Continuity

We are an intellectual property law firm located in Essen, Ruhr area, Germany, and have been advising and representing national and international clients in all matters of intellectual property law for more than 50 years.

High proficiency

The attorneys in our firm are trained professionals in their respective technical and scientific fields. This enables us to offer our advice based on an in-depth appreciation of our clients’ innovations as well as of their competitors’ ones.

Our scientific background is complemented by a sound training as patent attorneys.

In our work, we are supported by highly specialized qualified professionals, most of whom have many years of professional experience. To ensure that your intellectual property rights are professionaly handled by us, we rely on processes that have been proven and continuously optimized over decades. At the same time, we never cease to develop our processes, and we have always made use of a constantly evolving modern IT infrastructure, the ongoing development of which we benefit from.

Quality

The core of our consulting activities is the in-depth advice provided by the partners of our firm, who personally look after your interests and are available to you at any time.

In close consultation with you, we create intellectual property rights that provide comprehensive and valuable protection for your intellectual property and that stand up to the best possible scrutiny in contentious proceedings.

In our consulting activities, we are guided by the interests and needs of our clients. In addition to our many years of cooperation with companies of all sizes, from start-ups to major international corporations, as well as with individual inventors, we also benefit from the experience we have gained when working as employees within companies. This range of experience enables us to ensure that, in addition to the quality of our work in terms of content, the general conditions in which you operate are also taken into account. We are aware of the importance of budgets, of deadline commitments and of strategic targets.

We work with your ideas and thus with a valuable asset. You can always rely on a protected and secure handling of your knowledge and innovations. In coordination with our clients, we operate numerous state-of-the-art procedures for secure digital and personal communication, protected information exchange and effective and efficient coordination between our clients and us.

We look forward to supporting you achieve your business goals.

Continuity

We are an intellectual property law firm located in Essen, Ruhr area, Germany, and have been advising and representing national and international clients in all matters of intellectual property law for more than 50 years.

High proficiency

The attorneys in our firm are trained professionals in their respective technical and scientific fields. This enables us to offer our advice based on an in-depth appreciation of our clients’ innovations as well as of their competitors’ ones.

Our scientific background is complemented by a sound training as patent attorneys.

Quality

The core of our consulting activities is the in-depth advice provided by the partners of our firm, who personally look after your interests and are available to you at any time.

We look forward to supporting you achieve your business goals.

The optimist sees a task in every problem.
The pessimist sees a problem in every task.

The field of intellectual property is full of opportunities and options for innovative companies. We support you in taking advantage of all legal opportunities.

Patents and Utility models

We file patent applications for you before the German Patent and Trademark Office (DPMA), the European Patent Office (EPO) and all relevant national and supra-national patent offices. After the application, we conduct and coordinate the granting procedures, until the final decision of the office and, hopefully, the issuance of the patent certificate is obtained. Additionaly or alternatively, we can register your technical product as a utility model.

In order to eliminate disruptive patents of your competitors, we conduct opposition proceedings or nullity actions on your behalf. For the elimination of utility models, we initiate corresponding cancellation proceedings.

Patent research und Patent analysis

We provide you with a precise overview of the patent landscape in which you operate with your products or planned developments. From an initial overview to an in-depth examination of the relevant prior art to comprehensive freedom-to-operate searches and analyses, we offer you the entire spectrum of patent searches.

When conducting searches, we access leading commercial databases that allow us to search documents from nearly every country in the world.

We use the results to provide you with the best possible advice. For example, you can assess and limit risks before making large investments. If interfering patents or utility models are found, we can work with you to find equivalent workarounds to reduce the risk of IP infringement.

Patent valuation und Patent strategy

Patents are increasingly understood as important components of a company’s value. To enable you to leverage these values and use them in a targeted manner, we support you in the monetary valuation of individual intellectual property rights or entire patent portfolios.

In doing so, the strategic importance of patents always remains in focus.

We support you in building up your patent portfolio in such a way that the available resources can be used in the best possible way to create value, and advise you in advance on possible filing strategies.

German employee invention law

We advise you, being an employer or being an employee, in all questions of employee invention law. With our many years of experience, partly gained when working in industrial patent departments, we are able to develop practical approaches helping you to prevent disputes in the employer-employee relationship.

If a dispute is unavoidable, we will represent you before the Arbitration Board of the German Patent and Trademark Office. Alternatively or additionaly, we are available for mediating discussions in advance.

Trademarks

A trademark is a property right with a potentially unlimited term of protection. The trademark is thus the only intellectual property right that offers you the opportunity to benefit in the long term from your good reputation and thus to continuously create and preserve value.
 
With this decisive advantage, your trademark is a central part of your long-term corporate strategy.
 
We advise you on the best possible strategies to build and manage your trademark rights portfolio.
 
We take care of everything your trademark needs: starting wit advise prior to searching a brand, to registration and granting to administration afterwards. All this in Germany, Europe and virtually any other country in the world.
 
To protect and enforce your rights, we also support you in subsequent proceedings – if required, in close cooperation with specialized attorneys-at-law.

Trademark searches

Developing a brand is an effort that is both time-consuming and cost-intensive. In order to minimize the risk that your already started activities have to be stopped abruptly due to existing trademarks of third parties, it is important to know about third party trademark and other rights before starting from the beginning.

We help you to avoid pitfalls as that right from the start. We provide you with an overview of third party rights which may cause a potential conflict. For this purpose, we search for identical or similar trademarks with the help of leading databases, if necessary worldwide.

Design rights

With a design right, available, e.g., both in Germany and in the EU as a Community design, protection is granted for the appearance of your products or logos.

Design rights have many advantages: they can be obtained quickly and they can be enforced effectively. The costs associated with design rights are moderate in view of its enforcement capability.

We help you to protect your design achievements comprehensively and in a legally binding manner, thereby creating and preserving value for your company.

Dispute avoidance and Dispute procedures

We initiate and coordinate infringement proceedings for you. For this purpose, we work closely with specialized attorneys-at-law which we specifically select for each individual case.

If you are an owner of an intellectual property right, we will assist you in pursuing infringement actions in court. If you are the defendant, we support you in developing a defense strategy with the aim of minimizing the economic damage.

If you are prosecuted in court, we will support you. Should a dispute with a competitor arise, it is often advisable to try to reach a settlement as quietly as possible in advance. We will assist you in negotiations with your competitor. Our range of services also includes expert opinions on whether or not an infringement has occurred.

Licences and Contracts

So that you can profit financially from your intellectual property rights, it is possible to grant licenses. Or you may be planning to take out licenses for third-party intellectual property rights.

In both cases, we help you to negotiate and formulate a sound contractual basis on the basis of which a trusting cooperation with your partner is possible and future conflicts can be avoided in advance in the best possible way.

Patents and Utility models

We file patent applications for you before the German Patent and Trademark Office (DPMA), the European Patent Office (EPO) and all relevant national and supra-national patent offices. After the application, we conduct and coordinate the granting procedures, until the final decision of the office and, hopefully, the issuance of the patent certificate is obtained. Additionaly or alternatively, we can register your technical product as a utility model.

In order to eliminate disruptive patents of your competitors, we conduct opposition proceedings or nullity actions on your behalf. For the elimination of utility models, we initiate corresponding cancellation proceedings.

Patent research und Patent analysis

We provide you with a precise overview of the patent landscape in which you operate with your products or planned developments. From an initial overview to an in-depth examination of the relevant prior art to comprehensive freedom-to-operate searches and analyses, we offer you the entire spectrum of patent searches.

When conducting searches, we access leading commercial databases that allow us to search documents from nearly every country in the world.

We use the results to provide you with the best possible advice. For example, you can assess and limit risks before making large investments. If interfering patents or utility models are found, we can work with you to find equivalent workarounds to reduce the risk of IP infringement.

Patent valuation und Patent strategy

Patents are increasingly understood as important components of a company’s value. To enable you to leverage these values and use them in a targeted manner, we support you in the monetary valuation of individual intellectual property rights or entire patent portfolios.

In doing so, the strategic importance of patents always remains in focus.

We support you in building up your patent portfolio in such a way that the available resources can be used in the best possible way to create value, and advise you in advance on possible filing strategies.

German employee invention law

We advise you, being an employer or being an employee, in all questions of employee invention law. With our many years of experience, partly gained when working in industrial patent departments, we are able to develop practical approaches helping you to prevent disputes in the employer-employee relationship.

If a dispute is unavoidable, we will represent you before the Arbitration Board of the German Patent and Trademark Office. Alternatively or additionaly, we are available for mediating discussions in advance.

Trademarks

A trademark is a property right with a potentially unlimited term of protection. The trademark is thus the only intellectual property right that offers you the opportunity to benefit in the long term from your good reputation and thus to continuously create and preserve value.
 
With this decisive advantage, your trademark is a central part of your long-term corporate strategy.
 
We advise you on the best possible strategies to build and manage your trademark rights portfolio.
 
We take care of everything your trademark needs: starting wit advise prior to searching a brand, to registration and granting to administration afterwards. All this in Germany, Europe and virtually any other country in the world.
 
To protect and enforce your rights, we also support you in subsequent proceedings – if required, in close cooperation with specialized attorneys-at-law.

Trademark searches

Developing a brand is an effort that is both time-consuming and cost-intensive. In order to minimize the risk that your already started activities have to be stopped abruptly due to existing trademarks of third parties, it is important to know about third party trademark and other rights before starting from the beginning.

We help you to avoid pitfalls as that right from the start. We provide you with an overview of third party rights which may cause a potential conflict. For this purpose, we search for identical or similar trademarks with the help of leading databases, if necessary worldwide.

Design rights

With a design right, available, e.g., both in Germany and in the EU as a Community design, protection is granted for the appearance of your products or logos.

Design rights have many advantages: they can be obtained quickly and they can be enforced effectively. The costs associated with design rights are moderate in view of its enforcement capability.

We help you to protect your design achievements comprehensively and in a legally binding manner, thereby creating and preserving value for your company.

Dispute avoidance and Dispute procedures

We initiate and coordinate infringement proceedings for you. For this purpose, we work closely with specialized attorneys-at-law which we specifically select for each individual case.

If you are an owner of an intellectual property right, we will assist you in pursuing infringement actions in court. If you are the defendant, we support you in developing a defense strategy with the aim of minimizing the economic damage.

If you are prosecuted in court, we will support you. Should a dispute with a competitor arise, it is often advisable to try to reach a settlement as quietly as possible in advance. We will assist you in negotiations with your competitor. Our range of services also includes expert opinions on whether or not an infringement has occurred.

Licences and Contracts

So that you can profit financially from your intellectual property rights, it is possible to grant licenses. Or you may be planning to take out licenses for third-party intellectual property rights.

In both cases, we help you to negotiate and formulate a sound contractual basis on the basis of which a trusting cooperation with your partner is possible and future conflicts can be avoided in advance in the best possible way.

We promise to support you with highly qualified and dedicated attorneys together with our motivated and constantly trained staff.

For our national and international clients, this means that they always receive individual attention by the lawyer they know. This is the way we believe is best to ensure continuous advice and representation at the highest level.

Good IP rights need the best possible support .

Good IP rights need the best possible support .

We promise to support you with highly qualified and dedicated attorneys together with our motivated and constantly trained staff.

For our national and international clients, this means that they always receive individual attention by the lawyer they know. This is the way we believe is best to ensure continuous advice and representation at the highest level.

We promise to support you with highly qualified and dedicated attorneys together with our motivated and constantly trained staff.

Dr.-Ing. Frank-Michael Schmidt

Dr. rer. nat. Philipp Lilie

Dr.-Ing. Andreas Zachcial

Monika U. Enders

Jochen Bongards

Dr.-Ing. Christian Klever

Dr.-Ing. Frank-Michael Schmidt

Monika U. Enders

Jochen Bongards

Dr. rer. nat. Philipp Lilie

Dr.-Ing. Andreas Zachcial

Dr.-Ing. Christian Klever

Contact information

Feel free to contact us by email or phone at any time.

If you need to send us files of any size and number in a secure manner, simply email us for a link to an encrypted browser upload to one of our secure servers, which are hosted in our own offices and are exclusively available to our clients for secure data exchange.

ZENZ Patentanwälte Partnerschaft mbB

Visitor address:
Gutenbergstr. 39
D-45128 Essen
Germany

Postal address:
P.O. box 104363
D-45043 Essen
Germany

Phone: +49 – (0)201 – 81036 – 0

Email: info@zenz-ip.de

Stadtplan

ZENZ Patentanwälte Partnerschaft mbB

Visitor address:
Gutenbergstr. 39
D-45128 Essen
Germany

Postal address:
P.O. box 104363
D-45043 Essen
Germany

Phone: +49 201 81036-0

Email: info@zenz-ip.de

Stadtplan