The Firm:

The patent law firm Ostriga, Sonnet, Wirths & Roche is situated in the industrial heartland of Germany at the border of the Ruhr (Ruhrgebiet). The firm has grown steadily and continuously since its establishment in 1950 by Patent Attorney Dipl.-Ing. Helmut Sonnet. The main technical and legal focus at that time was the field of tools, cutters, blades and textile and metal-working machinery. This relates to the history of the city of Wuppertal and its townships of Elberfeld and Barmen that were famous for their textile industries, including weaving and dyeing.

The neighbourhood cities of Remscheid and Solingen are well known for the manufacturing of tools and all fields of industry relating to cutting. Nowadays the cities of Düsseldorf, Köln, Dortmund, Bochum and Essen, which can all be reached with a 30-minute car ride from Wuppertal, offer all kind of industries and modern services and technologies. With the change from traditional industries to modern high-tech industries and products the focus of legal and technical advice of the firm has changed. Today the members of the firm advise their clients in all technical and legal fields with regard to intellectual property.

In 1974 Patent Attorney Dipl.-Ing. Harald Ostriga joined the firm of Helmut Sonnet, which was later enlarged with Patent Attorney Dipl.-Ing. Bernd Sonnet. Patent Attorney Dipl.-Ing. Jochen-Peter Wirths entered the firm in 1994 and Patent Attorney Dipl.-Phys. Florian Roche joined in 2003 as partner.

With date of effect January 1st, 2008 Patent Attorney Dipl.-Ing. Tilo von Westernhagen and Patent Attorney Jurrien Vorwerk became partners of the firm. At the same time Harald Ostriga and Bernd Sonnet left the firm after 36 and 33 years of practising. Both however will in future assist the firm and our clients.

Today the firm consists of four partners, which are Jochen-Peter Wirths, Florian Roche, Tilo von Westernhagen und Jurrien Vorwerk. Patent Attorney Dipl.-Geophys. Lars Ehresmann will in the near future become part of the team. Our staff amounts to approximately 20 persons, including technical designer, paralegal assistants and our accounting department.

Our firm is situated in the centre of Wuppertal, an industrial town with about 360,000 citizens. The city of Wuppertal is  approximately 20 km from Düsseldorf. The patent  Court of Düsseldorf handles more than 50 % of all German patent infringement proceedings. The court system of the Düsseldorf region, which includes the city of Wuppertal, therefore has a considerable experience in IP-litigation and profits from the competence of specialised judges and specialised attorneys, ensuring that our clients are advised at a high professional standard.