History

dompatent von Kreisler – Courage, innovations and faith in the future

In 1947 amid the ruins in the centre of a devastated city, two men had the courage to believe in the future. Just two years after the end of the Second World War, patent attorneys Dr. Andreas von Kreisler and Dr. Karl Schönwald founded a law firm in Cologne specializing in patent law – today that firm is dompatent von Kreisler.

For their new law firm, the two attorneys rented a room in Deichmannhaus at the foot of Cologne’s famous cathedral. The rent cost 79 marks per month and the room had no heating but it was a start. In the early days, contracts had to be signed in the laundry room as it was the only place in the building where the rain didn’t come in through the roof!

Changing the world one vision at a time

Visions have the power to change the world, even amid wreckage and ruin. The belief in innovation and progress was at the heart of the law firm from the very beginning. Nobody expected the economic miracle but it came. Patents were registered, trademarks were protected and the economy in Cologne and Germany slowly recovered.

A decatizing machine for refining textiles, an iron catalyst for carbon monoxide hydration, pressed oil circulation lubrication and a new cut for clothes – inventors came and registered their patents with the help of the Cologne-based law firm.

Business rapidly expanded abroad – as early as 1948, patent applications were filed forclients from the USA; for example, a vacuum dryer for a client from Virginia. Also, prior to winning the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1963 with Guilio Natta, Professor Karl Ziegler was provided with legal advice from the law firm in connection with his work in the area of catalysts and organic polymers. The discovery of organometallic mixed aluminium/titanium catalysts– Ziegler-Natta catalysts – fundamentally changed both the field of chemistry and the chemical industry. These catalysts allowed for the first time the polymerization of ethylene into polyethylene under normal pressure.

The law firm grew quickly and steadily.

In 1950, the company already had 14 members of staff on the payroll and ten years later there were 36 members of staff and five partners. By the year 2000, this number had grown to 55 members of staff and ten partners. Currently, over 100 people work at dompatent von Kreisler, 18 of whom are partners. The law firm grew quickly and steadily and has assisted numerous clients continuously over the course of many decades.

Today, over 70 years after the law firm was founded, we still have faith in the future –we believe in the innovative ability, the ideas and the ingenuity of our clients and we continue to believe that progress, courage and visions can change the world.