The Roots

The roots of BEST Rechtsanwälte go back to the Trademark Department of Hoechst AG in Frankfurt am Main, at the time one of the three big chemical and pharmaceutical companies in Germany.

In 1998, following the restructuring of Hoechst AG, the head of the trademark department of the company, Dr. Robert Freitag, and his deputy Dr. Michael Best jointly founded the law firm Freitag & Best. As in-house counsels, they had been responsible for the management of the global portfolio of trademarks, designs and other non-technical IP rights as well as licensing, advertising and unfair competition matters of the Hoechst group for many years. With Freitag & Best they continued advising many of the successor companies of Hoechst group and securing their IP heritage.

 In 2013, under its new name BEST Rechtsanwälte, the firm, moved from its offices on the premises of former Hoechst AG (today operated under the name Industriepark Höchst) to its new offices only minutes away from Industriepark Höchst in the center of Frankfurt Höchst – where the firm is still seated today.

In April 2021, the firm decided to reinvent itself and started a restructuring process which included increased social engagement, the implementation of innovative technologies, the recruitment and support of the next generation of IP professionals and the completion of the digitization of the entire historical IP files which partly date back more than 100 years. BEST Rechtsanwälte is now doing business under the brand BestIP.