JUVE Comment

This mixed law firm saw some turbulence in the lead up to the UPC, including some departures of lawyers and numerous arrivals of patent attorneys, and yet Meissner Bolte got off to a surprisingly good start at the UPC. The firm’s patent attorneys are involved in three separate revocation actions at the central division, namely for Bitzer concerning a cold chain monitoring patent, for inventor Manuela Hoffmann concerning a woodworking machine, and Combisafe concerning a post holder. The latter was lately settled. The clients are typical medium-sized businesses, which Meissner Bolte’s mixed litigation team represents at national courts, the EPO, and now also the UPC in a wide array of technical fields.

The firm’s client base also includes SMEs, which it represents in infringement cases. For example, the litigation team filed a lawsuit on behalf of Brita concerning process technology. However, the firm is more active on the defendant side, where it represents Vantiva Technologies against two mobile communications lawsuits filed by the NPE Atlas Global. It also represents Arçelik and Beko in a lawsuit filed by Dolby regarding audio decoding standards. Thus, right from the start Meissner Bolte established a considerable presence in SEP cases, putting it ahead of many of its competitors.

Alongside the staff changes, Meissner Bolte has been working on a permanent cooperation with French firm Santarelli, Italian firm SIB LEX and Dutch firm Arnold & Siedsma in recent years. Under the brand EPLN the four firms were first movers in collaborating on UPC issues compared to some similar national competitors, but their partnership does not go as far as that of German firm Vossius & Partner and Dutch firm Brinkhof, whose lawyers jointly represent clients in UPC courtrooms. Instead, the EPLN firms share knowledge and develop expertise specific to the jurisdiction of each firm, for example in most of Meissner Bolte’s current UPC cases as well as those of SIB Lex (for Dainese) and Arnold & Siedsma (for Hyler, Maars Partitioning Systems and Jozef Nelissen). But for the present, all four firms will continue to act independently.

Strengths

UPC litigation with patent attorneys for innovative midsized companies.

Team

5 lawyers, 42 patent attorneys

Partner moves

Philipp Rastemborski, Florian Henke (both to Eisenführ Speiser in 2023), Joachim Gerstein, Rolf Kröncke, Constantin Günther (all from Gramm Lins & Partner in 2023), Sebastian Helmbrecht, Andreas Rabe, Sebastian Walter and Wolfgang Thalhammer (all from Reitstötter Kinzebach in 2024)

Clients

Brita against AquaShield Europe over process technology; Bitzer Electronics against Carrier Corporation over cold chain monitoring patent; Manuela Hofmann against Essetre Holding over woodworking machine; Vantiva Technologies against Atlas Global over wifi standard; Arçelik and Beko against Dolby over audio decoding standard; Combisafe against Peri over a post holder (settled in 2024).