Leo Polz is partner and co-chair of HOFFMANN EITLE’S biotechnology group.
Dr Polz studied chemistry at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich, graduating in 1985, and completed his doctoral thesis in biochemistry in 1989. He worked in research at the Chiba-University and Kyoto-University in Japan in the field of pharmaceutical biology until 1990, where he was engaged in investigation on pharmaceutically active compounds from plant cell cultures, elucidation of the structure and biosynthetic routes of secondary metabolites from plants.
Dr Polz joined HOFFMANN EITLE in 1990, qualifying as a German and European patent attorney in 1994.
Dr Polz has a particular focus on patent litigation, opposition and appeal proceedings before the European and German Patent Offices, the German infringement courts and the German Federal Patents Court. Further, Dr Polz is active in patent prosecution, legal opinions and due diligence work. He has particular expertise in the fields of biochemistry and biotechnology, pharmacology, and organic chemistry. Dr Polz has litigation experience involving therapeutically valuable proteins and biologics, such as blood factors, vaccines, hormones, antibodies (Adalimumab, Trastuzumab, etc.), cell cultures, polymerase chain reaction, CRISPR, screening methods and DNA-sequencing technologies.
Dr Polz is bilingual in German and English and is currently learning Chinese. He frequently travels to the United States, Japan and China, and has a strong client following in Asia.
Year Joined Firm: 1990
Education/Alumni: Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich
Network Memberships: EPI, FICPI, AIPPI, Patent Attorney Bar Association
