JUVE Comment

Originally focused more on advising than litigating for its industrial clients, the patent practice has undergone an impressive change of course through a massive investment in lateral hires. The arrival in 2025 and quick integration of experienced litigation partners Stephan Dorn and Constantin Kurtz has catapulted the German team into the highly visible SEP and UPC litigation market. Dorn brought established contacts to Hisense from Freshfields and continued to represent the Asian implementer in numerous SEP disputes with members of the Access Advanced pool concerning HEVC technology. Although CMS is not advising Hisense exclusively, new instructions followed shortly after, including UPC litigation.

Kurtz, meanwhile, has demonstrated a broad impact by bringing a diverse mix of litigation work. This includes representing Infineon in a semiconductor dispute, Rotho Blaas in a case over construction technology, and handling a major case for distributors of Aiko products in a now-settled solar panel dispute. Through Infineon and Fischerwerke, he brought with him established contacts from his previous firm, Klaka, which are a good fit for CMS, given the firm’s already-strong ties to technology-driven companies in southern Germany.

At the same time, Kurtz also has established contacts to Asian implementers such as Oppo and Xiaomi. The work of both new partners for Asian implementers, embedded in the international CMS network with established patent teams in Amsterdam and London and its own presence in China, prepares the ground for the firm’s declared goal of catching up with the German and European market leaders. To achieve this, the firm will now have to bring stability to its pan-European team and show that its Asian clients regularly rely on it for UPC cases. Long-term, CMS will also need to strengthen its presence in pharma and biotech, which is currently its biggest weakness. In the medical device industry, by contrast, the German team was already very strongly represented even before last year’s new hires.

Strengths

Advice and litigation for medical product manufacturers. SEP and FRAND litigation for Asian implementers

Recommended individuals

Stephan Dorn (“very strong in complex tech issues”, competitor), Constantin Kurtz (“shrewd mind, thinks deeply about every detail of a case”, competitor)

Team

17 lawyers

Clients

Litigation: Hisense against Access Advanced pool members over HEVC video coding (settled 2025); Oppo against KPN over 5G patents; Memodo and other customers of Aiko Solar against Maxeon over solar modules (settled 2026); Infineon against Innoscience over GaN semiconductors; Rotho Blaas against Simpson Strong-Tie over timber construction connectors; Shenzhen Mindray against Shenzhen Comen over respiratory machine valves; ball-b against Unitechnics over bait boxes for pest control; frequent litigation for Fischerwerke.