We advise our clients on the registration of trademarks and designs, manage intellectual property portfolios and defend intellectual property rights. We draft NDAs, terms of use and licence agreements, and also advise on issues of industrial espionage and unauthorised use of commercial and company secrets. If a dispute arises, we represent you and your company both in and out of court.
In the field of competition law, we support our clients in combatting their competitors’ anti-competitive conduct and defend them in cases where competitors launch unwarranted attacks. We advise during the ramp-up to promotional measures and on the permissibility and potential risks of product development from the perspective of competition law.
In copyright law we advise both on issues of the prosecution of infringements and enforcement of rights and assist with the drafting of licence and usage agreements. We support our clients both as rights holders and users in the protection and exercise of intellectual property rights deriving from software, photo, literature, music, architecture and other forms of creative endeavour.
We support departing entrepreneurs and their successors and plan and guide the transfer process. If there is no suitable successor, we develop alternative solutions to secure the continued existence of your company, such as management buy-outs, participation models or solutions using foundations. We also cover aspects relating to family and inheritance law and develop tax-optimised solutions.
Witzel Erb Backu & Partner provides legal solutions for strategic company planning for corporations, banks and SMEs. Our experts handle issues such as company formations, restructurings, disputes with shareholders, amendments to the articles of association, capital measures or changes of directors. Similarly, our lawyers will develop individually tailored strategies in matters of competition and antitrust law.
Witzel Erb Backu & Partner supports companies, entrepreneurs, supervisory boards and directors across Germany. Outsourcing measures, restructurings, HR realignments and the flexible deployment of staff are just some of the issues we deal with every day. We apply ourselves to issues of employment law and negotiation scenarios with the utmost commercial awareness and practical know-how and support you in drafting employment contracts and working with employers, works and staff councils, trades unions, public authorities and temporary employment agencies. We also advise on redundancies, termination proceedings and all director- and board-related matters.
The ongoing digitalization and the resulting need to adapt business models for the exploitation of intellectual property remains a challenge for creators and copyright collectors and at the same time offers opportunities - up to date unimagined.
We advise rights holders as well as users on the contractual design of their legal relationships in this environment of steady technological change and show options through increasingly complex legal frameworks with a particular focus on overarching legal issues, e.g. in the areas of IT law, data protection, data industry and regulation. For many years, clients along the entire value creation chain of analog and digital works, including companies from media production and distribution, television and online media, as well as authors and copyright collecting societies, have relied on our expertise.
A particular focus of our work is the judicial enforcement of our clients' copyright claims as well as the defense of claims. Our copyright litigation team is well known in the market also for conducting landmark proceedings.