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. Thanks to the expertise of its partners, this medium-sized firm operates on a par with international competitors such as Carpmaels & Ransford and Hoffmann Eitle in this sector.

Recently, the pharmaceuticals and biotech team has been involved in key disputes at national level, as well as at the UPC, working alongside external lawyers. For example, Georg Schnappauf has acted before these courts on behalf of BioNTech in all major disputes concerning mRNA against Moderna, GSK, and Promosome. These battles also involve intensive EPO opposition proceedings. The equally intensive work for Sanofi in the dispute with Amgen recently came to an end following a settlement, but Sanofi instructed the team with new cases. The fact that ZSP’s patent attorneys are also involved in numerous other EPO proceedings concerning new cancer therapies is demonstrated, for example, by the instruction from Shionogi.

In other technical areas such as mechanics, the team is more modest in size. However, in the past the firm saw dynamic growth through lateral hires. This is now paying off in increased litigation activity beyond the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors, such as in the case of WobbleWorks over 3D pens. Nevertheless, in order to operate with greater visibility in technical fields such as medical technology, mechanical engineering or electronics, the firm should consider further lateral hires or a merger with another patent attorney firm. This could also give it greater clout for more UPC proceedings. ZSP has already gained valuable experience at the European court representing Sanofi.

Strengths

Civil court and EPO litgation regarding pharma and biotech patents.

Recommended individuals

Georg Schnappauf, Jörk Zwicker (“honest, direct, and a good communicator in a way that is constructive and that makes working with him enjoyable”, client; both patent attorneys)

Team

29 patent attorneys

Clients

Litigation: BioNTech against Moderna over mRNA vaccines; Sanofi/Regeneron against Amgen over cholesterol-lowering drug evolocumab/Rapatha/Praluent (settled 2026); Betapharm against Millennium Pharma and Cilag over anti-cancer drug bortezomib/Velcade; WobbleWorks against Chinese competitors over 3D pens. EPO oppositions: Sanofi against Cytune Pharma over cancer therapy; BioNTech against GSK and Promosome over mRNA vaccines; Sigma-Aldrich against Bayer, BASF and others over CRISPR/Cas9; Shionogi against various competitors over antibody for cancer therapy (all public knowledge).