Senior European Patent Attorney

Senior European Patent Attorney (m/f/d) for Intellectual Property Team

Job ID: 107820 / Location: Trier / Contract type: permanent

About the role: 
Join JTI’s global Intellectual Property team in a broad, business-facing patent role supporting innovation and strategic decision-making.

This position  central focus is freedom-to-operate, infringement and validity assessment, claim charting, patent-risk mitigation, and practical advice on matters that may become contentious or lead to litigation.

The work supports a substantial and evolving patent portfolio, primarily connected with reduced-risk products and related technologies, including products and manufacturing methods.

What will you do: 

• Lead and support complex Freedom-to-Operate analyses for new and existing products.
• Prepare claim charts and assess whether third-party rights may affect product launches or whether competitors may infringe JTI patents.
• Assess patent infringement, validity, enforceability, and litigation-related risk, and develop practical mitigation options.
• Lead or support  opposition and appeal proceedings in front of the European Patent Office or other national offices as the case may be.
• Provide clear, business-oriented patent advice to R&D, Legal, and other stakeholders.
• Support patent portfolio development and prosecution activities.
• Coordinate external patent counsel and monitor competitor patent activity.
• Contribute across  wider IP matters in a non-siloed, international team.

Your profile: 

• Qualified European Patent Attorney.
• Approximately 10 years of relevant patent practice, with the depth to operate independently in complex matters.
• Strong practical experience in complex FTO work, claim analysis, infringement and validity assessment, and commercially focused patent-risk advice.
• Relevant experience in EPO opposition and appeal proceedings.
• Strong written and spoken English. What will help you succeed.
• Experience in an international corporate environment or across multiple jurisdictions.
• Additional national patent attorney qualifications.
• Experience with Anaqua or a comparable IP management system. This is an advantage, not a requirement.
• Additional language skills, including Japanese, are welcome but not required.
  
  
  

How you work:

• Open, collaborative, and comfortable advising stakeholders with different technical and professional backgrounds.
• Pragmatic and commercially minded, while maintaining sound legal and technical judgement.
• Culturally aware and able to work respectfully across regions, including close collaboration with colleagues in Japan.
• Comfortable acknowledging uncertainty, revisiting an assessment, and adapting when new information emerges.
• Able to manage competing priorities and take ownership of complex matters.

Who you are:
Work across a wide range of patent issues and jurisdictions rather than being limited to one narrow area of practice.

Develop your expertise beyond traditional patent work, with opportunities to build competence in other areas of intellectual property.

Collaborate with an international team supporting high-impact innovation and business decisions.

Location and mobility:
The role is based in Trier, Germany, supporting close collaboration with R&D.

International applicants are welcome. Relocation may be considered for a suitable candidate, subject to the applicable company process. Travel is expected to be limited and may include occasional collaboration visits, for example to Geneva or Tokyo.

Your benefits:

• Your team: You will work in an open and international working environment with approx. 60 nations at the Trier site.
• Your remuneration: Above-average pay including 13th and 14th monthly salary and bonus as well as annual reviews. Individual company pension scheme and capital-forming benefits.
• Your meals: Our subsidized company canteen and numerous snack and coffee vending machines ensure your physical well-being.
• Your appreciation: You will receive regular feedback from us and, as your personal safety is important to us, we also protect you in your private life with our JTI accident insurance.
• Your work-life balance: You should enjoy your work! That's why we offer you 30 days of vacation for personal relaxation. 
• Your mobility offer: With our BusinessBike program, we offer you the opportunity to lease the bike of your choice at attractive conditions as part of a permanent position. This is an uncomplicated and flexible way to promote your health.
• Your development: We focus on your personal development. We support you with a wide range of internal training courses as well as external training and development opportunities that are tailored specifically to you.
• Practiced working time model: flextime, possibility of 50% mobile office work within Germany on a monthly basis.

Have we aroused your interest?

Apply directly with your complete application documents (CV, cover letter & references) stating your earliest possible starting date (Job ID:107820).

Diversity & Inclusion:

We want everyone at JTI to be themselves and develop their full potential, because each and every one of us makes a valuable contribution to the success of the company and the location in Germany. We live and promote diversity, equality and inclusion accordingly. We have local employee groups and networks, such as the PRIDE Chapter Germany or the togetHER network for female employees, in which committed colleagues are involved, and we support a wide range of projects in our local area. For this and many other activities in the area of diversity & inclusion, we have already been awarded the Global Equality Standard by Ernst & Young.

Sustainability & Commitment:
We have particularly close ties to the Trier region and the greater Cologne area through our two locations and want to make a significant contribution to a high quality of life, e.g., through annual clean-up campaigns on the Rhine and Moselle and as a long-standing partner of the Cologne Green Foundation, we are committed to the preservation and expansion of the city's green spaces. Renewable energies are also part of our sustainability goals, which is why we are investing in the expansion of the Bescheid Süd wind farm, located 20 kilometers east of our Trier site, in order to secure green electricity for the region and for our production at the Trier plant. We are constantly reducing the amount of plastic used in the packaging of our classic tobacco products, thus saving tons of plastic waste.

Find out more about us at: https://www.jti.com/de/europe/germany/top-arbeitgeber