Herbert Smith Freehills grows IP practice with hire of partner Florian Schmidt-Bogatzky

Leading international law firm Herbert Smith Freehills has hired Florian Schmidt-Bogatzky as a partner in its Intellectual Property (IP) practice based in the firm's Disputes group in Düsseldorf. 

Florian is a German and Unified Patent Court (UPC) patent litigator with more than 20 years' experience in national and cross-border patent infringement litigation. Florian's primary focus is the technology sector, including litigation regarding chips, telecommunications and Wi-Fi, for mobile phone companies, chip producers and LED companies amongst others. He also has expertise in automotive and pharma. In addition to litigation, Florian advises on license agreements, employee inventorship issues and research & development agreements.

Florian filed one of the first complaints at the UPC and has, inter alia, been lead counsel in the patent litigations Broadcom vs Netflix, Broadcom vs Tesla and Sonos vs Google.

Florian joins from IP boutique EIP. He has held a teaching position for IP law at a university in Hamburg since 2007.

Laura Orlando, Joint Global Head of Intellectual Property at Herbert Smith Freehills, comments: "Germany is the largest and most strategic forum of choice for patent disputes in Europe, attracting claimants from all over the world, and it is also a key UPC seat for high tech patent litigation. In Florian we are adding a highly experienced tech patent litigator who will enable us to extend our reputation for handling complex, multi-jurisdictional and high value intellectual property matters, not only in Germany but across Europe more widely."

Kai Liebrich, Managing Partner Germany at Herbert Smith Freehills, comments: "With Florian, we are expanding our practice in Germany to include an area where we see great growth opportunities. We are complementing our IP practice with an offer in the tech sector that we already have in the pharmaceutical sector, and will be able to fully exploit the strength of our international network in the German market in the future".

Dr. Patricia Nacimiento, Head of Disputes Germany at Herbert Smith Freehills, comments: "We are pleased about this further addition to our large and broad-based disputes practice, which with the addition of Florian Schmidt-Bogatzky once again gains expertise in an important and rapidly developing sector. We are looking forward to working with him".

Florian Schmidt-Bogatzky comments: "The prospect of contributing to the continuing growth of the patent team at Herbert Smith Freehills – a firm with an unrivalled global platform for my clients – is a significant driving factor for me."

In October 2024, Herbert Smith Freehills was ranked first by number of patentees represented across all UPC cases.

Florian's arrival is the latest growth for the firm in Germany, following the most recent hire of a ten-member Corporate-M&A team led by partners Oliver Duys, Dr Wilhelm Nolting-Hauff and Dr Nikita Tkatchenko and the hire of Thorsten Matthies, a Disputes partner with a particular focus on antitrust litigation, in October 2024 (Link to press release). Following Florian's hire, the firm will boast around 90 professionals including 24 partners across its German offices.