JUVE Comment

This strongly positioned, midsized patent attorney firm has an active litigation practice for regular clients including Brother, Hymmen and Knorr Bremse. Printing technology is a particular specialty. The patent attorneys also work for pharma and medical technology companies, such as Nipro, Terumo and a Novartis subsidiary, in major EPO oppositions, and operate a well-known, midsized filing practice on a broad technical basis.

The firm put a lot of energy into building up its own team of lawyers for patent litigation, which is now consistently active for SMEs from a range of sectors and Japanese clients in infringement proceedings, as well as for Knorr Bremse in employee compensation matters.

In this respect, this approach is definitely a model for patent attorney practices of a similar size, but despite the high utilisation rate the team of lawyers is not yet very visible in the market.

Strengths

Litigation and prosecution with technical expertise in electronics, mechanics and pharma.

European set-up

Prüfer & Partner counts international corporates including Brother, Mitsubishi and Novartis among its clients, but the patent attorneys and lawyers are rarely involved in pan-European proceedings.

Despite this, the firm is busy preparing to represent its regular clients at the UPC. Some of the patent attorneys have a great deal of litigation experience and could litigate before the UPC without lawyers. All the same, Prüfer & Partner follows a mixed approach with its own lawyers which is now well established. The team of three lawyers must grow, however, if it is to handle several UPC suits at the same time.

Recommended individuals

Jürgen Feldmeier (“seems sharp and gives clear and sensible guidance. Excellent advice particularly on matters of restoration”, competitor), Andreas Oser (both patent attorneys)

Team

14 patent attorneys, 3 lawyers

Specialties

Strong focus on patent prosecution, especially in pharma, medical technology, electronics and traditional mechanical engineering. Nullity suits, oppositions and infringement suits with the firm’s own lawyers.

Clients

Litigation: Brother (claimant) against various copycats over printer cartridges; Hymmen (defendant) against Barberan over digital-printing technology; Knorr Bremse in various cases over employee invention remuneration; Nipro (opponent) against Takeda in EPO opposition over two-component injection for cancer treatment; Terumo against Boston Scientific in EPO oppositions over stents and catheter balloons; series of litigation for industrial-oven manufacturer. Prosecution: filing and oppositions for Brother, Dansons, Eos, Esim Chemicals, Hymmen, Knauf, Knorr-Bremse, Microbium, Mitsubishi Electric, Nidek, Nipro, Novartis (including Sandoz-Hexal and LEK), Osram, Trumpf. Patent filing for B. Braun Melsungen, Cateye, Japan Aviation Electronics (some public knowledge).