News

Starting with the 23/2019 Issue (which appeared on 7 June), Wasilis Koukounis will be taking over the “Patents in Practice” column in the VDI nachrichten news portal. Here, he will report on the latest developments in the legal environment pertinent to patent law and patent practice.

The Rhineland Biopatent Forum 2019 was held on 6 June 2019 at the Dusseldorf offices of our law firm.

Guido Quiram will moderate the workshop “How Big Data, IoT and AI Impact Consumer Products” at the LESI Annual Conference in Yokohama, Japan on 27 May 2019

On 2 May 2019, Dr Aloys Hüttermann will present a lecture at the 8th European Conference of the IPO in

Basel, Switzerland on the topic ‘An Institutional Patent Theory and Why a Different View on Patents May Help.’

Dr. Aloys Hüttermann will lecture on Case No. T 1063/18 at the 27th Fordham IP Conference on April 26th, 2019

Dr. Ulrich Storz will speak at the German Biotech Days Conference in Wurzburg on April 10, 2019.

Dr. Stefan Michalski will be the featured panellist for the topic „Effective Portfolio Management“ at the IPBC Korea to be held in Seoul, South Korea on 5 April 2019.

Dr. Aloys Hüttermann will give a talk on Constitutional Complaint No. BvR 739/17 at the Annual Convention of EPLIT in Vienna, Austria on 5 April 2019

On 25 October 2018, Dr. Aloys Hüttermann presented a lecture at the AIPPI branch office in Tokyo, Japan on the topic ‘Prosecuting Patents in Europe: EPO vs. Germany? Or EPO and Germany?’.

On 18 October 2018, Dr. Aloys Hüttermann gave a lecture before the Korean Patent Attorneys Association (KPAA) in Seoul entitled ‘Understanding the EPO’s Prosecution Concerning Disclosure and Amendments.’.

In October 2018 Dr. Dirk Schulz started his teaching activity as an associate lecturer at the Bochum University of Applied Sciences in the field of "Intellectual Property".

On the occasion of the seminar "Risks & Opportunities in a Changing IP Environment" on Oktober 1, 2018 at hotel Le Meridien in Munich, Dr. Stefan Michalski was member of the panel together with Peter Berg, Dr. Matthias Schneider, Michael Gollwitzer, Alexander Harguth and Kevin Jakel Mitglied des Panels. 

On 16 August 2018 Guido Quiram presented as an expert panelist to the IP Chat ChannelT together with U.S.-based in-house patent strategist Paul Leblond, Google Inc., Chinese software patent prosecutor Tiecheng Yang, Unitalen, how companies can protect their intellectual property in regard to big data inventions. The presentation was very well attended by 70+ mainly US based in-house counsels and attorneys.

Dr. Patrick Liptau speaks at NMWP’s evening event, “Patente und mehr: Strategisches IP Management” [Patents and more: Strategic IP Management]. Histopic will be “Case study: 3D printing of ceramics.” The event is held on 17 May 2018 at the Life Science Center in Düsseldorf.

Dr. Aloys Hüttermann moderates a panel on the Unitary Patent system at the seventh European Conference of the IPO on 3 May 2018 in Amsterdam.

Dr. Aloys Hüttermann will speak on the European Patent Office’s decisions G1/15 and G1/16 at the Düsseldorfer Patentrechtstagen on 15 March 2018.

Andreas Gröschel will speak on the Unitary Patent System at the PATENTE 2018 Congress on 13 March 2018.

At the IP Service World 2017 Andreas Gröschel will speak on 29 November 2017 On a Workshop “Preparing for the Unitary Patent – Practical and Strategical Aspects” under the title “„The Unitary Patent: Practical Consequences for Filing and Litigation“. More here: http://www.management-circle.de/ipserviceworld/

On the IPOEF/EPO-Day on 14 November 2017, the first of its kind, Dr. Aloys Hüttermann moderated a workshop on sufficiency of disclosure. See more here: http://www.ipo.org/index.php/events/ipo-education-foundation-epo-conference/

Dr. Torsten Exner was appointed a full member of the Committee on Biotechnological Inventions of the EPI.

On the Mannheimer Patenttage, Dr. Aloys Hüttermann spoke on 12 October 2017 under the title “Notwendige Vorbereitungen auf das Einheitspatent” (Necessary Preparation for the Unitary Patent). See more here: https://www.akademie-heidelberg.de/files/prospekte/Mannheimer_Patenttage_2017_V2.pdf

Dr. Aloys Hüttermann was speaker and panelists at a session about “Practical Aspects of the European Unitary Patent and Unified Patent Court“ at the IPO Annual Meeting 2017 in San Francisco on 18 September 2017.

Dr. Ulrich Storz gave a presentation at the Interdisciplinary Conference “Stammzellen, iPS-Zellen Genomeditierung“, June 23, 2017, at the Martin Luther University Halle.

The title of his talk was: „iPS cells and Genome editing – a patent perspective“. See the programme of the conference here.

Dr. Aloys Hüttermann gives a presentation on the 6th European conference of the IPO in Paris on 18 May 2017 about “The Pemetrexed Decision in Germany”.

Dr. Aloys Hüttermann is a Penalist of a Panel titled „Doctrine of Equivalents and 

Prosecution History Estoppel in Europe“ on the 25th Fordham IP Conference in New York. 

Our Partner Dr. Aloys Hüttermann gave an interview on “IPFridays” which is run by Rolf Claessen and Ken Suzan, answering questions about the upcoming UPC System. The interview can be found here.

On 9 December 2016, the next Union-IP seminar will be held at the Bavarian Ministry of Justice, Prielmayerstraße 7, Munich. The theme of the event is "Prison or Debt Tower - The Personal Liability of the Directors and their legal Advisors". Register for this event at www.union-ip.org.

On October 12, 2016, MH partners Dr. Andreas Hübel and Dr. Ulrich Storz have spoken at an IP seminar at the University of Siena, Italy, which was founded in 1240, and is hence said to be the 4th oldest University in the world. The seminar was titled "Biopharmaceuticals: Challenges in Intellectual Property and Patentability", and was organized by Prof. Maurizio Taddei, Prof. Annalisa Santucci, Prof. Stefano Mangani and Prof. Elena Petricci, from the department of biotechnology, chemistry and pharmacy. Also speaking were three examiners from the EPO in Rijswijk. Enrique Molina gave an Introduction to the European Patent Office, Maria Giuseppina Covone-van Hees spoke about patent issues related to therapeutic antibodies, and Giovanni Macchia generally addressed the patentability of biotechnological inventions. Dr Hübel spoke about the Role of IP in Chemistry and Biotech Startups, and Dr. Storz spoke about International IP Strategies in the Chemistry and Biotech fields.

MHP partner Dr. Ulrich Storz was an invited speaker at a seminar of the Boston Patent Law Association (BPLA) organized by Boston Law Firm Nutter McClennan Fish LLP, on August 8, 2016. His talk was titled "Navigating EPO Case Law on Antibody Patents", and he spoke about a new database he has established in which all antibody-related decisions of the EPO Board of Appeal 3.3.04 are analyzed in great detail.

4iP Council speaks to Aloys Hüttermann author of a recent paper analysing patent invalidity rates. You can read the interview here: http://www.4ipcouncil.com/news/patents-paper-tigers-or-real-tigers

MH partner Dr. Ulrich Storz speaks at the 4th Antibody Industrial Symposium, July 4-5, 2016 in Montpellier. This congress, jointly organized by the LabEx MAbImprove and MabDesign, is the continuation of the series of Industrial Symposia organized by MAbImprove since 2013 (Antibody Biosimilars, MAbDosing and MAbDelivery). Ulrich's talk is titled "Antibody patents in Europe: Possibilities and Limitations".

MHP partner Dr. Ulrich Storz organized an IP panel at the 8th International Congress of Antibodies (ICA) in Dalian, China, April 26, 2016. The panel assembled Antibody IP experts from China (Luke Zuo, NTD), Japan (Makoto Aihara, SIKS & Co), India (Gandhi Tarun, Chada & Chada) and the United States (Colin Sandercock, Perkins Coie). The contributors provided a comparative view on antibody IP on a global perspective. This panel was the first of its class worldwide and was applauded by the audience as extremely interesting. 

In May 2016, one of the partners, Guido Quiram, is conducting a seminary around the topics "Software and business method patenting in Europe – chances und hurdles" and "Cost-and-time saving techniques and practices for securing best patent rights worldwide" along with colleagues from China, Canada and the US. Premises are in different major cities of the US-Westcoast. In his seminaries, Guido advises about best practice and offers methods of resolution.

Dr. Christoph Volpers, Senior Patent Manager at MH Patent, will be an invited speaker at the C5's 15th International Forum on Pharmaceutical Patent Term Extensions in Munich on June 21/22, 2016. He will be elaborating upon the "Two Sides of the same Coin – Deciphering the Extent of Protection for Biologics".

The firm's partner Dr. Torsten Exner has been reappointed as a member of the examination committee ECII for the European Qualifying Examination (EQE).

On 19. April 2016, Dr. Aloys Hüttermann speaks at the Korean Patent Attorneys Association about An Institutional Patent Theory.

This year, Harald Bienert, partner of Michalski Hüttermann & Partner, speaks at the Summer School on Intellectual Property at the University Bonn about "IP and Telecommunications".

MHP Partner Ulrich Storz will speak at the Düsseldorfer Patentrechtstage 2016, March 10 – 11, 2016, about 2nd medical use claims. His co-speakers are Rian Kalden, Gerechtshof Den Haag, and Ass.-Prof. Dr. Christoph Rademacher, Waseda Univ. 

MHP Partner Ulrich Storz presents at the Basel Intellectual Property Lecture on February 23, 2016, with the following lecture topic: 2nd medical use claims — new indications for an old claim category".

Ulrich discusses the changes over time that 2nd medical use claims went through in the last decade. He will not only discuss the change from swiss type claims to purpose limited compound claims, and the resulting implications as to enablement requirements and patent infringement, but will also address the transfer of this concept to medical devices, where 2nd medical use claims are still relatively novel. Further, Ulrich discusses a phenomenon that is sometimes disrespectfully called "nonsense indications". The lecture takes place in the Auditorium of the Pharmacenter of the University of Basel, Klingelbergstrasse 50/70, Feb 23, 016, 6:15 p.m.

Ulrich Storz gives a presentation at the ADC World congress Berlin, 8-10 February 2016. Ulrich will speak on day 2 of the congress about the Intellectual Property Perspective on the Requirements for Successful ADC Drug Development. 

Dr. Christoph Volpers, Senior Patent Manager at MH Patent, will be an invited speaker at the 2nd Biologics & Biosimilars Congress on February 1-2, 2016. The conference will take place in Berlin, in the Maritim ProArte Hotel. Christoph will speak about "Chances and Challenges in Biosimilars IP". In his talk, he will address the complexities of biosimilar IP landscapes, focus on the interplay with commercial and regulatory aspects, and discuss recent case law. 

On 22 January, Dr. Aloys Hüttermann will speak about "Being prepared for changes in your legal practice and internal organisation".

Dr. Aloys Hüttermann represents the IPO at the EPA symposium about Art 84 on 14 January in Den Haag.

On 7. December 2015, Dr. Aloys Hüttermann lectured at the University of Cologne. The topic of his lecture was: "Patentierung, aber wie?".

On 1. December 2015, Dr. Aloys Hüttermann spoke at the patent conference OWL/ Südniedersachsen/ Nordhessen in Holzminden about recent developments of the unitary patent (court) und the EPO.

Two partners of the firm, Guido Quiram and Dr. Dirk Schulz, took the chance to inform diverse companies in China, Japan and South Korea on-site about recent developments concerning the Unitary Patent and the Unitary Patent Court in autumn 2015. The lectures were very much appreciated and there will be a re-run this summer with the recent amendments concerning these topics.

On September 13, Dr. Dirk Schulz lectured about "Strong patents as a basis for successful patent litigation" at the epi-seminar in Cologne. He was accompanied by Dr. Tilmann Büttner (judge at the regional court Munich) and Dr. Peter Kather (lawyer in Düsseldorf). Together they discussed the different point of views (judge/ lawyer/ patent attorney) about what makes a patent "strong" and how to enforce patents effectively. Big emphasis was placed on the handling of cases of patent infringement under the doctrine of equivalent before German courts.

Dr. Aloys Hüttermann will be lecturer at the 2015 Summer course on European Intellectual Property Law which will take place from 29 June to 3 July at the Academy of European Law (ERA) in Trier. Topic of his lecture will be: "Enforcement of intellectual property rights".

Dr. Aloys Hüttermann will speak at the IPO European Conference on 20 May about "Why opt-out at the moment is a possibility you probably won't need".

On 12 May 2015, Dr. Aloys Hüttermann will give a lecture on "Recent Trends in EPO jurisdiction".

On 28 April 2015, Dr. Aloys Hüttermann will speak at the Basel IP Lectures about "Disclaimers and Selection Inventions before the EPO".

MHP partner Dr. Ulrich Storz has attended the 7th International Congress of Antibodies (ICA) in Nanjing, China, from April 25 – 29, where he give a lecture entitled "Intellectual Property in the Antibody Space: Strategies for Startups, Pharma and Biosimilar Manufacturers". 

Dr. Aloys Hüttermann will speak at the VPP Mitte-West disctrict organization on 15 January 2015 in Hanover about the coming Unitary Patent and Unified Patent Court.

MH partner Dr. Ulrich Storz has represented the German woundcare company Sorbion GmbH & Co KG in the acquisition by BSN medical (BSN). Sorbion is a privately held company headquartered in Senden (Münsterland), which specializes in the development, manufacture and distribution of modern wound care products. With the acquisition, BSN, which is also active in this field, will strengthen its market position. In the future, Sorbion will merge in BSN's Wound Care & Vascular Group, which has a turnover of about 500 million euros. With this transaction, BSN medical supplements the recent launch of the negative pressure wound therapy system Cura Sul® . Michalski Hüttermann & Partner will continue to represent the acquired patent portfolio. The purchase price was not disclosed. The transaction is subject to approval by the Federal Cartel Office.