JUVE Comment

This IP boutique has once again impressively demonstrated this year why it is one of the market leaders in litigation in Germany. The firm is one of the top addresses for lawsuits involving SEPs and FRAND issues. It represents many patent owners such as Huawei and NPEs such as Innovative Sonic, currently mainly in relation to 4G and 5G patents. But companies such as Asus also regularly rely on the firm in extensive legal disputes on the implementer side. Another highlight is the successful representation of VoiceAge EVS in infringement proceedings against several smartphone manufacturers such as HMD concerning voice coding patents.

In addition, Wildanger is also regularly involved in other trend technologies, for example in the disputes over car batteries for plaintiff MU Ionic until the settlement with CATL. Although the work for pharmaceutical companies such as Viatris and Genentech or medical device companies takes a back seat to the firm’s strong presence in other technologies, even in comparison to other market-leading litigation boutiques such as Arnold Ruess.

The firm’s good connections to independent external patent attorneys continue to guarantee a steady stream of new litigation business in a wide variety of technical fields. The firm is also heavily involved in cases for medium-sized companies and large corporations outside the telecommunications sector, for example for Lavazza in several proceedings concerning coffee machines and for Miele against Bora.

In recent years, the 17 lawyers in Düsseldorf have expanded their team with a group of renowned young litigators in the market, thereby steadily rejuvenating the team with talented individuals. As a result, there is hardly any competitor that, in addition to its senior partners such as Eva Geschke, has established such a large number of litigators such as Soenke Fock, Jasper Meyer zu Riemsloh, Ole Dirks, Alexander Reetz and Alexander Wiese. Most recently, they admitted an up-and-coming lawyer to the partnership and appointed two counsel.

European set-up

The experienced German IP litigation boutique gained early experience in the UPC and is therefore able to competently support its regular clients in their proceedings. The firm is currently conducting many of the series of lawsuits in parallel before both German national courts and the UPC. Its regular clients, such as Atlas Global, Neo Wireless, Innovative Sonic and Dai Nippon Printing, place their full trust in the team. This also applies to the defence of Asus in a campaign by Nokia, in which Wildanger is defending the Chinese mobile phone company both nationally and at the UPC. In addition, the team is involved in the extensive medical technology dispute between Meril Life Sciences and Edward Lifesciences over heart valves in UPC proceedings, alongside Hogan Lovells.

Overall, Wildanger’s strategy of positioning itself as an independent German litigation boutique for UPC proceedings has paid off. Like the Düsseldorf litigation boutiques Arnold Ruess and Kather Augenstein, it continues to impress its regular clients with its own strength without external reinforcement.

Strengths

SEP and FRAND disputes mainly for NPEs in mobile communications. Litigation related to electronics and mechanics.

Recommended individuals

Ole Dirks, Soenke Fock (“highly competent lawyer who dedicates himself to his clients. I thoroughly recommend him”, client), Eva Geschke (“flawless cooperation”, competitor), Alexander Reetz (“pleasant cooperation”, competitor), Jasper Meyer zu Riemsloh ( “highly experienced and skilled litigator and top FRAND expert in Germany”, competitor), Wolf Graf von Schwerin, Peter-Michael Weisse (“dives deep into cases and is great in SEP matters”, competitor), Alexander Wiese (“very reliable and pleasant to work with”, competitor)

Team

17 lawyers

Clients

Litigation: VoiceAge EVS against HMD, Honor and Oppo over speech coding for mobile devices; Huawei against HMD over 4G and 5G; Innovative Sonic against Xiaomi, OPPO, OnePlus over 5G; Atlas Global against TP-Link und Vantiva over wi-fi SEPs and FRAND; Crystal Clear Codec against Apple, Oppo and Xiaomi over speech coding for mobile devices; Asus against Nokia over video coding; Asus against members of Access Advance Pool over HEVC video coding; Dai Nippon Printing against Zapp over OLED-Displays, K.Mizra against Niantic over ID services; Light Guide Optics against CeramOptec and Biolitec over laser treatment for veins; Viatris against Novartis over MS drug fingolimod/Gilenya.