Susanne Schmidt

Practice Areas

Susanne is a commercially focused trademark and design lawyer with a strong international practice. She advises companies on the strategic development, defence and commercial exploitation of their brand assets across multiple jurisdictions.

She has been closely involved in the establishment of some of the first EU certification marks and continues to coordinate their expansion into further jurisdictions worldwide. Her work includes complex filing strategies for traditional and non-traditional marks, including 3D marks, as well as the structuring and optimisation of large-scale international trademark and design portfolios.

Susanne is regularly instructed in strategically sensitive disputes and cross-border matters. She represents clients before the German courts and the General Court of the European Union in opposition, cancellation and infringement proceedings. Her recent experience includes high-profile bad faith cancellation proceedings in the cosmetics sector, involving extensive market analysis and parallel commercial negotiations, as well as coordinated design litigation combined with unfair competition claims in the lighting and power tools industries.

She also has significant experience in defending clients in preliminary injunction proceedings, including complex disputes concerning allegedly misleading advertising claims in the medical device sector. These matters involve intricate questions at the intersection of unfair competition law, regulatory standards and technical product communication.

Clients frequently turn to Susanne when established portfolios face strategic challenges, including freedom-to-operate assessments, multi-jurisdictional opposition strategies and coordinated enforcement actions in cooperation with foreign counsel, particularly in the US, UK and China. Beyond litigation, she is a trusted advisor to in-house legal, marketing and product development teams, conducting strategic workshops on trademark and design protection, product development processes and cross-border sourcing structures, particularly in relation to Asian markets.

She regularly publishes in the field of intellectual property law and is active in the ECTA Publications Committee.

Career

Susanne studied law at the University of Regensburg with a focus on international and European law and has practised exclusively in intellectual property law since 2007. She is a certified IP lawyer since 2011 and previously held partnership positions at both a leading IP boutique and a large IP firm in Munich before co-founding TEAL Rechtsanwälte.

Professional Memberships

She is a member of ECTA, GRUR and INTA.

Publications

Fingerhut, Vertrags- und Formularbuch, Wolters Kluwer Verlag (13. und 14. ed. - 31. Dez. 2023) (Commentary on IP Law)

Schwarz, Handbuch Filmrecht, 1. Dez. 2020 (Commentary on Work Title Protection)

Clients

Her client base includes Germany’s leading industry association in the field of electrical engineering, multinational medical device companies, global tool manufacturers and internationally active consumer goods brands.

Languages Spoken

Susanne speaks German and English.

Work Highlights

- Global Brand Portfolio Management – Advises leading international companies on building and optimising worldwide trademark and design portfolios, including freedom-to-operate assessments and cross-border enforcement strategies.

- High-Profile Bad Faith Proceedings – Led complex EU-wide trademark cancellation cases in the cosmetics sector, combining market analysis with strategic commercial negotiations.

- Strategic Design Litigation – Represents clients in design and unfair competition disputes, coordinating national and cross-border enforcement.

- Preliminary Injunction Defence in Regulated Industries – Defended medical device companies against multiple injunction applications concerning advertising claims, navigating complex regulatory and technical issues.

- Cross-Border IP Strategy & Workshops – Advises multinational clients and industry associations on international brand protection and conducts strategic in-house workshops on design registration, product development and sourcing in Asia.

Expert in these Jurisdictions

Germany and EU

Awards