Patent Law

The past two decades have seen the importance of patents increase dramatically. For many companies, patents are essential to secure market position and safeguard investments in new products.

Patent law is harmonized worldwide like few other areas of law. Europe leads this harmonization with the established European Patent Office and the recently introduced Unitary Patent and Unified Patent Court. Despite the many possibilities of securing protection in Europe and worldwide – be it via the EPO, the national European patent authorities or patent offices outside Europe such as the USPTO – the single most important factor for the success of any patent application is the quality of the initial application draft. Our attorneys capture the nature of an invention in its entirety, optimizing the basis for defining the best possible protection, envisaging future fallback positions against potential attacks, and safeguarding efficient enforcement. For this, expert knowledge of the technological field is just as essential as a deep understanding of the related industry and products.

European patent applications claiming a foreign priority pose unique challenges in the EPO, as they typically face objections quite different from those encountered in their home jurisdictions. Such cases require special strategies in order to achieve allowance with an adequate scope of protection.

Of great importance are also opposition and appeal procedures, which, especially before the EPO, require substantial experience and strategic thinking. The same holds for invalidity proceedings before the Federal German Patent Court.

The patent practitioners at Grünecker have the experience to successfully meet these challenges when it comes to drafting, prosecuting, defending and enforcing patents. A full range of individual technical backgrounds combined with legal expertise ensures that we are always well positioned to match your specific needs. Over our long history, this ability to assemble a team of attorneys to best protect the client’s IP rights is one of the main reasons that Grünecker stands for the very highest standards of quality in the field.