JUVE Comment

This purely patent attorney firm boasts an outstanding reputation for its expertise in prosecution, litigation and EPO oppositions relating to biotech and pharmaceutical patents. Clients such as BioNTech and Sanofi entrust the firm with their most critical proceedings, both in EPO oppositions and at the UPC. The team has also been able to bring its considerable experience with SPCs into play. Thanks to the expertise of its partners, this medium-sized firm operates on a par with international competitors such as Carpmaels and Hoffmann Eitle in this sector. One client praises name partner Jörk Zwicker as “incredibly detail-oriented with a complete mastery of the relevant law”.

In other technical areas such as mechanics, the team is more modest in size. However, the firm is seeing dynamic growth in its medical technology client base. To build this area sustainably, the team should consider expanding to include electrical engineering expertise.

European set-up

The firm’s representation of Sanofi against Amgen in a dispute concerning the cholesterol-lowering drugs Repatha and Praluent demonstrates that long-standing client Sanofi selects the team for its most economically significant proceedings and for its inaugural UPC cases. Moreover, it shows that this medium-sized firm is holding its own in highly competitive international litigation, collaborating with Carpmaels and Hoffmann Eitle on this work.

Concurrently, the team is involved in UPC proceedings on behalf of regular client BioNTech against Promosome concerning mRNA technology, which underpins BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine Comirnaty. This involvement places the medium-sized firm among the select few to have gained experience in several high-profile proceedings in this sector during the UPC’s early stages, positioning it excellently to represent clients in future cases.

Strengths

Litigation regarding pharma and biotech patents.

Recommended individuals

Georg Schnappauf, Jörk Zwicker (“doesn’t let his ego get in the way of success, result-oriented”, client; both patent attorneys)

Team

27 patent attorneys

Clients

Litigation: BioNTech against CureVac and Moderna over COVID-19 vaccines; Sanofi/Regeneron against Amgen over cholesterol-lowering drug evolocumab/Rapatha/Praluent. EPO oppositions: Sigma-Aldrich against Bayer, BASF and others over CRISPR/Cas9; BioNTech against CureVac over mRNA patents (all public knowledge).