Wragge & Co LLP will open an Intellectual Property (IP) office in Munich before the end of 2008. Ex-Meissner Bolte partner Michael Schneider has been recruited to lead the Munich operation and takes up partnership from September 1. In the autumn he will be joined by Jones Day lawyer Alexander Bayer as a director. A final decision on office premises and an official opening date will be taken within the next few weeks.

Gordon Harris, head of the IP team, said: "A tangible presence in Germany is the next logical step for us to achieve our goal of being number one in Europe. We considered a number of locations but chose Munich because of its established reputation as an IP litigation forum, its proximity to the European Patent Office and our existing client base. We have worked with Michael for many years on numerous shared client assignments and we know that he shares our standards of expertise and excellence."

The firm will continue its association relationship with Graf von Westphalen, which started in 2003, on all other service lines.

Christopher Hughes, head of international, said: "We have discussed our plans with Graf von Westphalen from the beginning. The Graf partners understand and support our decision to open a dedicated IP office. Both firms place enormous value on our long-standing relationship and will continue to develop that relationship in the best interests of the clients of both firms."

Gerhard Manz, Graf von Westphalen partner, said: "IP has consistently proved to be a service line that leads to other client assignments, especially in employment, pensions, corporate and competition. With Wragge & Co's already outstanding reputation in IP, we are confident that an even stronger IP team with greater international focus will bring many joint benefits for both of our firms."

Wragge & Co's 41-lawyer IP team is one of the UK's largest dedicated IP practices. Its client list includes eight FTSE 100s and two FTSE 250s, names like Astex Therapeutics, AstraZeneca, Birds Eye, British Airways, Eisai, Kingspan and United Biscuits. High-profile cases include Nokia v InterDigital, O2 Holdings and O2 (UK) v Hutchison 3G and Cinpres Gas Injection Ltd v Melea Ltd. In 2007 the IP team was named Managing Intellectual Property's (MIP) UK IP Team of the Year. In 2008 MIP's global survey noted the 'genuinely strong all-round practice' built by the team including its high-tech patent practice and its 'cutting edge' trade mark and copyright work.

Eight-year qualified Schneider was appointed a partner at Meissner Bolte in 2007 and left earlier this year. While at Meissner Bolte he specialised in patent infringement and invalidity litigation as well as contentious and non-contentious trademark and unfair competition work. He has previously worked for the IP litigation department of Wessing, now Taylor Wessing, in Munich and for the European Patent Office.

Alexander Bayer has been as senior associate in the Jones Day IP/IT law department since June 2007 where he represented numerous national and international clients on competition, trademark design and patent litigation proceedings. He is also professionally experienced in IT-law matters, in particular in connection with data protection law issues. He had previously worked at Preu Bohlig & Partner, also in Munich, and has held academic posts at the Max Planck Institute for Intellectual Property, Munich and McGill University, Montreal.

Schneider will take the total number of IP partners to ten. In its latest round of internal partner promotions, Wragge & Co made up two IP partners in Alexandra Brodie, a specialist in high-technology patent and trade mark litigation, and life sciences expert Dr Luke Kempton. Other recruits include life sciences regulation specialist Liz Fuller, IP tax specialist Anne Fairpo and Jian Xu, a Chinese trade mark and patent attorney based in China.

Wragge & Co's UK offices are in Birmingham and London. The Munich IP operation will add to the firm's international presence in Brussels and Hong Kong while supporting its international strategy of a 'best friends' network representing top legal practitioners all over the world.

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For further information about this press release, contact Kathryn Hobbs on +44 (0)121 213 2397, Alexa Highfield on +44 (0)121 213 2396 or Amie Ryalls on +44 (0)121 213 2360

This press release may contain information of general interest about current legal issues, but does not give legal advice.