SJ Berwin is set to bulk up its Munich arm with the hire of an intellectual property (IP) partner from Howrey.

Michael Knospe (pictured) will join SJ Berwin's Munich IP practice in October after three years as a partner at Howrey.

He specialises in patent law, with a particular focus on infringement and licensing, trademarks and design patents and IT, software and media.

Prior to his spell in Howrey's Munich office, Knospe was at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer for 19 years, where he made partner in 1992.

He said: "SJ Berwin has a great IP practice in the UK and in Germany, but they did not have the patent litigation capabilities in Germany that they needed to complete the practice.

"This was a great opportunity for me to install patents for the firm and bring it into the position where it can cover all aspects of IP in the two most important jurisdictions for the sector."

Knospe's client portfolio includes AirBerlin, Bose, Autodesk, Festo, Qualcomm and UEFA.

SJ Berwin Germany IP/IT head Stefan Krueger, said: "Michael's versatility – combining projects, patents and transactional IP/IT with an impressive contentious practice – marks him out as someone of rare talent."

The hire comes after SJ Berwin managing partner Ralph Cohen announced his intention to step down from his role last month, as the firm reaches the advanced stages of merger talks with Proskauer Rose.