Dehns has today announced its merger with Kudlek Grunert & Partner (KGP), a German firm of patent and trade mark attorneys with whom Dehns has enjoyed a close association for more than 20 years, and with whom there has been a formal joint venture, “Dehns Germany”, since 2013.
Dehns has had an office in Munich since 1979, from where it has delivered IP services to German and UK clients, and an increasing number of major international clients, including from the US, Japan, China and South Korea. With the addition of the highly experienced KGP team, Dehns is significantly expanding its existing offer with an enhanced level of expertise and knowledge in a number of different technology and legal areas. The enlarged German team will be focusing on existing and new domestic German clients, bringing to KGP’s attorneys access to an increased level of resources, knowledge and skills which the merger with a large patent and trade mark attorney firm can provide. The team will also be servicing existing and new clients from around the world, providing a comprehensive European IP offer for multinationals in any technology sector.
Alex Piesold, Senior Partner at Dehns, commented:
“This significant development, along with our recent establishment of an office in Oslo, establishes Dehns firmly across Europe, in the UK, Germany and Norway. Our planning has been driven by the desire to continue to offer our clients, local and worldwide, a full IP service in Europe, and indeed expand that service. It gives me great pleasure that the discussions we have been having with our new colleagues have now come to fruition.”
Thomas Kudlek, one of the founding partners of KGP, added:
“This is all about meeting growing client requirements in the international context. Merging our firms will leverage the experience, depth and breadth of both firms, providing clients with increased access to constructive solutions. By coming together as one firm, we will be in a position to deliver outstanding value to our clients.”
About Dehns
Founded in 1920, Dehns is a top tier ranked firm and one of Europe’s largest firms of patent and trade mark attorneys with more than 230 staff across 8 offices: London, Munich, Oxford, Brighton, Oslo, Manchester, Bristol and Sandwich.
The firm’s patent work comes from European direct clients, particularly from Scandinavia, as well as the UK. The firm also acts for a large number of US clients and handles a significant amount of work originating in Asia. Most of the firms’ trade mark work comes from the UK and from US direct clients.
Clients include private inventors, universities and research institutions, start-ups, SMEs, as well as large multinational corporations. The firm’s straightforward, business-oriented approach combined with its technical excellence has made it a leader in its field, and its attorneys have expertise in a wide range of technologies across the engineering, chemistry and biotechnology sectors.
On average the firm files 4000+ UK, European and international patent applications each year (in 2019 this number increased to more than 6,000) and carries out a high level of opposition and litigation work. In each of the years 2015 – 2019, Dehns filed the most patent applications of any UK patent attorney firm.
About Kudlek Grunert & Partner (KGP)
Founded as a regional partnership with offices in Munich and Stuttgart in 1997, the firm in its present form was established in 2009. It has extensive experience in patent, trade mark and design prosecution and litigation, licensing and as well as employee invention law. Due to the broad technical and scientific background and expertise of its attorneys, the firm has especially handled patent work in fields of mechanical, automotive, chemical and electrical engineering, physics, particularly optics, computer technology, electronics, and computer and software related inventions.
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