Ones to Watch in German patent litigation 2023

JUVE Patent’s Ones to Watch Germany 2023

• Stephan Dorn, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer (Düsseldorf)
• Dania Esser, Hogan Lovells (Düsseldorf)
• Lucas Fischer, Samson & Partner (Munich)
• Peter Reckenthäler, Cohausz & Florack (Düsseldorf)
• André Sabellek, Rospatt Osten Pross (Düsseldorf)

Stephan Dorn: Specialist for standards

Freshfields’ up-and-coming SEP specialist conducts his first case at the UPC

Stephan Dorn

For a long time, the future of the UPC was up in the air. But now the new court system has arrived, bringing new opportunities for ambitious lawyers. One of these is rising star Stephan Dorn, a lawyer who knows quite a bit about stars. He was already enthusiastic about astronomy at school. However, after leaving school he did not decide to study astronomy and physics, instead opting to sharpen his analytical thinking first by studying law.

Dorn studied in Bonn, where he met his doctoral thesis supervisor Matthias Leistner. He recommended SEP litigation as a topic for Dorn’s doctorate, which went on to shape the career of the young lawyer in the long term.

Since then, Stephan Dorn has focused enthusiastically on standardisation. This makes the 44-year-old one of the first to grapple with the still-young topic of SEP litigation from the start of his career.

The first stop on his professional journey was Hogan Lovells in Düsseldorf. One of the first decisions he was involved in – as part of Miriam Gundt’s team – was in the compulsory licensing proceedings concerning an AIDS drug.

After this, Dorn chiefly worked on suits relating to computer and software patents. During an intensive dispute for Nikon, he also got to know the Düsseldorf team of Freshfields. He ultimately moved to the patent group on the other side of the Rhine that was being set up at the time at Freshfields.

Since then, Dorn has discovered his passion for training younger colleagues in the complex and technical field of standards. As such he has played an important role in helping to grow the team. The UPC now offers new opportunities for the ambitious lawyer. With Huawei’s lawsuits against his client Netgear being dismissed or postponed by Düsseldorf Regional Court, Huawei is launching its attack before the UPC.

Read JUVE Patent’s analysis of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in the JUVE Patent Germany ranking 2023

Dania Esser: FRAND from passion

The Hogan Lovells lawyer mainly litigates for mobile phone implementers, but her first UPC case was all about stadium advertising

Dania Esser

Dania Esser has something that others don’t yet have: her first win at the Unified Patent Court. The 35-year-old Düsseldorf lawyer is a member of a large team assembled from three firms and headed by Hogan Lovells partner Henrik Lehment, with whom Esser works closely together. The team fought off a preliminary injunction against Supponor at the Helsinki Local Division.

The provider of state-of-the-art technology for perimeter advertising in football stadiums has battled with AIM Sport over this technology for years. AIM Sport filed a suit with the UPC but suffered defeat at the end of September. Esser was not in the courtroom in Helsinki that day, but she followed the trial via livestream from her desk at home. She did, however, provide what were perhaps the key arguments for Supponor’s defence on the matter of the court’s jurisdiction. In the end, the local division dismissed AIM Sport’s claim stating that the withdrawal of the opt-out for the patent in suit was invalid.

Digital overlay technology is technically similar to Esser’s actual specialty but has little to do with mobile communications patents. Dania Esser is normally in action in large pan-European mobile communications proceedings. Nokia against Oppo is her best-known case at present. Hogan Lovells is defending the Chinese mobile devices manufacturer against the actions filed by Nokia in various European countries. Esser is coordinating these proceedings internationally – also with other firms – and is working on Oppo’s FRAND strategy. This activity recently earned her much praise from other lawyers and patent attorneys, who describe her as one of the best up-and-coming lawyers at Hogan Lovells. The firm promoted Dania Esser to counsel at the beginning of 2023.

Dania Esser says that her professional passion lies in work on the interface between antitrust and patent law. However, she is also active in other technical areas, for instance in the work for Flexicare involving respiratory masks, or for Rhodia over a special chemical for exhaust gas catalytic converters. Her interest in patent law came about since it is more hands-on than other fields of law, and very litigation-heavy.

Esser started her career ten years ago as a trainee lawyer at Hogan Lovells and has not worked for any other firm. Vodafone is one of her oldest clients. The dispute between the mobile communications provider and NPE Intellectual Ventures over LTE patents is still simmering away, albeit on a much lower heat than today’s biggest mobile communications battle between Oppo and Nokia. Here, Esser continues to play a central role.

Read JUVE Patent’s analysis of Hogan Lovells in the JUVE Patent Germany ranking 2023

Lucas Fischer: He started out above the clouds

As a partner at Samson & Partner, the patent attorney feels most at home in practical IT cases

Lucas Fischer

Since completing his studies, Lucas Fischer has come back down to earth again. The patent attorney studied atmospheric physics, but now specialises in mobile communications and semiconductor patents. As part of his degree, he conducted research up to ten and 120 kilometres above the Earth. Atmospheric physics deals with the processes in our atmosphere, including the dynamics of air movement, radiative transfer and cloud physics. Broadly speaking, that is everything that has to do with weather and climate forecasts. Mobile communications are much closer to Earth, even if the mobile signals are usually sent around the globe via satellites.

Lucas Fischer’s firm Samson & Partner is renowned for its work in mobile communications disputes. The patent attorneys are among the who’s who of German firms when it comes to technical support in such cases. Nokia, Apple and Intel all feature on the regular client list. Lucas Fischer is the latest of three partner appointments: Samson & Partner is gearing up for the generational change that will occur when its founding partners retire. A competitor describes him as a “great patent attorney with a very clear mind”.

Fischer advised regular client Apple in a patent nullity suit against Qualcomm. The team succeeded in nullifying one of the chip manufacturer’s patents at the Federal Patent Court. Fischer is working for Facebook in the dispute with Voxer over streaming technology and for VW against Ariga in a nullity claim over a patent for semiconductors. He and other partners are also assisting Intel in litigation and prosecution. Just litigating is not an option for the young patent attorney.

Fischer believes that both areas of patent attorney work are essential if he wants to keep learning from proceedings for the registration of new technologies. “Atmospheric physics has a lot to do with chaos theory and the abstract visualisation of complex weather relationships. This helps me to sort through all the information and get to the heart of the complex mobile communications and semiconductor cases today”, says the 38-year-old. His degree was very programming-heavy and theoretical. The former helps him with his mobile communications patents today, the latter guided him to the profession of patent attorney, because after studying Fischer wanted his work to involve more practical elements and chose this hands-on career.

Fischer’s most prominent case at the moment – concerning new assault rifles for the German army – certainly involves practical elements. The case caused quite a stir in Germany because the courts had overturned the awarding of the contract for a new rifle for the German armed forces multiple times. At the core of the case is the accusation that manufacturer Haenel is infringing a Heckler & Koch patent. Heckler & Koch has supplied the German armed forces with rifles for many years and is a long-standing client of Fischer and name partner Friedrich von Samson-Himmelstjerna. The patent infringement argument was successful, and Heckler & Koch once again came out on top in the lucrative contract.

Read JUVE Patent’s analysis of Samson & Partner in the JUVE Patent Germany ranking 2023

Peter Reckenthäler: Laser physicist with a love of language

Cohausz & Florack has found a talented new team member with a passion for litigation

Peter Reckenthäler

The nature of light, lasers, electron guns – these are the topics that attracted Peter Reckenthäler to physics early on. He investigated laser-electron guns as part of a small research group and was able to contribute many ideas of his own. After completing his doctorate under his supervisor Ferenc Krausz, a patent attorney friend encouraged Reckenthäler to train at Bardehle Pagenberg.

In Joachim Mader’s team, Reckenthäler became interested in combining his curiosity about technology with his aptitude for language by formulating precise patent claims. He was particularly keen to then defend these patents in litigation.

After completing his training, Reckenthäler moved to Hoffmann Eitle, initially to its Munich office. But after his years as a doctoral student and trainee in Munich, he wanted to return to western Germany with his family.

Following stints at some smaller law firms, the now 43-year-old decided to join Cohausz & Florack. The Düsseldorf-based firm made him a partner this year. Reckenthäler especially enjoys the blend of prosecution and litigation in his day-to-day work.

Read JUVE Patent’s analysis of Cohausz & Florack in the JUVE Patent Germany ranking 2023

André Sabellek: Lawyer, physicist and all-round talent

The Rospatt Osten Pross lawyer often works for Samsung in mobile communications, but is always flirting with other technologies

André Sabellek

“A high-end litigator” is how one competitor describes André Sabellek. “He acts very calmly and persuasively in court”. But this is not the only praise for the 40-year-old Rospatt Osten Pross lawyer. “He’s a very intelligent lawyer”, says another, while a third praises: “André combines outstanding legal expertise with a profound technical understanding”. The latter skill is no accident: Sabellek studied law first at Leibniz University Hannover but that wasn’t enough for the student who, having already enjoyed chemistry and maths at school, topped this off with a bachelor’s degree in physics. Patent litigation firms welcome such young professionals with qualifications in both law and a natural science with open arms.

Sabellek arrived at Düsseldorf IP boutique Rospatt Osten Pross and patent law in a roundabout way. While he was completing his doctorate and considering how to combine both disciplines in his professional life, an acquaintance recommended patent law to him in 2012. In a seminar at the University of Freiburg by Professor Maximilian Haedicke – a UPC judge today – he gained his first insights and wanted to learn more. He particularly enjoyed a presentation by his current partner Henrik Timmann on the smartphone wars between Samsung and Apple. Samsung is an important client of the firm to this day. The presentation on the dispute between the two mobile communications giants a long time ago made an impression on the budding lawyer. He and Timmann immediately arranged a traineeship at Rospatt Osten Pross and Sabellek stayed on permanently.

The annual toy fair in Nuremberg also played a part in this. Alongside patent law, advice on trademark, design and unfair competition law makes up a large portion of Rospatt Osten Pross’ work. Its lawyers are frequently on the ground for clients like Ferrari hunting down product pirates at trade fairs. “This type of work is very demanding in every respect,” says Sabellek. “The legal matter becomes very concrete when you have to clear the stand with counterfeit products together with the court bailiff.” It is also challenging on a personal level, for example when an injunction order is thrown at him. “In such difficult and emotionally heated situations, it helps that I spent many years on the pitch as a football referee”, says Sabellek.

Today, Stapelstein – a client which Sabellek acquired himself – is one of his most important. Sabellek mainly advises the southern German manufacturer of sustainable plastic blocks to support children’s physical development on design law and helps with the company’s international expansion. But the focus of the Düsseldorf-based lawyer’s work lies on patent disputes for Samsung against NPEs over mobile communications patents and FRAND. For AMO he fought against Alcon over a laser system for eye surgery. Sabellek reports that he recently achieved a great success together with patent attorneys and the in-house department for a chemical company. In a dispute over a patent for composite elements, the Federal Court of Justice completely restored the patent that had previously been destroyed by the Federal Patent Court. With this wide range of technical expertise, the lawyer became the youngest partner at his firm at the beginning of 2022.

Read JUVE Patent’s analysis of Rospatt Osten Pross in the JUVE Patent Germany ranking 2023