Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan

Gone are the days when the German patent team of this US firm was seen as the one-man show of star lawyer Marcus Grosch. The firm’s excellent presence in high-profile mobile communications suits has been exploited by partners Johannes Bukow and Jérôme Kommer to raise their market visibility. And, with Jesko Preuß, the next partner generation is already pushing its way into the top tier of German patent litigators. They receive much praise from competitors, especially for their coordination of major proceedings and numerous joint defence groups.

The broadening of the partnership was equally as important as raising the associate headcount, in order to continue the strong track record in big-ticket proceedings. The team demonstrated this in its 2019 work for Qualcomm in the dispute over mobile communications chips against Apple and has continued to do so now on the side of Daimler. In the dispute over connected cars patents, Quinn Emanuel has defended the car company in more than 20 cases so far, not only against Broadcom, but also against Nokia and other members of the important patent pool Avanci. The SEP holders have so far achieved no major wins against Daimler. Another car company has already secured the firm’s services for potential lawsuits.

Most of the cases in which the firm appears are of crucial importance to clients. At the same time as the connected cars suits, Quinn Emanuel is conducting major proceedings for Blackberry, Google, IP Bridge and Netflix involving mobile communications patents. But the team is also active in other technologies: for BASF it handled an economically important dispute over soles for trainers. The firm is in action for Pfizer and Merck when it comes to important drugs. But there is still room for the team to raise its visibility in the life sciences sector.