Christian Rohnke is an attorney admitted in the United States and Germany practicing exclusively intellectual property law, in particular trademark, patent, copyright and unfair competition law.

Mr. Rohnke's work focuses on litigation at all levels of courts, including infringement litigation before the civil courts and invalidity cases before the German Patent and Trademark Office, the European Patent Office, the Office for Harmonization of the Internal Market and the German Federal Patent Court. Besides litigation, Mr. Rohnke advises clients on intellectual property-related issues, including portfolio concepts, distribution systems, licensing and franchising systems. He is also experienced in IP finance, including the valuation of IP rights, use of such rights as collateral in secured transactions and the accounting in and implications of IP-related transactions.

Among Mr. Rohnke's current clients are some of the world's best-known companies, including many leaders in their respective fields, like car manufacturers Volkswagen and Audi, consumer product groups Henkel and Unilever, Europe's leading magazine publisher Gruner + Jahr, Deutsche Bank, shipping group Hapag Lloyd, Fresenius Medical Care and marine technology group SAM.

Mr. Rohnke's cases have often led to precedent-setting Federal Supreme Court decisions, e.g., in cases involving protection of three-dimensional marks, selective distribution systems and interference with customers. He has also advised on the structuring of the patent pool for a future electronic standard and the international IP portfolio strategies for several major trademark owners, including tax optimization.

Mr. Rohnke is active as a lecturer and has held teaching assignments at the University of Jena Law School and Hamburg University. He is currently a professor for patent law at the Hamburg Institute of Technology and the Northern Institute of Technology, Hamburg. He is the author of numerous publications, and, most notably, co-author of the leading commentary on German Trademark Law (Ingerl/Rohnke, Markengesetz).

Mr. Rohnke is active in many professional organizations, e.g., as the chairperson of the Hamburg Bar Association's Committee on Intellectual Property Law, a member of the Executive Board of the German Section of AIPPI and a member of the Standing Committee on Trademark and Unfair Competition Law of GRUR, the German Association of Intellectual Property Law.

Mr. Rohnke is Executive Partner of the Hamburg office of White & Case LLP and a member of the German Executive Committee.

Bars and Courts
Rechtsanwalt, 1988
New York State Bar, 1985

Education
Dr jur, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, 1986
Master of Comparative Jurisprudence, 1984
First law degree, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, 1983

Professional Associations and Memberships
International Trademark Association
International Bar Association
New York State Bar
German Association on Intellectual Property Law
Association Internationale pour la Protection de la Propriété industrielle
European Food Law Association

Awards and Recognition
Leading Individual for Trademark Law:
Trademark & Unfair Competition Law, JUVE 2011/2012
Leading Individual for Unfair Competition Law:
Trademark & Unfair Competition Law, JUVE 2011/2012
Frequently Recommended Lawyer:
IP: Trademark & Unfair Competition, Chambers Europe 2012, Germany
Trademark & Unfair Competition Law, JUVE 2011/2012
Leading Individual:
IP: Trademarks, The Legal 500 EMEA 2012, Germany

Publications
Co-author, "The development of trademark law since the middle of 2005 – part 2", GRUR, Pages 1047-1056, 2008 (with Frederik Thiering) 
Co-author, "The development of trademark law since the middle of 2005 – part 1", GRUR, Pages 937-943, 2008 (with Frederik Thiering) 
"The regulation of price information and the expectation of the internet user", GRUR, Pages 381-383, 2007 
Rohnke, Christian: Confusing similarity after "THOMSON LIFE", GRUR, Pages 21-22, 2006 
"The infringing company name after the ECJ decision Anheuser-Busch/Budvar", Festschrift for Eike Ullmann. Ed. Hans-Jürgen Ahrens, Joachim Bornkamm and Hans Peter Kunz-Hallstein, Saarbrücken, 2006 
Co-author, "Conflicts between trademark rights and the right of freedom of speech", GRUR Int., 2005 (with Kristofer Bott, Kay-Uwe Jonas and Sigrid Asschenfeld) 
"The development of trademark law since the middle of 2003", NJW, Pages 1624-1629, 2005 
"Trademark Law (Markenrecht)", Münchener Prozessformularbuch, Vol. 5, 2nd ed. Ed. Peter Mes. München, Pages 217-334, 2005 
Rohnke, Christian; Ingerl, Reinhard: Commentary on the Trademark Law (Markengesetz), 2nd ed., München, 2003 
"Biotechnology Patents (Patente für Biotechnikunternehmen)", Management Handbook Biotechnology. Ed. Cornelius Herstatt and Christian Müller. Stuttgart, Pages 395-410, 2002 
"Protection of Product design (Schutz für Produktgestaltung durch Formmarken und wettbewerbsrechtlichen Leistungsschutz)", Festschrift für Willi Erdmann zum 65. Geburtstag. Ed. Hans-Jürgen Ahrens. Köln et. al, Page 455, 2002 
"Binding Effect of Trademark Registrations in Subsequent Infringement Litigation (Die Bindung des verletzungsgerichts an die eingetragene Marke), GRUR, Page 696, 2001 
"The Implementation of the Trademark Law Directives by the German Trademark Law (Die Umsetzung der Markenrechtslinien durch das deutsche Markengesetz)", NJW, Page 1247, 1994 
"Trademark as Credit Collateral (Warenzeichen als Kreditsicherheit)", NJW, Page 561, 1993 
"Offer Infringing Rights Due to Illustration in a Mail Order Catalogue? (Rechtsverletzendes Anbieten durch Abbilden im Versandkatalog)", WRP, Page 296, 1992 
"Evaluation of Trademarks in Connection with a Company Acquisition (Bewertung von Warenzeichen beim Unternehmenskauf)", DB, S. 1941, 1992 
"A Unified Intellectual Property Law for a Unified Germany", Patent World , Page 16, 1992 
"Newer Employee Inventor and Company Founder in the New German Laender (Neuerer, Arbeitnehmererfinder und Unternehmensgründer in den neuen Bundesländern)", BB, Pages 9, 14, 1991 
"How Far Does Dimple Reach? (Wieweit reicht Dimple?)", GRUR, Page 284, 1991 
"Company Name and Distinctive Mark in Connection with the Sale of Parts of a Business (Firma und Kennzeichen bei der Veräußerung von Unternehmensteilen), WM, Page 1405, 1991 
"Protection of External Product Features in West Germany", European Intellectual Property View, Page 41, 1990 
"Product Placement and Sponsoring in TV Programs", Entertainment Law Review, Page 145, 1990
"Advertising Including Environmental Protection (Werbung mit Umweltschutz)", GRUR, Page 667, 1988 
"Import Restrictions Due to the ‘National Security Clause’ § 232 Trade Expansion Act: Strategies for German Entrepreneurs", RIW, Page 689, 1988

Speaking Engagements
"The EU Enforcement Directive - New Risks for Foreign Manufacturers," 2010 Symposium on International Intellectual Property Strategies for Taiwanese High-Tech Companies, 03 June 2010 - Hsinchu, Taiwan; 04 June 2010 - Taipei, Taiwan

Languages
English
French
German

Citizenship
Germany