Here’s a collection of my paid advisory services. I may be able to craft a different package depending on your requirements, so it’s worth getting in touch if you can’t find the perfect fit here.
These days, I allocate about the same amout of work on patent creation (prosecution) and high-stakes patent litigation, with some occasional opinion work sprinkled in.
Digital patent creation (prosecution)
In my 14 years as a patent attorney I’ve drafted countless digital patent applications and brought them to grant at the EPO and GPTO. Clients hire me in different phases of the process depending on their needs:
- My ideal clients hire me to draft a patent application based on a full-fledged invention disclosure statement. A one-hour video meeting with the patent department and the inventors is usually enough for me to come up with a full first draft afterwards. The fine-tuning up to the ready-to-be-filed application can often be done in writing.
- Less experienced clients may first book an invention disclosure creation workshop in which I interview the inventors, carve out the invention’s outline with them and leave them with exact guidance on how to finish up the full-fledged invention disclosure statement. These workshops typically take one or two hours, maybe three in exceptionally complex cases.
- When the in-house patent department struggles to get the development teams to submit invention disclosures at all, an invention mining workshop might be helpful. Sometimes the problem is simply a lack of awareness or misconceptions (“Software isn’t patentable, so why bother?”) or the typical humbleness of the software developer (“Anyone could have done this, it’s not an invention!”). I’ve done four-hour workshops that resulted in 10 to 15 invention ideas which we then prioritized and turned into invention disclosure statements afterwards.
Working with Bastian Best and BESTPATENT was an excellent experience. His and his colleagues’ council was extremely valuable to me in building a valuable IP portfolio at our company. I did and do value his strategic advice and insights very highly – in particular, because Basti was keen and able to dive into the details of our business in order to help us implement the IP strategy that really suited our needs. Our business and technology advanced very rapidly and Basti and his team were able to keep up with our fast pace, advising on and helping draft applications just as rapidly. Basti is honest and transparent in his work and a pleasure to work with. I would recommend him as a patent lawyer to anyone searching for quick and effective assistance in that area.
Malcolm Yadack, COO at AMERIA AG
I’ve also helped other patent attorneys in a claim drafting peer review when they need a second pair of eyes. This can be as easy as a one-hour video meeting in which the colleague screenshares the draft claims and we work intensly right in the document to come up with an optimized set of digital patent claims. Some colleagues tell their clients that I was involved, others don’t, and both is fine for me.
Needless to say, I obviously love taking patent applications to grant with office action replies and oral proceedings, and through oppositions and appeals. This includes both patent applications I’ve drafted myself, Euro-PCT applications with foreign priority and EP applications that need a second opinion. I’ve found that discussing the case informally with the examiner is often productive and may lead to a streamlined procedure. Direct access to the inventors also helps.
Anyone who applies for a patent puts their trust and their future in the hands of the IP professional they work with. From this perspective, the decision to go with Bastian was easy for us. In fact, he is the best IP professional I have ever worked with. Bastian is deeply knowledgeable, highly intelligent and always considerate. He knows patent law and the system on every level, and works tirelessly on behalf of his clients. Yet, it is his integrity that led us to work with him. I could not think of a better person to trust with the future of our company.
Chris Hanebeck, CEO at Truckl LLC
Digital patent litigation
My litigation practice is rooted in my time at BARDEHLE PAGENBERG, one of the most successful European IP firms, where I was involved in patent litigation cases involving telecommunications technology and standard-essential patents, electronic circuits, and software-based inventions. Public case reports include:
- Via Vadis ./. Skype
- Synchronicity IP ./. BMW
- Qimonda ./. Hewlett-Packard
- Intellectual Ventures ./. Deutsche Telekom, Telefonica/O2, Vodafone
The patent litigation cases I’m currently involved in since I founded BESTPATENT are still confidential. I will update this section when there are public reports.
On the attacking side, I typically get recommended to the client by patent litigators (German attorneys-at-law) whom I then help with the technical topics in the infringement proceedings while my firm is in charge of defending the patent(s) in the accompanying nullity proceedings. Of course, I also help defending clients against patent infringement allegations and run the offensive nullity proceedings.
In my most exciting cases, I’ve been involved right from the start in the pre-litigation investigations and forensics, including infringement detection in public documentation, in tests and through source code analysis, e.g., on GitHub.
