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The reliable team of 20 at KUHNEN & WACKER – which includes patent attorneys, attorneys-at-law and engineers – can be relied upon for everything from portfolio management to freedom-to-operate analyses and due diligence projects. For more than 40 years it has served the needs of a varied clientele, which includes promising start-ups as well as some of the main names in the electronics and automotive sectors. Key among its battalion of specialists are senior partners Rainer Kuhnen and Stephan Kopp.
KUHNEN & WACKER (K&W) is a full-service IP law firm that was established more than 45 years ago in Freising, close to Munich airport. The firm represents small and medium-sized enterprises, as well as major corporate and global technical innovators. K&W’s professionals are a fine blend of senior attorneys who have gained sophisticated experience over time, and younger, proactive attorneys who may, where needed, rely on the experience of their more senior colleagues and join various interdisciplinary teams.
The K&W philosophy
Continuity, quality and strategy are the three pillars and principles this nationally and internationally regarded IP firm is based on, and that allow K&W to offer high-quality, proactive services at competitive rates.
Team
K&W consists of a diverse team of about 90, 23 of whom are specialised attorneys and attorneys at law. These attorneys are supported by expert patent engineers and specialists, as well as by a highly qualified and multilingual administrative team. The firm’s experienced and professional staff working in a state-of-the-art IT infrastructure guarantee prompt responses to the needs of clients. K&W boasts an excellent track record of handling complex cases successfully.
Added value
K&W has earned a worldwide reputation through its handling of sophisticated litigation matters. Our long record of success includes recent litigation relating to cardiac stents, ink cartridges for printers and the automotive field.
K&W adds value for its clients in many areas, such as licensing, portfolio analysis and management, arbitration and mediation, antitrust, due diligence, competitive benchmarking and intermediary platforms. Some components of this added value arise from our internal teamwork, external networking, and frequent seminar presentations in Japan, the United States, China and Europe.
Certification
In order to document the high-quality management standard that the firm has developed since its founding, K&W’s QM has been certified by the official ISO 9001 certification since 2013.
Patent and trademark expertise
K&W specialises in IP-related litigation and prosecution and offers the full spectrum of services in connection thereto (eg, patents, trademarks and oppositions, applying and enforcing preliminary injunctions, handling court procedures and border seizures).
The firm is an active member of many trademark organisations, such as the International Trademark Association, the European Communities Trademark Association and the German Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property. The attorneys at K&W are actively involved in several committees in order to develop, improve and harmonise trademark law worldwide.
K&W is growing steadily – both in size and volume of work handled. The firm manages thousands of files worldwide. The trademark department moved to a new additional building some years ago. The new building offers fully equipped conference and seminar rooms in order to provide clients with top-quality service and top-quality facilities. The annual IP seminar that K&W hosts always includes one day of current trademark and design topics.
The technical background of K&W’s patent attorneys – most of whom are also well versed in the trademark fields – makes them valuable experts when assessing the identity and similarity of goods and services in opposition cases.
Legal fields
K&W is a specialised law firm that has been offering comprehensive legal counsel through its competent team of patent attorneys and attorneys-at-law for more than four decades. In order to provide the best support for its clients in the context of global competition, K&W has a comprehensive network of colleagues and associates in more than 150 countries, with which it has longstanding relationships.
K&W’s services include the following:
- trademarks;
- designs;
- patents;
- utility models;
- semiconductor topology;
- plant variety protection;
- variety denomination;
- employee inventions;
- university inventions;
- national infringement proceedings;
- international infringement proceedings;
- licence agreements;
- international patent cooperation (Patent Cooperation Treaty, European Patent Convention);
- international trademark cooperation (Madrid Agreement, EU trademarks);
- international design cooperation (Hague Agreement, EU designs);
- Japanese patent law and Japanese industrial property rights;
- copyright;
- competition law;
- domain name law;
- counterfeiting;
- software, computer-implemented inventions;
- topography protection;
- IP evaluation and assessment;
- defence and enforcement of IP rights;
- portfolio analysis;
- due diligence;
- benchmarking; and
- consultation services regarding the development of IP strategies.
“KUHNEN & WACKER IP Made in Germany”
Jurisdiction