The Legal 500

The firm

Hoffmann • Eitle, founded in 1892 by Emil Hoffmann, is not only one of the oldest, but also one of the largest intellectual property law offices in Europe. Presently Hoffmann • Eitle has 68 patent attorneys, 16 attorneys-at-law and about 280 specialised staff in its offices in Munich and London. The firm primarily handles cases relating to the legal aspects and technical fields of intellectual property law, including German and UK patents, utility models, designs and trade marks, European patents, community trade marks, the copyright laws and unfair competition laws of Germany and the UK, and German, UK and European antitrust laws, as well as licences. Hoffmann • Eitle has, over decades, earned its excellent reputation by maintaining very high standards in all aspects of its work, as is best illustrated by its success in international and pan-European prosecution work and in the litigation of many intellectual property rights for numerous major companies from Japan, the US, Germany, Great Britain, Scandinavia and others.

The firm’s client base includes large and medium-sized companies located mainly in the US, Japan, the UK, Germany and Scandinavia, and it also handles cases for smaller companies and from other countries worldwide. Hoffmann • Eitle specialises in all technical fields and has extensive experience in matters relating to chemistry and biotechnology (especially pharmaceuticals, genetic engineering, polymers, speciality chemicals and consumer products), mechanical engineering (eg printer and camera technology, automotive technology, medical devices, optics) and electrical engineering (telecommuncations, semiconductor technology, MP3 technology, software engineering, consumer products and optical networks)

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Areas of practice

IP prosecution/oppositions/defence strategies: the firm is divided into four main technical departments: chemistry, biotechnology, mechanical engineering and electrical engineering. These departments process more than 4,000 German, UK and European patent applications a year, a large proportion of which are granted. The technical and legal expertise of the firm’s patent attorneys and its attorneys-at-law contributes to its great success in defending attacked IP rights. This expertise is also evident in the opinions the firm is often asked to draw up on the validity and/or infringement of industrial property rights.

IP litigation: globally active corporations have been consulting Hoffman • Eitle for generations, not only as to the prosecution procedures before the European Patent Office and the national patent offices in Germany and the UK, but also frequently as regards IP litigation throughout Europe. Hoffmann • Eitle brings together the specific legal knowledge of its British and German attorneys, and its wide experience from a century of working in this field. For this reason the firm is often asked to handle the prosecution of cases Europe-wide and to co-ordinate international litigation cases. As a result of its success, the litigation department at Hoffmann • Eitle has expanded extensively in the past ten years and has become widely known for its effective handling of IP infringement cases. As several members of the litigation department speak and read Japanese in addition to German and English, this department has become particularly well known in Japan.

International work: having offices in Munich and London, the two patent centres of Europe, allows Hoffmann • Eitle to provide competent advice on the two most important (and intrinsically different) legal systems in Europe. Moreover, the firm has acquired an in-depth understanding of IP litigation worldwide. Its great experience in this field provides the necessary advantage needed to handle such cases and to assess the risks and details of litigation, especially in the US and Japan.

Languages
Chinese
Danish
Dutch
English
French
Italian
Japanese
Spanish

Other offices London

Number of lawyers 84

at this office 77