Patent Attor­ney (DE, CH), Euro­pean Patent Attor­ney, Attor­ney-at-Law (DE), Cer­ti­fied IP Lawyer, Euro­pean Patent Lit­i­ga­tor (UPC), M.Sc. (Physics) — Partner

E‑Mail: s@dts.law
Tel:+49 (0)89 219996–0
Fax:+49 (0)89 219996–99

• patent lit­i­ga­tion and nul­li­ty proceedings
• oppo­si­tion pro­ceed­ings before the EPO
• patent- and trademark-strategy
• IP-due dili­gence, license agreements
• employ­ee inven­tion law

In addi­tion to man­ag­ing patent port­fo­lios, Robert Schneken­bühl is pri­mar­i­ly involved in two-par­ty pro­ceed­ings. Three years after found­ing the law firm, at the age of 33, he was already rep­re­sent­ing For­tune 500 com­pa­nies in patent infringe­ment pro­ceed­ings. Since then he has con­duct­ed many pro­ceed­ings that have also been dis­cussed in the media. In addi­tion, he suc­cess­ful­ly con­ducts oppo­si­tion pro­ceed­ings for his clients before the Euro­pean Patent Office (EPO) and the GPTO, as well as nul­li­ty actions before the FPC.

In addi­tion to the pro­ce­dures before the offices and courts, anoth­er focus is the con­duct of out-of-court nego­ti­a­tions. In US patent infringe­ment pro­ceed­ings, he was appoint­ed to con­duct spe­cial master’s pro­ceed­ings in Germany.

Due to his exper­tise in the man­age­ment of patent port­fo­lios and his knowl­edge of employ­ee inven­tion law, he and his team are reg­u­lar­ly called in to pre­pare and car­ry out due dili­gence pro­ce­dures in the IP area.

Robert has been work­ing exclu­sive­ly in the area of ​​intel­lec­tu­al prop­er­ty since 1994. His tech­ni­cal back­ground is physics and he earned a Mas­ter of Sci­ence in physics at the Uni­ver­si­ty of St. Andrews (Scot­land). He is reg­is­tered as Ger­man patent attor­ney as well as autho­rized rep­re­sen­ta­tive before the EPO and as Swiss patent attor­ney. Addi­tion­al­ly, he is reg­is­tered as a Ger­man attor­ney-at-law, as Euro­pean Patent Lit­i­ga­tor (UPC) and as Cer­ti­fied IP lawyer.

He is a CEIPI-Tutor at the Uni­ver­sitée Robert Schu­mann, Stras­bourg, where he gives lec­tures on “oppo­si­tion pro­ceed­ings before the Euro­pean Patent Office” in Munich. Fur­ther, he is tutor and mem­ber of the exam­i­na­tion board at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Hagen for an LL.M. pro­gram for patent attor­neys and for the edu­ca­tion of the can­di­dates for the Ger­man patent bar and the Euro­pean Qual­i­fy­ing Exam­i­na­tion at the EPO. He is a co-author of a com­men­tary on patent law in Ger­many and at the EPO and he is co-author of a hand­book on patent law, espe­cial­ly for the chap­ter on patent strat­e­gy and mon­e­ti­za­tion of patents.

He is a reg­u­lar speak­er in inter­na­tion­al and nation­al sem­i­nars on top­ics of patent infringe­ment pro­ceed­ings, the oppo­si­tion pro­ceed­ing before the EPO and the Ger­man legal sys­tem, espe­cial­ly the patent infring­ment and nul­li­ty proceedings.

Mot­to: Si vis pacem para bellum

Mem­ber­ships

• AIPLA, observ­er at APAA

• Laser physics; opto­elec­tron­ics, optics, photonics;
• med­ical instruments;
• mechan­i­cal engi­neer­ing; car industry;
• process engi­neer­ing;
• nano-tech­nol­o­gy;
• com­put­er tech­nolo­gies; soft­ware relat­ed inventions;
• sport indus­try;
• envi­ron­men­tal engi­neer­ing, fil­ter­ing, cat­alyt­ic con­vert­er, recy­cling and solar ener­gy; sol­id state physics, ceramics.

Patent and trade­mark lit­i­ga­tion. Inva­lid­i­ty pro­ceed­ings before the FPC (nul­li­ty pro­ceed­ings) and the EPO (oppo­si­tion pro­ceed­ings and appeal).

Patent and trade­mark pros­e­cu­tion before the Ger­man PTO, EPO, UPC, OHIM and IGE.

• 2020: Co-author “Hand­buch des Paten­trechts” Haedicke/Timmann, chap­ter on patent man­age­ment und Patent mon­e­ti­za­tion, pub­lish­er C.H. Beck
• 2008 – 2022: Co-author of a com­men­tary on patent law for the Ger­man Patent Act and the EPC (Euro­pean Patent Con­ven­tion) „Fitzn­er, Lutz, Bodewig“ – com­ment­ing the pro­vi­sions for the oppo­si­tion pro­ceed­ings before the EPO (Art. 99 – 105c), fil­ing of patent appli­ca­tions of not-enti­tled per­sons Art. 61 EPÜ, the oppo­si­tion pro­ceed­ings of the Ger­man Patent Act  PatG (§ 59 – 64 PatG), the nul­li­ty pro­ceed­ings before the Fed­er­al Patent Court and the vin­di­ca­tion, § 8 PatG; Online-com­men­tary pub­lish­er C.H. Beck
• 2008 – today: mem­ber of the exam­i­na­tion board for the LL.M. pro­gram „Europäis­ch­er Gewerblich­er Rechtss­chutz“ of the FU Hagen
• 2006 – 2020: lec­tur­er and exam­in­er with the Ger­man Attor­ney Acad­e­my (Deutsche Anwalt­sakademie) for a course for Ger­man spe­cial­ist solic­i­tors in IP law
• 2005 – today: mem­ber of the aca­d­e­m­ic team of the FU Hagen, Co-Author of the course on  „Oppo­si­tion Pro­ceed­ings accord­ing to the EPC” and author of the course on “Basics of the EQE at the EPO”
• 2003 – today: lec­tur­er with FORUM, espe­cial­ly with sem­i­nars on “Patent lit­i­ga­tion and nul­li­ty pro­ceed­ings in Ger­many” as well as “Oppo­si­tion pro­ceed­ings before the EPO“
• 2001 – today: CEIPI-Tutor, espe­cial­ly for oppo­si­tion pro­ceed­ings at the EPO and the fil­ing of patent appli­ca­tions by non-enti­tled per­sons, Art. 61 EPC
• 2001 – today: mem­ber of the exam­i­na­tion board for the exam­i­na­tion of Ger­man patent attor­ney can­di­dates in the con­text of the legal course at the FU Hagen.

• 10.06.2022 Munich – IPO’s Euro­pean Prac­tice Con­fer­ence “Equiv­a­lence in Germany”
• 24./25.03.2022 Hei­del­berg (ViCo) – Forum Sem­i­nar – IP-Manager
• 04./05.11.2021 Hei­del­berg (ViCo) – Forum Sem­i­nar – IP-Manager
• 11./12.03.2021 Hei­del­berg (ViCo) – Forum Sem­i­nar – IP-Manager
• 18.06.2020 Munich (ViCo) – Oral Pro­ceed­ings via a Video­Con­fer­ence-Sys­tem: New ways of plead­ing a case
• 29.11.2019 Hei­del­berg – Forum Sem­i­nar – IP-Manager
• 22.05.2019 Rijswijk, Den Haag, NL – EPA: Exam­i­na­tion Mat­ters – Mem­ber of the Del­e­ga­tion EPI: Co-Ref­er­ent WS15 “Effi­cient pro­ce­dure by effi­cient com­mu­ni­ca­tion with the EPO”
• 05.04.2019 Hei­del­berg – Forum Sem­i­nar – IP-Manager

• 12.2017 München – EPA: „Con­ti­nous Knowl­edge Trans­fer“ – Die mündliche Ver­hand­lung am EPA, ins­beson­dere vor den Ein­spruchsabteilun­gen des EPA
  01.12.2017 Hei­del­berg – Forum Sem­i­nar – IP-Manager
• 07.2017 Frank­furt – Forum Sem­i­nar – „Pro­jek­t­s­teuerung Patentver­let­zungsver­fahren – Erken­nen – Vor­bere­it­en – Begleit­en – Nachbereiten“
• 04.2017 München, CEIPI-Kurs, „Recht an der Erfindung“
• 03.2017 Hei­del­berg – Forum Sem­i­nar – IP-Manager
• 03.2017 Han­nover – VPP Bezirks­gruppe Mitte-Nord – „Schutzbere­ichs­bes­tim­mung von Paten­ten in Deutsch­land und im Europäis­chen Vergleich“
• 07.2016 Hei­del­berg – Forum Sem­i­nar – IP-Manager
• 18.12.2015 München – DAA-Sem­i­nar – „Patentver­let­zung und Nichtigkeitsverfahren“
• 17.11.2015 Oki­nawa – APAA – „Claim Con­struc­tion in Valid­i­ty pro­ceed­ings and in Infringe­ment pro­ceed­ings in Germany“
• 03.2015 Hei­del­berg – Forum Sem­i­nar – IP-Manager
• 06.2014 Hei­del­berg – Forum Sem­i­nar – Man­ag­er Patent
• 03.2013 München, CEIPI-Kurs, „Recht an der Erfindung“
• 11.2012 München – DAA-Sem­i­nar – „Patentver­let­zung und Nichtigkeitsver­fahren“ Lehrgang Fachan­walt für gewerblich­er Rechtsschutz
• 10.05.2012 Austin, Texas, USA – AIPLA Spring Meet­ing – „Nul­li­ty pro­ceed­ings in Europe“
• 10.2010 München – Forum-Sem­i­nar – „Patentver­let­zungsver­fahren“ mit VorsRi OLG Kon­rad Retzer
• 04.2010 München – Forum-Sem­i­nar – „Paten­tre­f­er­ent I“
• 04.2010 Frank­furt a.M. – Deutsche Anwalt Akademie im Rah­men des Fach­lehrgangs Gewerblich­er Rechtschutz
• 03.2010 München – Forum Sem­i­nar – „Patentver­let­zungsver­fahren“ mit VorsRi OLG Kon­rad Retzer
• 11.2009 München – DTS-Sem­i­nar – „EPÜ 2000“
• 11.2009 München – DTS-Sem­i­nar – „Paten­tämter und ‑gerichte in München“
• 03.2009 München – Forum-Sem­i­nar – „Patentver­let­zungsver­fahren“ mit VorsRi OLG Kon­rad Retzer
• 03.2008 München, Forum-Sem­i­nar – „Patentver­let­zungsver­fahren“ mit VorsRi OLG Kon­rad Retzer
• 06.2002 Kiev, Ukraine – „Dis­pute Res­o­lu­tion in Court and Admin­is­tra­tion Pro­ce­dures – the Ger­man Legal Sys­tem for patent lit­i­ga­tion“, ver­anstal­tet vom Euro­pean Patent Office (EPO) und The State Depart­ment of Intel­lec­tu­al Prop­er­ty of the Ukraine (SDIP)
• 21.06.2002 – Fer­nuni­ver­sität in Hagen – Vor­lesungsver­anstal­tung der deutschen Paten­tan­walt­skam­mer im Rah­men des Stu­di­en­ganges „Recht für Paten­tan­walts­be­wer­ber“- „Schutzum­fang deutsch­er Patente und Gebrauchsmuster“
• 07.06.2002 – Fer­nuni­ver­sität in Hagen – Vor­lesungsver­anstal­tung der deutschen Paten­tan­walt­skam­mer im Rah­men des Stu­di­en­ganges „Recht für Paten­tan­walts­be­wer­ber – „Patentver­let­zungsver­fahren“ / „Schutzbere­ichs­bes­tim­mung deutsch­er Patente und Gebrauchsmuster“
• 04.2002 – Zürich – Sem­i­nar „Strate­gic Port­fo­lio Man­age­ment“ von DTS und Dr. Koch Con­sult­ing – „Durch­set­zung von Schutzrecht­en in Europa“
• 03.2002 – Pader­born – Früh­jahrs-Tre­f­fen der Patent­fach­leute in OWL – „Visu­al­isierung tech­nis­ch­er Sachver­halte, ins­beson­dere im Patentverletzungsprozess“
• -25.02.2002 – München – CEIPI-Kurs – „Ein­spruchsver­fahren vor dem EPA“
• 02.2002 – Fer­nuni­ver­sität in Hagen – Vor­lesungsver­anstal­tung der deutschen Paten­tan­walt­skam­mer im Rah­men des Stu­di­en­ganges „Recht für Paten­tan­walts­be­wer­ber“- „Schutzum­fang deutsch­er Patente und Gebrauchsmuster“
  12./ 19.11.2001 – München – CEIPI-Kurs – „Ein­spruchsver­fahren vor dem EPA/C‑Teil“
• 10.2001 – DTS Sem­i­nar – „Patentverletzung/ Nichtigkeitsklage“
• 10.2001 – DTS Sem­i­nar – „Patentstrate­gie“
  15.05.2001 Philadel­phia – Deutsch/Amerikanische Han­del­skam­mer – „One Stop Shop Europe – The Euro­pean Com­mu­ni­ty Patent“
• 01.2001 – DTS Sem­i­nar München – „Patentver­let­zungs- und Nichtigkeitsklage“