JUVE Comment

There seems to be no stopping this leading German patent litigation practice. HL was involved in virtually all of the central proceedings of the year. For Merck, Gundt’s team won an extremely rare compulsory license for an HIV drug; another team is active for Eli Lilly in the dispute over Alimta. The firm is also extremely visible in mobile communications suits and appears to be the first choice for Apple now: it was an HL team around von Falck and not the other regular Apple advisors who defended against the major attack by Nokia. HL is conducting its first proceedings for another Silicon Valley giant too. The new work for Google is probably its biggest achievement this year. Through close cooperation between the teams in Amsterdam and Düsseldorf, HL demonstrated its European clout in major proceedings for Nikon regarding chip production machines. Thanks to the high utilization rate, the team was able to appoint a partner internally: Dr. Alexander Klicznik also boasts technical know-how. The practice is aggressively hiring young patent attorneys too, to use their technical expertise in litigation and to train them up into litigators. But HL is not planning to develop its own prosecution department.

Strengths

Strong international client base, large European IP practice, cross-border litigation, esp. related to pharmaceuticals and telecoms.

European strategy

HL is one of few firms in Europe represented at all relevant UPC locations and helping to shape the market there. Market visibility only dropped slightly in Paris. The firm thus has an excellent starting position for the UPC. HL is already going the next step and pushing the development of its still small US patents practice, thereby safeguarding connections to important US clients against the growing competition from the leading US IP practices, who are advancing into Europe.

Recommended individuals

Dr. Andreas von Falck, Dr. Martin Fähndrich, Dr. Martin Chakraborty, Christian Stoll, Dr. Steffen Steininger, Dr. Clemens Plassmann, Miriam Gundt.

Team

10 partners, 5 counsel, 20 associates, 1 of counsel

Practice

Litigation and strategic advice to an equal extent, incl. licenses, employee invention law and transactions. Specialties in the pharmaceuticals and healthcare, medical technology, electronics, telecoms, engineering and auto sectors. Trademarks and unfair competition and advice on the interface with antitrust.

Clients

Nikon against Carl Zeiss SMT concerning semiconductor technology; mobile communications: LG against Fipa and Parker Vision; litigation for HTC and Google; Sony against Wilan; Apple against Nokia; Vodafone and ZTE against Intellectual Ventures (both public knowledge); Merck against Shionogi regarding HIV drug; Eli Lilly regarding Alimta; Dainese concerning motorcycle protective clothing; frequent litigation for BlackBerry, Hoffmann-La Roche, Medinol, Qualcomm, Shimano.