JUVE Comment

This patent attorney team is one of the most active in patent litigation before the German courts and the EPO. The two name partners Karl-Ulrich Braun-Dullaeus and Friedrich Emmerling enjoy excellent names when it comes to mobile communications and electrical engineering patents.

Recent times have seen them working once again for Deutsche Telekom and Huawei in many SEP suits brought by NPEs. Although both mobile communications companies often work with other patent attorney firms, they always choose BDPE for their high-stakes proceedings. The team’s vast experience in SEPs and FRAND aspects was the reason why Continental selected the team to represent it in the connected cars suits as co-litigant for Daimler.

The firm’s litigation experience is now appreciated beyond mobile communications actions, as highlighted in the global e-cigarette dispute for Philip Morris against BAT. Very close relationships with law firms like Hoyng ROKH Monegier help open the door to such work.

The firm sets itself clearly apart from competing patent attorney firms with its strong focus on patent litigation. Even strong competitors like Maikowski & Ninnemann or Cohausz & Florack opt for far more comprehensive prosecution activity. This difference could soon be a thing of the past, however, as BDPE is currently in a transitional phase and is looking to build up more patent prosecution work. One of its aims is to make itself more attractive to young patent attorneys, who must first gain several years of prosecution experience before they can gain a foothold in litigation. The team lost two young non-equity partners to other firms, appointed a non-equity partner from its own young talent and hired an additional patent attorney. These team changes have not impacted the firm’s technical advisory spectrum.

Strengths

Litigation, mainly over mobile communications patents.

Recommended individuals

Karl-Ulrich Braun-Dullaeus (“Mr. mobile communications. Renders even the most complex technical matters understandable”, competitor), Friedrich Emmerling (“very successful because he really digs down deep into the subject matter”, competitor)

Team

9 patent attorneys

Specialties

Exclusively active in IP with a strong proportion of technical protection rights. More litigation work than prosecution. Also litigation in soft IP.

Clients

Litigation: Continental (as co-defendant of Daimler) against Nokia, Conversant (both settled 2021) and IP Bridge over connected cars patents; Huawei (defendant) against SolarEdge over photovoltaics; Huawei (defendant) against Conversant, IPCom and INVTE over mobile communications; Huawei and Deutsche Telekom (defendants) against Intellectual Ventures over mobile communications; Huawei (defendant) against SolarEdge over solar technology; Philip Morris (defendant) against BAT over e-cigarettes; Trekstor (defendant) against E-Ink over e-reader displays, Thales (claimant) against Giesecke + Devrient over eSim technology. Prosecution: filing and oppositions for Adidas, Conradi + Kaiser, Deutsche Telekom, Hochland, Huawei, Leonardo MW, Systec Group.