side of implementers and is therefore mainly involved in defence. The team is currently working primarily with Freshfields and Clifford Chance. However, with Freshfields the team is also representing Lenovo/Motorola in two active lawsuits against Asus. The team also represented Oppo against Panasonic with Clifford Chance. Cooperation with law firms that have set up their own patent attorney teams, for example Hogan Lovells, now seems less likely with the launch of the UPC.

Since Maikowski & Ninnemann has no international setup, clients often opting to file suit at the German local divisions has given the team a head start over patent attorney firms from other countries. With its numerous patent attorneys from different generations who are experienced in litigation, the firm is well positioned to manage the short UPC deadlines.

Strengths

Litigation related to mobile communications, mostly for implementers.

Team

17 patent attorneys

Clients

Xiaomi and Oppo against Panasonic over mobile communications; Xiaomi against Nera over mobile communications; HP against Nokia over video coding; HP against Dolby over video coding; Motorola and Lenovo against Headwater Research over mobile communications; Motorola and Lenovo against Asus over mobile communications; Phoenix Contact against ILME over electrical controller.