Dr.-Ing. Gerhard Clemens is a German Patent Attorney and European Patent, Trademark and Design Attorney. He graduated from the University of Stuttgart with a degree in structural engineering and subsequently earned his doctorate. Gerhard Clemens has been actively working in the field of intellectual property law since 1987. In 1992, together with his colleagues Müller and Dr. Hach, he founded the patent law firm Müller, Clemens & Hach in Heilbronn, which was merged with GleimPetri Patent- und Rechtsanwaltsgesellschaft mbB in 2023. Gerhard Clemens has many years of vast knowledge and extensive experience in the filing, prosecution and enforcement of German, European, foreign and international technical property rights, trademark protection rights and design protection rights as well as the conduct of opposition, cancellation and nullity proceedings before the patent authorities and courts.

Joachim Freitag has been working in the field of intellectual property law since 1984. His professional focus lies on patent granting, opposition, nullity and infringement proceedings. His technical background comprises the field of physics, in particular laser technology, optoelectronics, thermal imaging technology, electron beam lithography, semiconductor lithography, in particular EUV lithography, and image processing. After studying physics at the Otto von Guericke Technical University in Magdeburg, where he specialized in dynamic stress wave testing of high-strength steels and graduated with a degree in physics in 1984, Joachim Freitag worked at Carl Zeiss in Jena from 1984 to 1991 and studied in parallel intellectual property rights at the Humboldt University in Berlin from 1985 to 1988.

He was already employed as a patent consultant in the patent department of Carl Zeiss in Jena during his correspondence degree course and has been registered in the patent office’s list of patent assessors since 1990. From 1992 to 2000, he worked in the patent department of JENOPTIK AG and gained valuable experience in patent law and infringement proceedings in the USA.

Joachim Freitag has been admitted as a European Patent Attorney since 1991 and as a European Trademark Attorney since 1995. He was admitted as a German Patent Attorney in 2000 and in 2001 was one of the founding partners of the law firm Patentanwälte OEHMKE & KOLLEGEN, from which the current law firm Gleim Petri Oehmke Patent- und Rechtsanwaltspartnerschaft mbB emerged in 2020, in which he became a partner.

Michaela Gilch is an Attorney-at-Law, Expert Attorney for intellectual property law with an additional qualification as Economic Lawyer (Wirtschaftsjuristin, University of Bayreuth). She studied law at the University of Bayreuth with a focus on intellectual property law. At the same time, she completed additional training in economics. Following her first state examination, she completed her doctorate as part of the DFG Research Training Group titled ‘Intellectual Property and Public Domain’. Her thesis on a patent-law-related topic is about to be finalized. During her doctoral studies and her legal clerkship at the Higher Regional Court of Bamberg, she worked as a research assistant in various law firms in the field of intellectual property law. Her professional focus lies on judicial and extrajudicial enforcement of intellectual property rights in patent, trademark and design law as well as providing consultancy on the registration of trademarks and designs. She also focusses on drafting of contracts and providing consultancy on employee invention law.

Ragnar Gleim is a German patent attorney and European Patent, Trademark and Design Attorney. His studies in physics in Würzburg and Edinburgh provide the necessary technical basis for his technically multifarious activities. He acquired the necessary legal qualifications for his activity as a patent attorney by way of his training as a patent attorney at the law firm advotec in Würzburg, which he completed with a stint at the law firm PIPERS in New Zealand. During his professional work as a patent attorney at the Basel law firm BOHEST in Switzerland, he gained a deep understanding of the different requirements in association with international patent proceedings in various jurisdictions. Supporting clients in a wide range of technical fields, from the electrical industry, mechanical engineering and software manufacturers to pharmaceutical giants, gives him the opportunity to provide consultancy to clients tailored to their specific technical needs. His legal specialization lies in the areas of patent and utility model law. One of his main areas of interest is employee invention law. Ragnar Gleim was appointed to the examination board for patent attorneys. As a member of the examination board, he is involved in the examination and assessment of patent attorney examinations.

Patrizia Hunger is a German Patent Attorney and deals with filing, prosecution and enforcement of German, European and international technical property rights, as well as the conduct of opposition and nullity proceedings in the fields of automotive and medical technology, electrical engineering, civil engineering and environmental technology. In addition, she is aspiring to be admitted as a European Patent Attorney.

At the beginning of her academic career, Patrizia Hunger successfully completed a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in environmental engineering with a specialization in biotechnology at the TU Bergakademie Freiberg. Subsequently, she gained valuable experience as a quality engineer working in an international automotive group, where she carried out the qualification of electronic components during development.

In addition, she acquired practical skills as a patent manager in the pre-development department. Patrizia Hunger inter alia acted as an interface between development engineers and patent attorneys; she also took on an advisory role in international negotiations on license agreements. At the same time, she studied intellectual property law at the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena in co-operation with IP for IP.

Dr. Peter Käckell is a German Patent Attorney, European Trademark and Design Attorney and European Patent Attorney. The technical foundations were laid with a degree in physics at the Technical University of Berlin, a subsequent doctorate at the Friedrich Schiller University in Jena and a two-year stay at the Joint Research Centre for Atom Technology/National Institute for Advanced Interdisciplinary Research in Tsukuba, Japan. He learnt the tools of the legal trade during his training at the law firm Geyer, Fehners & Partner in Jena and Munich. He has many years of extensive professional experience in patent, utility model, trademark and design law as well as employee invention law, with a legal focus on the granting and enforcement of technical property rights and the defense against unjustified third-party claims. In the technical field, his main focus lies in the areas of optics, information technology and concrete processing as well as products for logistics. He is also a lecturer at the Ernst Abbe University in Jena on the ‘Patent Engineer’ Master’s programme. Dr. Peter Käckell is a partner at the law firm.

Dr. Lars Petri is an Attorney-at-Law and Expert Attorney for intellectual property law. He completed his doctorate at the Kurt Haertel Institute for the Protection of Intellectual Property on a patent-law-related topic. After his first professional years in a renowned patent attorney and law firm in the Rhineland, he took over the management of the legal department of one of the leading patent and law firms in Bavaria. He has many years of professional experience in the registration of trademarks and designs and the extrajudicial and, above all, judicial enforcement of property rights, competition and contract law claims. He also specializes in drafting and reviewing licensing and research & development agreements. He is the author of numerous publications on patent law, trademark law and license agreement law and holds lectureships in trademark and media law at the Julius-Maximilians-University of Würzburg and the University of Würzburg-Schweinfurt.

Dr. Nora Hofmann studied law at the University of Bayreuth with a focus on ‘Intellectual Property and Competition’ and completed this with additional training in economics in 2018. She completed her doctorate on an energy law topic as part of the ‘Kopernikus Project’ for the energy transition funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. She has been a trainee lawyer at the Bamberg Higher Regional Court since 2022 and works in our firm as a research assistant, primarily on cases involving patent, trademark and competition law.

Fabio Kilgenstein holds a degree in law (Dipl.-Jur. Univ.).

He successfully completed his law studies at the Julius Maximilians Universität of Würzburg, specialising in intellectual property law, at the beginning of 2022.

During his studies, he already gained international experience by studying abroad in Bergen (Norway), as well as by working for a law firm in London (UK) and the Constitutional Court in Batumi (Georgia).

In addition to his studies, he worked for several years as an external data protection officer.

He is currently preparing for the assessor exam and is currently completing his legal traineeship in the judicial district of the Bamberg Higher Regional Court.

He is aiming to train as a commercial mediator.

Fabio Kilgenstein has been part of our law firm as a research assistant since May 2022. He specialises in the legal handling of infringements of intellectual property rights and competition law infringements.

Christopher Koterew was a student of physics at the Friedrich Schiller University Jena from 2015 to 2020. During his studies, he focused in depth on the field of optics.

As part of his bachelor’s thesis, he researched the parallelisation of non-linear pulse compression in multicore fibers. In the process, Christopher Koterew gained further expertise in the field of laser technology, particularly in the area of ultrashort pulse lasers and fiber lasers.

As part of his master’s degree, Christopher Koterew deepened his physics studies with a focus on optics and completed this with a master’s thesis on investigations in the field of UV and fluorescence microscopy with a final grade of ‘very good’. Christopher Koterew gained further expertise in the field of microscopy, particularly in the area of light and fluorescence microscopy.

Christopher Koterew gained professional experience during his studies as a student and research assistant at the Faculty of Physics and Astronomy at Friedrich Schiller University of Jena. This enabled him to apply and deepen his theoretical knowledge in various fields of research.

Christopher Koterew was also employed for a year in a medium-sized company active in the construction of vacuum and compressor systems. During this time, he gained fundamental knowledge in the field of vacuum and compressor technology.

Christopher Koterew completed an internship at our firm for almost two years. As a patent attorney candidate, Christopher Koterew has been training as a patent attorney since February 2022 and is particularly involved in application procedures and searches.

Stella Langer studied law at Julius Maximilians University of Würzburg and successfully passed the First State Examination in Law (Dipl.-Jur. Univ.) in 2022. She is currently a legal trainee at the Higher Regional Court of Bamberg.

Stella Langer has been working in our law firm since October 2021. As a research assistant, she is extensively involved in the legal handling of intellectual property right infringements and competition law violations. She specialises in the field of trademark law.

Mona Löther studied at Julius Maximilians Universität of Würzburg and graduated with a master’s degree in physics. She already worked as a research assistant at our law firm during her studies.

With the aim of being admitted as a patent attorney candidate, she is now completing a year of practical technical work.

Stefan Noack studied physics (M.Sc.) at Friedrich Schiller University of Jena, where he wrote his thesis on ion-solid-state interactions of nanostructures and worked temporarily as a research assistant at the Institute of Solid State Physics.

Stefan Noack then worked for a fast-growing medical technology start-up in the field of robotics and telemedicine, where he played a key role in setting up the IP and innovation processes. His main tasks included monitoring third-party IP rights, securing market entry and protecting innovations. He carried out patent searches, supervised application procedures and was involved in the development and evaluation of workaround solutions. In this context, he studied patent engineering at the Ernst Abbe University of Applied Sciences in Jena while working. Stefan Noack is now completing his training as a patent attorney at our law firm.

Dr. Raul Stühler holds a doctorate in physics. He is currently completing his training as a German and European patent attorney. His successfully completed studies in physics and his subsequent doctorate in the field of solid state and semiconductor physics at the University of Würzburg form the broad foundation of his daily work with technically sophisticated inventions.

Following his doctorate, Raul Stühler gained valuable experience as a Senior R&D Specialist in an industrial research department of the chemical and pharmaceutical company Merck KGaA in Darmstadt. In an interdisciplinary team of physicists, chemists, material scientists and engineers, he worked on the development of highly efficient organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs).

By working for several years as a patent engineer alongside his doctorate, Raul Stühler learned how to draft patent applications and defend them in examination proceedings before national and international patent offices. In his current role as a patent attorney candidate, he is deepening these skills and acquiring legal knowledge by studying law for patent attorneys at the Fernuniversität in Hagen.

Detlev Stupperich studied electrical engineering in Hanover, business administration in Urbana Champaign, USA and graduated summa cum laude with a doctorate in civil engineering.

He then took on management responsibility in the supply and application of electrical drives and electronic control systems in mechanical engineering and automation technology.

Detlev Dr. Stupperich gained extensive experience in electrics and electronics, handling systems, mechanical engineering, automotive and medical technology, construction and plant engineering. In all specialist areas, he analyzed the structure and function of the systems, coordinated new objectives and processes in collaboration with users, designers, decision-makers and authorities and ensured the necessary documentation of the tasks and information for all parties involved with functional specifications, functional descriptions, work lists, other briefs and drawings.

Detlev Dr. Stupperich worked for seven years as a patent engineer in a patent law firm and for a further six years as an independent patent engineer.