Dr Dirk Bühler
German Patent Attorney
European Patent Attorney
Biochemist
Dirk Bühler specializes in the management of product-related patent portfolios worldwide as well as the associated opposition, nullity and infringement proceedings in the fields of pharmaceuticals, biotechnology and personalized therapy and diagnostics. He regularly advises clients on complex SPC matters and freedom-to-operate strategies in these areas.
His extensive experience enables him to bring strategic IP consultancy and patent portfolio creation/management into alignment with the economic interests of his clients in a rapidly changing market environment. Clients value his interdisciplinary approach of combining questions relating to patent law with regulatory requirements for marketing authorization of medicinal products in order to achieve the fullest protection possible.
Dirk has received numerous awards for his professional activities as patent attorney and regularly publishes articles on various aspects of patent law.
Since 2007 | Partner, shareholder and managing director at Maiwald |
Since 2004 | Patent attorney at Maiwald |
2001-2004 | Patent attorney trainee at Maiwald |
| 2004 | Admitted to practice as European patent attorney |
| 2004 | Admitted to practice as German patent attorney |
2001-2004 | Studied law for patent attorneys at the University of Hagen |
1998-2001 | Doctoral degree in the field of biochemistry from the Freie Universität Berlin (doctoral research at the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry) |
1992-1998 | Studied biochemistry at the Freie Universität Berlin, the University of California, Berkeley and Heidelberg University |
- Complex patent portfolio management and patent prosecution
- Opposition, appeal and nullity proceedings
- Patent infringement proceedings
- Supplementary protection certificates proceedings
- Freedom-to-operate and validity analysis
- Strategic consulting for biotech start-up companies
- „Frequently Recommended Attorney“ in JUVE German Commercial Law Firms 2018/2019, 2019/2020
- Recommended in Legal 500 EMEA 2019, 2020
- MIP IP Star 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020
- Recommended in MIP IP Stars 2016, 2017
- Recommended in Legal 500 Deutschland 2016, 2017, 2019, 2020
- For many years listed in IAM Patent 1000 “World’s Leading Patent Professionals”
- Doctoral scholarship of the Boehringer Ingelheim Fund
- Scholarship of the “Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes”
- Handbuch des Patentrechts, Haedicke/Timmann (eds.), C.H.BECK, 2nd edition 2020 (together with Johannes W. Bukow et al.)
- CAR-T-Zelltherapien – Herausforderungen beim IP, BioTechnologie Jahrbuch, 2019
- CJEU asked to clarify functional definition issue, Managing Intellectual Property, 01/2018
- Supplementary Protection Certificates (SPC), C.H.BECK, 2016 (jointly published with Marco Stief)
- Patent Law – A Handbook on European and German Patent Law, Haedicke/Timmann (eds.), C.H.BECK, 2014 (together with Johannes W. Bukow et al.)
- Federal Supreme Court endorses functional claim language, Managing Intellectual Property, 12/2013
- Handbuch des Patentrechts, Haedicke/Timmann (eds.), C.H.BECK, 2012 (together with Johannes W. Bukow et al.)
- Representation in opposition appeal proceedings leading to the BGH X ZB 8/12 „Dipeptidyl-Peptidase-Inhibitors“ decision
- Representation in SPC application proceedings before the ECJ in case C-650/17 (Royalty Pharma/Sitagliptin)
- Representation in infringement proceedings concerning non-invasive prenatal diagnostics (EP 0 994 963)
- Attending to patent portfolios, opposition and appeal proceedings before the European Patent Office as well as participation in various infringement proceedings, inter alia concerning Oxygesic®, Tramundin®, and Targin®
- German Patent Attorney Association
- epi
- GBM
- GRUR
German, English