Biography: Patents

Christian Hilti (born 1957) joined Rentsch Partner AG at the beginning of 2009. From 1992 to 2008, he ran his own patent litigation law firm and was a partner in one of Switzerland's biggest patent attorney firms.

Christian Hilti graduated from Zurich University and started his IP career in 1982 at the Swiss Patent and Trademark Office. He received his PhD in law (magna cum laude) in 1987, was admitted to the bar and worked from 1986 until 1989 in one of Switzerland's leading full-service law firms. He received an LLM from the Boalt Hall School of Law at Berkeley and worked in one of San Francisco's corporate and IP law firms from 1989 until 1992. He is thus familiar with IP approaches in the US and Europe, and focuses on IP litigation, arbitration as well as counselling in matters relating to IP. He is fluent in German, English and French and is admitted to practise before all courts in Switzerland.

Christian Hilti teaches part-time IP law at the University of St Gallen's technology management programme and patent law at the University of Zurich's LLM programme. He has published widely in the field of IP law, including his latest publication European and Swiss Patent and Patent Litigation Law (Berne, 2008). In 2011, Christian Hilti was elected by the Swiss parliament to become a non-permanent judge of the newly established Swiss Federal Patent Court.

Rentsch Partner AG offers Swiss and international clients comprehensive services in all fields of IP and ICT law, including prosecution, litigation and consulting in patent, trademark, copyright and design law and legal services in related fields such as industrial law (namely food and drug law), licensing, domain names, unfair competition and advertising law.