INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY Our expertise in intellectual property law
Our approach 2 We strive to meet exceed your expectations Other lawyers are proud of the tradition of their law firm. We are proud of our modern approach to legal advice. Other lawyers claim to know better than you. We know better than to dismiss your input. We learned our business from scratch at a leading international law firm. Here we have advised large corporations, traditional mid-sized companies as well as innovative start-ups for many years. We are therefore well familiar with the challenges intellectual property matters can present to companies and we know how to overcome them. Due to our lean and efficient structure we are able to offer competitive prices. This way your costs can be reduced without compromising on quality. We are looking forward to meeting you in person to convince you of our modern approach to legal advice. Dr. David Slopek, LL.M. Attorney-at-law and bar-certified specialist for IP Dr. Eva Vonau Attorney-at-law Other lawyers claim to have seen it all before. We are not afraid to change our perspective to find better solutions. We do straight-talking: We present chances and risks in a clear and precise manner and give unambiguous recommendations. You will benefit from direct, fast and uncomplicated communication with your lawyer. This also benefits us: The better we understand your business, the better the solutions we can find for you.
3 A strong team A strong team 4 Who we are and what we do Dr. David E.F. Slopek, LL.M. Attorney-at-law Bar-certified specialist for IP matters david.slopek@slopek-vonau.com Dr. Eva Vonau Attorney-at-law eva.vonau@slopek-vonau.com No matter if we talk about a strong trademark, an innovative business concept or a modern packaging design whoever has created something deserves protection for this work. It is both my job and my passion to defend all kinds of intellectual property. The main focus of my work is the registration, enforcement and defense of trademarks. Moreover, I have extensive experience in design and unfair competition law (lookalikes, misleading advertising etc.). My daily work includes advice on filing strategies, conducting clearance searches as well as opposition and cancellation proceedings before the trade mark offices and civil courts. I also represent my clients in preliminary injunction proceedings and infringement proceedings before courts on a regular basis. Keeping up with the latest developments in technology is a hobby of mine. My goal is to not only to use the newest features, I also want to understand how they work. My approach to legal advice is similar: I want to understand the products and business models of my clients before giving advice. I provide practical advice on all legal questions related to copyright, media and unfair competition law. A big part of my work consists of writing and responding to cease-and-desist letters, representing clients in court proceedings and conducting contract negotiations. In addition, I support my clients in ensuring that their websites, marketing campaigns and unconventional business models comply with legal requirements. 70 specialized publications. I must admit that I careers. write a lot. In my experience, you often find the best solutions by approaching a problem systematically and from different angles. And because I have fun doing so, I often put my thoughts on legal questions down in writing. 2years. For that time I have lived and worked in Alicante, where the EUIPO is situated. During this time I focused exclusively on European trademark and design law. Today, my clients take advantage of this experience when I represent them in proceedings before the EUIPO, the GC or the CJEU. 5years. This is how long I have been teaching International Copyright Law as well as Licensing Aspects of Copyright Law at the renowned Bucerius Law School in Hamburg. I love sharing my passion for copyright law with others. 2I am not only a lawyer, I am also a certified technical assistant for video and audio productions. This allows me a different view on all legal questions relating to media, creativity and technology. Plus, speaking the same language as my clients is helpful.
5 Areas of expertise Take advantage of our expertise TRADEMARK LAW Trademark law in any form and manifestation is one of our core competencies. No matter whether you want to assess the availability of your mark, ensure its smooth registration or enforce it against infringers we have extensive experience with it and are happy to help you as a reliable partner in all trademark related matters. COPYRIGHT LAW Another of our core competencies is copyright law. This area of law may well have gained the most importance within the digital revolution. We have been monitoring the developments for many years and can advise you comprehensively regarding all questions on creation, distribution, administration, defense and licensing of copyright protected works. UNFAIR COMPETITION LAW Not everyone in the business world is playing fair. Unfair competition law is a powerful tool to inhibit all forms of unfair business practices from the unlawful replication of goods to misleading advertising. We will not only take action against your competitors, but also if need be defend you against unjustified claims from competitors. MEDIA LAW The media landscape is constantly changing in the digital era. From online shopping to digital broadcasting up to delivery and taxi services, more and more services move from the offline to the online world. We help you to comply with the legal requirements arising from broadcasting, media and advertising law for your business model. DESIGN LAW Companies from innovation-driven industry sectors (such as the fashion or foodstuff industry) protect their creative output by means of design law. If you would like to develop a design strategy, register your designs or enforce them against copycats, we are happy to assist you. MARKETING LAW The are as many different legal requirements for advertising as there are different forms of marketing. The regulations differ not only with regard to the products that are advertised, but also regarding the medium in which the marketing campaign is available (e.g. print, TV, Internet). We guide you through the jungle of rules.
7 For good reason Why you will enjoy working with us We worked in a leading international law firm for many years. During that time we gained extensive experience but also saw room for improvement. We believe that many aspects of legal work can be carried out more efficiently by smaller and more flexible law firms. We have therefore decided to establish our own firm and to offer our clients the best of two worlds: Legal advice meeting the highest professional standards combined with the advantages of a specialized IP boutique law firm. SPECIALIZATION QUALIFICATION EXPERIENCE COSTS We do not try to be a full service law firm, but understand ourselves as a highly specialized IP boutique. This enables us to give competent, fast and cost-efficient advice. All our lawyers are triedand-trusted experts. State examinations with honors, qualifications like PhD and LL.M., regular publications and presentations as well as lectureships show our outstanding expertise. We have worked in Germany and Spain for many years and advised both domestic and international clients of all sizes and from all industry sectors on intellectual property matters. Good advice does not have to be expensive. Due to our lean structure and transparent fee models, you will be able to reduce your legal costs significantly. LANGUAGE SPEED INTERNATIONALITY COMMITMENT We do not try to impress our clients with complicated legal terms, but rather discuss difficult legal problems in a simple and straightforward language everyone can understand. If you have to consult a lawyer, time is often of the essence. Our promise: When you contact us, we will revert on the same day and meet even tight deadlines reliably. We have an established international network. In case of cross-border disputes or if you have legal questions relating to other jurisdictions, we are happy to serve as your single point of contact. We consider ourselves as a part of your team. Therefore we are more committed to protecting your interests than you would expect from an external adviser.
9 Individual and transparent Individual and transparent 10 Tailor-made fee arrangements We know that cost certainty is almost as important for our clients as quality of advice. We respond to this by not only offering competitive hourly rates but also a wide range of alternative fee models that can be customized to meet the specific needs of each of our clients. In doing so we ensure that you will be as satisfied with our invoices as you will be with our legal briefs. HOURLY FEE FIXED FEE CAPPED FEE SUCCESS FEE MONTHLY FEE BUNDLE FEE FEE OPTIONS YOUR FEE Our lean structure enables us to offer our legal advice at attractive hourly rates. Moreover, if certain thresholds are met, we further reduce rates for your direct benefit. We are able to estimate the expected workload for many tasks. This allows us to offer our advice at fairly calculated fixed fees and gives you full control over your costs. Compared to the fixed fee we calculate a higher safety margin for a capped fee. However, if the actual workload remains below the cap, you only pay for the time actually needed. If it is possible to clearly define success or failure in advance (e.g. the outcome of a court proceeding) it is possible to link the fee to the outcome. In other words: You pay more if we win and you pay less if the outcome is not what was hoped for. We want to establish a permanent working relationship with you. A possible basis for doing so could be a monthly fee. If the workload can be defined and anticipated reasonably we can offer to do all work for a fixed monthly fee. If you need routine work to be done (e.g. standard oppositions, warning letters or the like) we can do this for a standard fixed fee that includes a discount compared to our hourly rates. This helps you to control your budget for standard work. Whenever possible, we will not only offer you a single fee model, but rather various options from which you can choose the one you prefer. It is our mission to align our fee structure as much as possible with the needs of our clients. Therefore we are happy to discuss any alternative fee arrangement you may have in mind.
11 Always up-to-date Always up-to-date 12 Professional publications 53 SPECIALIZED PUBLICATIONS If you seek legal advice there should be no doubt that your lawyer is up-to-date on the legal developments. That said, we actively stay on top of the latest case-law and legal discussions relating to intellectual property law. We also carefully consider any developments in our area of expertise and if necessary even shape the legal opinion ourselves by participating in ongoing discussions. Our articles and case comments have been cited several hundred times, including various citations by the German Federal Supreme Court. You can trust in our expertise in IP law. 33 CASE COMMENTS 2 MONOGRAPHS O U R P U B L I C A T I O N S F O L L O W T H E S A M E PRINCIPLES AS OUR L E G A L B R I E F S : T H E Y A R E B A S E D O N C A R E F U L L E G A L A N A LY S I S, SKILLFUL DRAFTING A N D A L W A Y S A S T U T E T O T H E P O I N T. 1 LEGAL COMMENTARY 1 LAW JOURNAL + BLOGPOSTS, INTERVIEWS, ETC.
13 Contact us Contact us 14 Your gateway to German IP law Most of our clients prefer contacting us by e-mail view on the Hamburger Speicherstadt, a historical or telephone. If you want to visit us you find our warehouse district that became a UNESCO world office in the heart of the old city center of Hamburg heritage site in 2015. The office is easy to reach by in the so-called Zippelhaus. The historic building subway (U3: Rathaus; U1: Meßberg). If you visit us was constructed in 1876 and has a magnificent by car, public parking is available nearby. U3 RATHAUS Slopek Vonau Zippelhaus 6 20457 Hamburg Germany U1 MESSBERG T: +49 40 882 153 900 E: kontakt@slopek-vonau.com W: This map was created with Inkatlas.com. OpenStreetMap contributors (openstreetmap.org), Inkatlas.
Slopek Vonau Rechtsanwälte PartG mbb Zippelhaus 6 20457 Hamburg Germany kontakt@slopek-vonau.com