JUVE Comment

This Düsseldorf IP boutique is one of Germany’s top names for patent litigation by lawyers. The young team features many experienced litigators who competitors praise for their professionalism and good preparation in lawsuits. The team is called on to litigate over pharma and telecoms patents and in complex suits in other industries in equal measure. Names such as Sanofi, Nokia and Kingfa entrust their high-stakes proceedings to Arnold Ruess.

Partners Cordula Schumacher and Arno Riße enjoy a stellar reputation when it comes to the top trends, SEP and FRAND litigation. Following on from the intensive connected cars battle for Nokia against Daimler, which was settled in 2021, the team was once again active for its regular client in one of Germany’s biggest SEP suits against Oppo. Here it looked after the SEPs that had already had actions brought against them by Daimler, while a Bird & Bird team handled the other suits against Oppo.

With litigation for Sanofi/Regeneron against Amgen in the follow-up proceedings for the enforcement of damages, Bernhard Arnold once again demonstrated his excellent pharma client ties. Cordula Schumacher’s work defending Zentiva against Bayer Healthcare’s preliminary injunction regarding cancer drug Nexavar, which was nullified in the first instance, secured the sale of Zentiva’s generic drug in Germany.

Strengths

Litigation concerning pharmaceuticals, medical technology and mobile communications patents, including SEP and FRAND issues.

European set-up

Even without its own offices in other jurisdictions or formal international networks, Arnold Ruess plays a coordinating role in numerous top-level proceedings. As evidenced by the litigation for Nokia in numerous series of suits, it is also hired for international and important cases by clients with experience in litigation themselves, for example large firm Bird & Bird, which has its own offices throughout Europe.

Clients like Alcon and Interdigital not only choose the team to represent it in German proceedings, but also to coordinate simultaneous lawsuits in other countries. The latter, for example, in a suit against Xiaomi and Oppo, which is also pending in India, China and the UK.

The litigation boutique laid the foundations for this coordinator role by establishing its own structures that competitors describe approvingly as “professional”, for instance having an associate licensed as a UK and Thai solicitor. The team also boasts excellent personal contacts among a number of experienced litigators in other jurisdictions.

While all this does not mean that Arnold Ruess follows a fundamentally different approach to competitors from other litigation boutiques in Düsseldorf, the firm has nevertheless demonstrated more consistently in recent years how it successfully adopts a coordinator role in international proceedings.

As far as the UPC goes, this will make the firm interesting to clients who do not wish to hire an internationally integrated large firm but are searching for a litigator team with pan-European experience. In addition, teaming up with renowned patent attorneys with litigation experience is a well-established strategy in the individual technological sectors. Arnold Ruess expressly avoids formal or exclusive ties and has no plans to bring its own patent attorneys on board either.

Recommended individuals

Bernhard Arnold (“always brings surprising and new ideas to the defence team”, competitor), Cordula Schumacher (“in court she gets right down to business because she’s always really well prepared”, “seasoned, pragmatic, good”, competitors), Arno Riße (“highly precise, technically very skilled”, “a super litigator”, competitors)

Team

11 lawyers

Specialties

Exclusive activity in IP with a strong focus on patent litigation, as well as trademarks and unfair competition.

Clients

Litigation: Nokia (claimant) against Oppo over mobile communications including 5G patents; Nokia (defendant) against Thales over damages and licences; InterDigital (claimant) against Xiaomi (settled in 2021) and Oppo over 3G and 4G; Wi-Lan/Polaris (claimant) against Apple over chips (settled); Varta Microbattery (claimant) against GN Audio over button-cell batteries; AutoStore (defendant) against Ocado over robots for automated warehouses; Alcon (claimant) against Hoya over insertion cartridge for contact lenses; Sanofi against Amgen over cholesterol-lowering drug Praluent; Zentiva (defendant) against Eli Lilly over cancer drug pemetrexed; Zentiva (defendant) against Bayer over cancer drug Nexavar; Kingfa (defendant) against BASF over product-by-process claim concerning polymers.