The Patent 1000 focuses exclusively on patent practice and has firmly established itself as the definitive 'go-to' resource for those seeking world-class legal patent expertise.
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Established in 1878, E Blum & Co takes full advantage of its 145 years of experience in intellectual property to deliver a tailored service that meets its clients’ legal and business needs. Revered as a significant firm in the Swiss IP landscape, it is at the intersection of profound technical expertise and legal knowledge. Strategically focused, the ensemble is a favourite among an elite roster of patrons spanning an array of technological fields. Physicist Kurt Sutter utilises over 30 years of expertise to serve as a part-time judge at the Swiss Patent Court. A polylingual, Sutter aids his following in English, German, Python and various dialects of C, as well as boasting a solid grasp of French, Italian and Spanish. Start-ups benefit from Sutter’s accreditation as a coach at Innosuisse, the Swiss Innovation Agency. Heading up the patent department, Martin Toleti draws on his time at Siemens’ Automotive Division in Munich and at IBM’s research lab in Zurich to protect and enforce the IP rights of clientele. He manages portfolios, conducts freedom-to-operate searches and offers litigation support to those in the field of software, control systems and communication technology. IAM Patent 1000 newcomer Siegfried Grimm heads up the life science and material science practice group. Having gained experience as part of the pharmaceutical development team at Johnson & Johnson, and as in-house counsel for Bayer and Novartis, Grimm is highly sought out by those in the chemistry, nano-technology and process technology sectors. He is enlisted by international players for his supplementary protection certificate (SPC) know-how. Also on deck is biochemist Claudia Bibus, who excels in drafting intricate applications and in opposition and appeal proceedings.
Claudia Bibus is a Swiss and European patent attorney, a partner at Blum since 2016 and a member of the firm’s life science prosecution and litigation team since 2014.
Ms Bibus graduated from UC Berkeley and obtained her PhD in biochemistry from the University of Basel (Biocenter).
Ms Bibus has experience in patent litigation before the Federal Patent Court and the Federal Supreme Court in the fields of pharma, medtech and biotech. Her career’s most recent highlight is the enforcement of Illumina’s sequencing-by-synthesis patents.
She counsels clients on all patent-related matters, drafts and internationally prosecutes patent applications and represents clients in opposition and appeal cases before the EPO. She also drafts technology-related agreements and opinions on patent infringement and validity cases.
Ms Bibus’s practice focuses on the technical fields of biochemistry/molecular biology with sweet spots in diagnostics, pharmaceuticals, in particular gene therapeutics, antibodies, stem cell products and other biologicals, as well as in the field of medtech, in particular implants and medical devices.
She is fluent in German and English. She has published on equivalent patent infringement in Life Science Recht (Law Journal for Pharma, Biotech and Medtech) and until recently has taught litigation modules in the basic training on European patent law offered by the Centre for International Intellectual Property Studies of the University of Strasbourg.
E Blum & Co AG is dedicated to providing services of outstanding quality. Its employees, be it trademark attorneys, patent attorneys or administrative staff, are committed to reaffirming daily the high standards reflected by the firm’s excellent reputation worldwide. Blum’s services are built on competence, quality, reliability and trust, as set out in the corporate guidelines accessible on the firm’s webpage.
Blum was established in 1878 by Emil Blum, engineer and lobbyist for the legislation of IP in Switzerland. Today, after more than 140 years, Blum is still one of the leading IP law firms in Switzerland, handling prosecution and supporting litigation in all areas of intellectual property. This is confirmed by the top-tier rankings published by various organisations that the firm has achieved for many consecutive years for both its patent and trademark prosecution work.
Blum’s services cover all fields of IP law and technology. The firm provides an integrated service, ranging from technical and legal investigations, the registration and prosecution of applications worldwide and the drafting of licensing agreements and opinions to the litigation of IP rights of clients in Switzerland and abroad.
In relation to patents, Blum advises clients in all fields of technology. This is possible thanks to the firm’s large number of patent attorneys with rich experience gained in both engineering and research positions prior to joining Blum. The patent attorneys not only cover the general technical domains of chemistry, physics and engineering, but are also real experts in some specialised technological fields such as biotech, life sciences, software or nanotech. Daily work also covers artificial intelligence, distributed ledger and crypto-technologies. Blum can even dedicate a pharmacist to a client’s drug inventions and supplemental protection certificates (SPCs). With regard to the latter, Blum is by far the largest filer of SPCs in Switzerland, handling more than 50 per cent of all SPC filings at the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property (IPI) each year. A majority of the firm’s patent attorneys hold a PhD in their technical domain. Many of these attorneys graduated from or gained PhDs at ETH, a renowned local university.
In addition to technology, Blum is in a position to offer individual attorney-to-client fits depending on the client’s needs and organisation. While some of the firm’s patent attorneys have previously worked in the research or engineering units of universities or corporations, others can look back on careers as senior patent attorneys and/or department heads in in-house patent departments of mid-sized as well as large corporations such as IBM, Novartis, Siemens and Bayer. Others are accredited as IP special coaches at Innosuisse, the Federal Swiss Innovation Agency supporting start-ups in particular. This enables Blum to always offer the best patent attorney background in terms of technology and business expertise at the client’s disposal, be it for small or mid-sized corporate clients, for universities or other research clients, for start-ups, or for large corporate clients, both on a local and international scale.
The firm is also one of the leading filing firms for trademark applications. Blum represents Swiss as well as international clients – of small, mid and global scale – in trademark matters at the IPI and via WIPO. Many of the largest US corporations entrust the handling of their trademark portfolios in Switzerland to Blum.
The firm also handles contractual work such as drafting co-existence or licensing agreements. Blum’s lawyers also advise on design rights and copyright. In patent litigation, Blum’s patent attorneys represent and/or assist clients together with external attorneys at law before the Swiss Federal Patent Court. Blum assigns the largest number of different patent attorney individuals per firm involved in such proceedings, again proving the technological diversity offered to its clients. Arbitration and mediation services were recently added to the scope of the firm’s IP law services by way of a patent attorney certified at various arbitration and mediation bodies. In prosecution, Blum patent attorneys represent clients at the EPO, the IPI and WIPO.
The firm also recently set up two other practice groups to advise clients on IP strategy and the new Swiss IP-related tax instrument referred to as ‘patent box’.