JUVE Comment

The patent attorneys maintain an excellent position in EPO oppositions and technical proceedings, particularly in biotechnology, pharmaceuticals and electronics. The team was again involved in numerous economically significant EPO oppositions for its regular pharmaceutical and biotechnology clients, including representing Novozymes against DSM in matters concerning enzymes in milk products. The patent attorneys also frequently act for generic drug companies and in straw man oppositions.

The Munich IP firm continues to attract an increasing share of prosecution work from its international client base. The electronics patents team has developed strong networks with Chinese and Korean clients, generating regular new instructions in both prosecution and infringement matters.

European set-up

The firm’s regular clients are increasingly engaging with the UPC whilst maintaining their trust in the litigation-experienced patent attorneys, who often work alongside Taylor Wessing’s UPC-seasoned lawyer team. Current matters include defending Disney against InterDigital in a video compression case, and representing Verifone against Nokia concerning SEPs over 4G/LTE technology, alongside parallel EPO oppositions. Given its experience, size and client base, the firm is well positioned to build greater visibility in UPC proceedings.

Strengths

Mobile communications, pharma and biotech litigation.

Recommended individuals

Bernd Laqua, Rainer Röthinger (“fast and reliable”, competitor), Steffen Schmidt, Hendrik Wichmann (all patent attorneys)

Team

28 patent attorneys

Clients

Litigation: Novozymes against DSM over enzymes in milk products. EPO oppositions: straw man against Merck over cancer drug Keytruda; Polpharma against Biogen over formulation patent for multiple sclerosis drug Tecfidera; Verifone against Nokia over 4G/LTE. Oppositions for Airbus, Colgate-Palmolive, Ericsson, Hyundai, KT&G Corporation, LG, Olympus, Tencent, Xiaomi (public knowledge).