Patent attorneys with team spirit, since 2003.

Ralph Seemann is someone who is genuinely ‘Nordic by nature’. Born and raised in Kiel, he still retains his refreshingly direct and open northern German manner, which is appreciated by friends and clients alike.

As you might expect, his academic career began in his home city: having graduated in physics, with a thesis on a GaAs electron gun, he then completed his doctorate on the electronic properties of thin layers on high-temperature superconductors in Hamburg in 1993. Ralph was spurred on by the urge to take his own decisions in life. Driven by the thought that ‘life is too short to spend it just on physics,’ he decided to complement his technical knowledge with an understanding of the law by becoming a patent attorney.

His time as an aspiring patent attorney took him to Munich, at the other end of the country. As a trainee at a firm specialising in domestic clients, Ralph Seemann was thrown in at the deep end from day one, dealing with all aspects of intellectual property rights. In 1996, and now a qualified Patent Attorney, he moved back to northern Germany, settling in Hamburg.

The next big step came in 2003, when he and Dr Christian Grebner joined forces to set up SEEMANN & PARTNER. In his own firm, Ralph is able to bring his strengths to bear with even more passion; in order to achieve outstanding results for his clients, he seeks close personal ties on the one hand and, on the other, is unflagging when immersing himself in the material. He is a skilled, sensitive and tenacious negotiator and, thanks to his myriad skills, boasts an exceptionally high success rate when it comes to protecting ideas, innovations, trademarks and designs as well as asserting intellectual property rights.

Ralph Seemann is a highly experienced patent attorney who is fully versed in his profession and ready to take on any challenge with fairness, integrity and the necessary ability to think outside the box.

He spends his free time in the company of family and friends, preferably doing sports either in or on the Baltic Sea or on the tennis court. And to balance out the demands of his intellectually challenging work, he can be frequently found strumming his guitar.

Christian Grebner grew up on his parents’ farm in Bavaria, learning at an early age what it means to roll up his sleeves, pitch in and work hard. He also witnessed how innovations can make life easier. And as Christian’s enthusiasm for all things new goes right back to his childhood, his path was almost predestined: he studied physics in Würzburg and Münster in order to understand the forces that hold the world together.

His inquisitiveness and affinity for technology have stayed with him – and his ingrained fascination with innovations ultimately led him to become a patent attorney.

The combination of a southern German hands-on mentality and accumulated specialist knowledge explains the next big step. In 2003, he established his own firm with Dr Ralph Seemann: SEEMANN & PARTNER. As an accomplished German and European Patent Attorney, he draws on his technical background in areas such as mechanical engineering, medical technology, optics and the automotive sector. With a tremendous flair for the technical fine details, Christian gets to the heart of inventions, meaning that he is able to deliver comprehensive and top-class protection time and again.

Christian possesses in-depth expertise with examination and opposition proceedings. He puts his valuable experience at the disposal of his clients, who value his honest advice and superb judgement. He also contributes his vast knowledge derived from numerous oral arguments before the European Patent Office, the German Patent and Trade Mark Office and the German Federal Patent Court – and boasts an impressive success rate in such proceedings.

When working on behalf of big-name national and international clients, he strives to understand each company’s objectives in detail and offer personal and comprehensive advice.

For inspiration, Christian enjoys reading, going to the theatre and attending concerts ranging from classical music through to independent and modern jazz. He is happiest when spending time with his family and enjoys riding racing bikes and skiing with friends. In summer, another active highlight is mowing his own lawn. Christian also occasionally cooks for the whole team at SEEMANN & PARTNER.

Born in Coesfeld in North Rhine-Westphalia, Jochen Volmer was already fascinated by physics experiments and computers as a child; he would build electronic circuits and program physics simulations. He also devoted himself with gusto to his violin and viola lessons, playing in various youth orchestras.

On account of his keen interest in nuclear and particle physics, he studied physics in Münster, graduating in 1995 with a thesis on experimental nuclear physics. In 2000, he graduated in Amsterdam with an experiment on the measurement of charge distribution of charged pions at a particle accelerator facility in Newport News, Virgina (USA). This experiment represents an important test case for all theoretical models of the significant interaction, the fundamental natural force, that binds together the nucleons in the atomic core. As a result, the publications arising from the experiment have been cited several hundred times.

In 2004, Jochen started training as a patent attorney at SEEMANN & PARTNER and was certified as a patent attorney in 2007. He became a partner in 2013.

Jochen covers the entire technical spectrum of SEEMANN & PARTNER. He advises and supports clients with their patenting strategy, as well as with the registering of patents for their technical inventions and the assertion of these patents against competitors. By virtue of his technical background, he focuses particularly on the areas of measuring technology, signal processing, image editing, optics and software-implemented inventions, including machine learning and artificial intelligence.

He spends his free time with his family and pursues his passion as a musician. As a violinist and violist in orchestras and chamber music ensembles, he plays whatever is put in front of him, from string quartet to large sinfonia, from baroque to modern, in living rooms, churches or the Elbphilharmonie concert hall.

If you were to describe the path taken by Jörg Faupel in a single sentence, it would be this: ‘born in the mountains, dropped anchor in Hamburg.’ Even as a youngster, Jörg had a love of technology. He studied physics in Marburg and Göttingen before undertaking a doctorate in solid-state and material physics in Göttingen, completing his studies in 2005. When looking to pursue a new direction after his academic career, Jörg followed his curiosity by devoting himself to a profession in which he learns new technical facts on a daily basis.

To put his career into figures: European Patent Attorney since 2009, patent attorney since 2010, joined SEEMANN & PARTNER in 2013, became a partner in 2016.

One thing hasn’t changed: Jörg is still curious about innovations, allowing him to understand and protect them. He always follows the maxim of knowing his clients’ goals and needs in order to find what is truly the best approach. Jörg is an experienced patent attorney, including in the drafting of patent registrations and their enforcement in examination proceedings before the German and European Patent Offices. He is also always delighted to support our trademark clients.

He enjoys spending his free time with his family, travelling and, most of all, on or by the water, whether it’s flowing in summer or frozen in winter. His passion for optics and precision is still with him, as reflected in the fact that he has been a keen photographer since his childhood days.

Born in the outskirts of Hamburg, Gerrit Winkler enjoyed the benefits of life in the city and the surrounding nature whilst growing up. His childhood and adolescence were shaped by his strong interest in science and technology, which is why his ideal career direction soon became apparent.

In 2005, Gerrit began his degree studies at the Department of Physics at Hamburg University, where he specialised in applied physics and wrote his thesis on methods of sputter deposition in 2010. He then went on to research ultra thin magnetic multilayers – and the examination of their properties using X-ray diffraction and the magneto-optic Kerr effect – at Hamburg University in order to understand the effect of manufacturing parameters on structure and magnetism. He completed this research work with a doctorate in 2015.

In 2017, Gerrit Winkler began training as a patent attorney at SEEMANN & PARTNER and became a certified German Patent Attorney in 2017. He has also been a European Patent Attorney since 2021. Gerrit assists clients with registering patents for their ideas, from the drafting of a patent registration tailored to their individual needs through to the granting of a patent. In addition to providing support with the acquisition of intellectual property rights, Gerrit handles the filing and registration of trademarks, advises on filing strategies and represents his clients’ interests in patent and trademark disputes.

Apart from technical topics, which are the focus of his professional life, Gerrit Winkler also loves history and geography. He is an enthusiastic cyclist, happily devotes his spare time to culinary delights and loves to relax by reading a good book.

Thomas Kotzott was born and raised here in Hamburg. Even as a youngster, he developed a considerable passion for questions of nature and technology and decided to search for answers by pursuing a science degree, with his physics degree taking him to the Universities of Göttingen and Madrid.

In 2015, Thomas graduated as a Master of Science, with a specialism in solid-state and material physics, thanks to a thesis on magneto-transport in the two-dimensional material of graphene. He went on to carry out research in the field of surface physics and nanotechnology, looking at the electronic properties of non-magnetic imperfections in metal, and completed his doctorate in Göttingen.

Thomas Kotzott joined SEEMANN & PARTNER as a trainee patent attorney in 2022. In particular, his work centres on patent law, including patent grant procedures and objection proceedings before the European Patent Office and the German Patent and Trade Mark Office, and trademark law.

In addition to his passion for his profession, Thomas has a deep love of music, whether making music himself or taking advantage of the many opportunities to visit concerts in his home city.