JUVE Comment

This Munich IP law firm has been an undisputed market leader in patent litigation conducted by patent attorneys for many years. It is one of the few litigation law firms in Germany that handles proceedings concerning pharmaceutical/biotech and mobile communication patents at the same level. This is backed up by a renowned team of partners. While pharmaceutical experts Hans-Ulrich Dörries, Elisabeth Greiner and Sandra Pohlman represent both pharma innovators and generic drug manufacturers, David Molnia and Dominik Ho enjoy an excellent reputation for representing manufacturers and NPEs in SEP proceedings.

Once again, the team was called in by well-known clients such as Pfizer and InterDigital for technical support in complex disputes. The patent attorneys cooperate closely with external lawyers in infringement proceedings and regularly represent clients in parallel nullity actions and oppositions, for example Amgen and Nokia. In addition, df-mp maintains a filing practice across a broad technological spectrum, which is also called on by well-known companies such as Siemens Energy, Krones and Caterpillar.

The firm continuously invests in team development. For example, it strengthened its expertise in mobile communications with patent attorney Alexandre Hoffmann, who joined as a new partner from Finnegan Henderson. Df-mp also appointed another partner from its own ranks in the field of life sciences.

European set-up

The firm is frequently active in international patent disputes and EPO oppositions for clients in mobile communications and life sciences, such as InterDigital and Sonos or Pfizer and Zentiva. There are only a few patent attorney teams in Europe that are so present in high-end litigation in both technical fields. As a result, the patent attorneys have extensive experience in cross-border cases. It is therefore not surprising that df-mp is active in two large-scale UPC litigation series for Amgen and Nokia. Although the firm boasts numerous distinguished litigation specialists among the partners who could conduct UPC cases alone without external lawyers, as well as some dual-qualified partners like Sandra Pohlman and Dominik Ho, the patent attorneys work closely with lawyers at the UPC and national courts. Their extensive litigation experience, team strength and close contacts to strong litigation law firms such as Arnold Ruess mean that df-mp is well positioned to play a major role at the UPC.

Strengths

Litigation concerning pharma and mobile telecommunications patents.

Recommended individuals

Hans-Ulrich Dörries (“extensive expertise, very good litigator”, competitor), Elisabeth Greiner, Alexandre Hoffmann (“very impressive, sound technical expertise, really knows his stuff”, “very good skills for the UPC”, competitors), Dominik Ho, David Molnia (“very objective and reasonable”, competitor; “outstanding, also as a team”, competitor about both), Sandra Pohlman (“quality through and through”, “extremely good”, “very good pharma expertise”, competitors),

Team

42 patent attorneys, 1 lawyer, 2 dual qualified

Partner moves

Alexandre Hoffmann (from Finnegan Henderson Farabow Garrett & Dunner)

Clients

Litigation: Amgen against Sanofi over cholesterol-lowering drug evolocumab/Rapatha/Praluent; Biogen against Neuraxpharma, Hexal and Zentiva over Tecfidera; Datang against Samsung over 4G and 5G; InterDigital against Oppo, Orope and Lenovo over mobile communications; Sonos against Google over patents for the control of sound systems via mobile phone; Pfizer against Moderna over mRNA vaccine patents; Zentiva against Novartis over fingolimod/Gilenya. Oppositions: Amgen against Alexion over Soliris/eculizumab; Fresenius Medical Care against B. Braun Avitum over method and apparatus for monitoring dialysis; Pfizer against Moderna and CureVac over mRNA vaccine patents (all public knowledge).