Today, specialists are key!

Lawoffice Grosskopf provides legal consultancy services to domestic and foreign clients in all aspects of intellectual property. Our main areas of specialisation are

• examining the protectability of works
• drafting and negotiation of copyright licence agreement
• examining the tariffs and royalty terms of royalty collecting societies(GEMA, GVL, VG Wort, VG Bild-Kunst, VG Musikedition, GÜFA, VFF, VGF, GWFF, AGICOA, VG Media, VG TWF)
• examining the supplementary protection of copyright works as trademarks, patents, utility models or as registered designs.

Lawoffice Grosskopf is engaged in protection of products, designs, names, logos and brands by

• developing intellectual property strategies
• drafting lists of goods and services for trademark registrations
• tconducting trademark searches
• registering intellectual property rights
• managing and monitoring intellectual property rights
• combating against piracy, counterfeiting and unfair competition, including customs control and border seizures
• representing clients before official agencies and courts
• drafting and negotiating priority or delimitation agreements and licence contracts.

Lawoffice Grosskopf supports companies as an outsourced trademark department and conducts IP due diligence in M&A transactions.

Lawoffice Grosskopf provides legal consultancy services to domestic and foreign businesses, organisations and academic institutions, as well as to creative individuals in such diverse fields as

• Film
• Radio and television
• Publishing
• Music
• Photography
• Software and hardware
• Healthcare-IT (eHealth / mHealth / pHealth)
• Games
• Entertainment
• Merchandising and advertisement
• Event management

and assists the cultural and creative industries

• by drafting and negotiating licence agreements
• financing projects, including branded entertainment
• applying for funding
• in the enforcement of and defence against claims, including arbitration proceedings
• on legal issues relating to social insurance for artists.

The cultural and creative industries face a broad range of legal issues in media, employment, competition and anti-trust law as a result of the technological convergence of the telecommunications, information technology, media and entertainment (TIME) industries. For many years already, Lawoffice Grosskopf has provided advice to the cultural and creative industries with a profound understanding of their business, to support strategic decisions and to enforce business processes.

For providers of media that might threaten or impair the development of children and adolescents, or contain harmful or dangerous contents, we serve as a Commissioner for the Protection of Youth [Jugendschutzbeauftragter].

In cooperation with members of the Research Center for Information Security at the University of Bremen and the Bremen University of Applied Sciences, Lawoffice Grosskopf manages legal and technological aspects in the selection process for IT services and products (hardware and software) by

• Identifying the necessary IT strategy and IT infrastructure
• Drafting bills of specifications and detailed specifications
• Defining requirements to be met by supplier companies
• Producing documents for invitations to tender
• IT award procedures
• Drafting contracts
• Supervising implementation
• Developing test procedures for acceptance or transfer

IT projects threatened with failure are turned around by conducting an error analysis, and by taking over management of legal and technological problems.

In cooperation with members of the Research Center for Information Security at the University of Bremen and the Bremen University of Applied Sciences, Lawoffice Grosskopf also conducts

• IT risk management procedures
• Evaluation of technical risks
• Computer forensics
• Generation of security concepts and policies

and provides software escrow services, including

• Receiving inspection of the software
• Verification of the source code and the object code from sampling procedure to full verification
• Physical escrow
• Revision service.

Lawoffice Grosskopf reviews IT systems in accordance with the applicable guidelines of the Institute of Certified Public Accountants (IDW PS 330 / ISA 401 - Auditing in a Computer Information Systems Environment) and in consideration of the risk analysis based on the Catalogues issued by the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI). In cooperation with members of the Research Center for Information Security at the University of Bremen and the Bremen University of Applied Sciences, Lawoffice Grosskopf helps to detect irregularities in large accounting data sets (Journal Entry Testing).

The advisory activities of Lawoffice Grosskopf do not stop at Germany's borders - eBusiness and the Internet know no borders. Lawoffice Grosskopf is able to provide foreign clients with the support they need for their operations in Germany, and, together with leading IT law firms in Europe and in other countries, Lawoffice Grosskopf also advises clients on cross-border matters.

Lawoffice Grosskopf supports companies, computer centres, hospitals and medical practices and their data protection officers in fulfilling their data protection tasks and obligations. Our areas of expertise are

• Data protection compliance
• Human resources management
• IT security in cooperation with the Research Center for Information Security at the University of Bremen and Bremen University of Applied Science

• Acquisition, use and analysis of Information
• Business continuity management in the event of an actual or alleged breach of data protection
• Dealing with data protection regulators and representation before these public bodies.

Lawoffice Grosskopf provides expert opinions for software manufacturers who wish to receive a data protection certificate for their programs according to Art. 43 GDPR and carries out data protection impact assessments according to Art. 35 GDPR.

Lawoffice Grosskopf supports companies

• during audits by software producers
  (Microsoft, Adobe, Oracle, IBM, Autodesk ...)
• during "unfriendly" audits by software producers or the Business Software Alliance (BSA)
• in optimising their software licensing
• in purchasing second-hand software

and assists companies in creating an audit-compliant Software Asset Management System consisting of

• Software inventory, including upgrade & downgrade rights
• Contract management
• Configuration management
• Change management

and serves as an External License Manager in cooperation with publicly certified and appointed IT experts.

Lawoffice Grosskopf develops compliance systems in accordance with data protection laws, including

• Codes of Conduct for all staff members (Sponsoring, Donations, Gifts & Hospitality)
• Whistleblower hotline (SecureDrop)
• Data security concepts
• Anti-fraud management (fraud detection)
• Digital evidence preservation (litigation support)
• Management risk controlling
• Generally Accepted Principles of Computerised Accounting Systems (GoBS) and Principles of Data Access and Auditability of Digital Documents (GDPdU) - implementation of digital bookkeeping, digital archiving, electronic invoicing

and supports companies with

• Business Partner Compliance Due Diligence
• Limits-of-Authority for Tender

and serves as a competent "Ombudsman for the Prevention and Combating of Corruption". Given his legal duty to maintain confidentiality, Lawoffice Grosskopf observes strict secrecy about any persons providing information about corruption and other legal violations.

Lawoffice Grosskopf supports clients in their international legal transactions, including

• Acquiring foreign businesses
• Forming international joint ventures and alliances
• Selling companies or divisions to foreign acquirers
• Market-opening proceedings before regulatory authorities

and provides legal consultancy services relating to the European Single Market

• Free movement of goods
• Free movement of services
• Free movement of workers and freedom of establishment
• Free movement of capital and payments

as to commercial law (lex mercatoria)

• Incoterms - International Commercial Terms
• UNIDROIT - Principles of International Commercial Contracts
• Principles of European Contract Law
• Model contracts of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC)
  • ICC Model Commercial Agency Contract
  • ICC Model Distributorship Contract
  • ICC Model Contract for the Turnkey Supply of an Industrial Plant
  • ICC Model Mergers & Acquisitions Contract
  • ICC Model Selective Distributorship Contract
  • ICC Model Confidentiality Agreement (Non-circumvention and Non-disclosure Agreement)
  • ICC Model Occasional Intermediary Contract
  • ICC Model International Sale Contract
  • ICC Model Turnkey Contract for Major Projects
  • ICC Model International Trademark Licence
  • ICC Model International Transfer of Technology Contract
  • ICC Model Subcontract
  • ICC Model International Franchising Contract.

German Statutes in English are published here .

In the fields of specialisation, Lawoffice Grosskopf represents clients in court during litigation and before national and international courts of arbitration. We also serve as a party-appointed arbitrator or as chairman of arbitral tribunals. We also advise on the recognition and enforcement of arbitral awards and on actions to set aside arbitral awards. Furthermore Lawoffice Grosskopf provides preventive advice and trainings in order to avoid legal disputes. 

We accompanie IT-projects as an impartial and independent adjudicator, who swifts decisions which are temporarily binding (Dispute Review/Resolution Boards). The decisions of an adjudicator are binding for the duration of the project until the decision is altered by the parties or by an (arbitration)court at later stage. Adjudicators deal for example with the

• continuation of works necessary for an orderly performance of the contract
• performance of services necessary for an orderly performance of the contract and over which the parties are in dispute with respect to additional payment obligations
• performance of acceleration measures in order to avoid or reduce delays.

We act as well as an IT Dispute Manager, to help parties to reach an agreement within a few days of the dispute arising on the method to use and the neutral third parties to be engaged to resolve the dispute.

Lawoffice Grosskopf accepts collaborative law briefs. Collaborative law is an extrajudicial legal process, supported by lawyers, for the resolution of conflicts without arbitrators. In collaborative law, the lawyers involved agree to act purely to resolve a dispute and to achieve an amicable settlement. If no settlement is reached, the lawyers involved must withdraw from the case, and the parties must commission other lawyers for litigation in court. This encourages constructive resolution of the conflict through conciliation.

Prof. Dr. L. Grosskopf acts as also a accredited IT conciliator for the German Society for Law and Informatics (DGRI).

Lawoffice Grosskopf provides legal support - in collaboration with criminal defence lawyers - for persons or entities accused in criminal proceedings or in regulatory offence procedures under copyright and media law or IT law. In addition, we offer legal advisory services aimed at eliminating any criminal consequences of using information technology. We identify relevant IT criminal provisions and other enforcement rules and carry out an IT risk analysis  (IT risk management).

Lawoffice Grosskopf assists business enterprises in the investigation of suspicious incidents relating to IT systems, by

• detecting
• analysing
• evaluating

digital traces (forensic IT) in cooperation with the "Research Center for Information Security" at the University of Bremen and the Bremen University of Applied Sciences und will

• safeguarding and
• returning

assets after IT security incidents.