JUVE Comment

In just a few years, the German IP practice of this international full-service law firm has established itself as a force to be reckoned with for major patent battles. The team around Tobias Hessel and Stefan Richter continues to cement its formidable presence in SEP litigation. The practice successfully built on its core relationship with Huawei, representing the client in major disputes against HMD and HP. The team continues to be highly active for a growing roster of SEP clients, representing licensors in the Access Advance pool, including Huawei, Philips, and ETRI against Meta, and defending new clients such as Xiaomi against Malikie and Honor against Siemens. The team’s good reputation in mobile communications cases increasingly attracts new clients in other hi-tech fields, thus broadening the range of expertise.

Most of the new disputes are being filed simultaneously with parallel claims before national courts and the UPC, which substantially increased the footprint of Clifford Chance at the European court. This is the case, for example, in many proceedings for Huawei as well as for Xiaomi and TP-Link. Other cases such as those for BF exaQC/ParTec and Troy Chemicals are playing out entirely at the UPC.

Clifford Chance already maintains a strong foothold with original pharmaceutical manufacturers through its regulatory team. Currently, a team led by global co-head of IP Claudia Milbradt acts for Japanese Towa Pharmaceutical in a dispute with Accord over dabigatran. As the pharmaceutical sector is now increasingly recognising the UPC as an attractive venue for litigation, the strong relationships that Clifford Chance maintains with innovators through its regulatory practice offer great potential for expanding this area of litigation. This is exemplified by its work for Pfizer, a long-term client of the firm, who is banking on the team in two UPC proceedings: a dispute against Promosome regarding mRNA technology, which was followed by new instructions against Enanta and Arbutus.

Strengths

Litigation over mobile communications and life sciences patents.

Recommended individuals

Tobias Hessel (“expert in patent litigation”, competitor), Stefan Richter (“very good”, client about both; “extremely persuasive, an outstanding team player and a shrewd legal mind”, competitor)

Team

13 lawyers

Clients

Litigation: Huawei against HMD Global over mobile communications; Huawei, ETRI, and Philips (as Access Advance licensors) against Meta over HEVC patents; Huawei against MediaTek over mobile communications (settled 2025); Huawei against HP over Wi-Fi 6 patents (settled 2025); Xiaomi against Malikie over mobile communications; Honor Device against Siemens over mobile communications; Novacloud Licensing against Meta over cloud computing; DJI against Irdeto over drone technology; TP-Link against Atlas Global over Wi-Fi 6 patents; TOWA Pharmaceutical against Accord Healthcare over embolism and stroke medication dabigatran; Tata Steel against ArcelorMittal over steel products for the auto industry; MFCI against 3V SIGMA over sunscreen components; Troy Chemical against AdvanSix over chemical compounds (settled 2025).