Legal 500 EMEA 2021

Despite its compact size, the firm has been involved in the largest disputes across Germany for decades.

https://www.legal500.com/c/germany/intellectual-property/patent-litigation/

Intellectual Property: Patent Litigation Germany – Tier 2

https://www.legal500.com/firms/11439-klaka-rechtsanwalte/12235-munich-germany/#section-108641

With offices in Düsseldorf and Munich, IP boutique KLAKA Rechtsanwälte is an established player in the market. Despite its compact size, the firm has been involved in the largest disputes across Germany for decades. Practice head Olaf Giebe in particular has an excellent reputation, not least because of his broad technical expertise with a focus on the chemical, pharmaceutical and automotive sectors. In addition to patent and design law infringement and nullity proceedings, the practice also handles employee invention disputes and licensing agreements.

Hall of Fame
Olaf Giebe - KLAKA Rechtsanwälte

Practice head(s):
Olaf Giebe

Other key lawyers:
Wolfgang Götz; Constantin Kurtz

Testimonials

"KLAKA is one of the top addresses for legal disputes concerning patent-, trademark-, and design-matters. The highly specialised team convinces with the enforcement of protection rights as well as the defence against unjustified claims. A particular strength of the law firm is the additional specialising on competition law, which is significantly important in the area of standard-essential patents (RAND-objection)."

"Olaf Giebe and Constantin Kurtz are particularly specialised on patent disputes in the areas of electronics and telecommunication. A special strength of both lawyers is, to recognise the essential aspects of highly complex patent disputes, to then develop a matching strategy for the further approach and to correctly place the deciding arguments in procedural documents as well as in verbal negotiations."

Intellectual Property: Trade Marks – Tier 1

https://www.legal500.com/firms/11439-klaka-rechtsanwalte/12235-munich-germany/#section-108641

With offices in Munich and Düsseldorf, KLAKA Rechtsanwälte has carved out a strong practice handling trade mark and design law matters and is particularly active in the automotive, fashion and luxury goods sectors as well as the pharmaceutical, energy and banking industries with clients including renowned German and international companies. In 2018 and 2019, the team continued to demonstrate its well-known strength in infringement and other contentious proceedings. Ralf Hackbarth heads the team, which includes litigation expert Carola Onken.

Leading individuals
Ralf Hackbarth - KLAKA Rechtsanwälte

Next Generation Partners
Carola Onken - KLAKA Rechtsanwälte

Practice head(s):
Ralf Hackbarth

Other key lawyers:
Stefan Abel; Carola Onken; Oliver Rauscher

Testimonials

"The trademark law team around Ralf Hackbarth delivers excellent work, particularly in strategic proceedings."

"Ralf Hackbarth is very competent, with regards to law as well as business. He is a hard worker, who constantly updates his knowledge. He is very interested in recent legal topics and incorporates these into the advice."

"Ralf Hackbarth surely is one of the best German trademark lawyers and very experienced in court. His thoroughness ist the basis of his success."

"Stefan Abel is very competent, efficient and cost-conscious."

"Carola Onken is a fantastic expert of trademark law, and in an outstanding way is able, to successfully conduct administrative procedures at the DPMA or EUIPO."

Intellectual Property: Unfair Competition – Tier 2

https://www.legal500.com/firms/11439-klaka-rechtsanwalte/12235-munich-germany/#section-108641

KLAKA Rechtsanwälte focuses on physician, pharmacy and pharmaceutical sector work but the team also advises clients, that previously received assistance with trade mark and design law matters, on competition law issues. This includes banking and insurance sector players alongside automotive, sports, fashion and energy companies. Luxury goods manufacturers also benefit from the integrated soft IP practice's competence in this intersection. Ralf Hackbarth and Wolfgang Straub jointly head the team.

Practice head(s):
Ralf Hackbarth

Other key lawyers:
Stefan Abel; Ralf-Michael Burkhardt; Stefan Eck; Constantin Kurtz; Oliver Rauscher; Andreas Schulz

Testimonials

"It is always astonishing to see, that even in cases of an advisor-change or young lawyer, the standards are maintained consistently high."

"Always good and fast advice. Successful results in hearings and proceedings."

"Stefan Eck: Competent, procedural documents prepared with great care, arguments kept to the point. Works very ambitiously also on new or complex topics, procedural documents are therefore at a very high standard; high motivation. The personal interaction is very pleasant. He is good at explaining arising questions to clients, always has an open ear, customer-facing, never looking down on someone."

"Ralf-Michael Burkhardt and Andreas Schulz are delivering excellent work, which makes them also stand out amongst the competition."