In the middle of the 19th century the German patent system has been just as divided as the country itself, which suffered from its division in numerous single states. However, the formation of the German "Reich" in 1871 paved the way for the German patent system. The first uniform German Patent Act came into force as "Reichspatentgesetz" in 1877.

Even in those days working on patent cases required profound knowledge in technical and special law issues. That is why, from the beginning, there was the need for persons skilled in the art, which were working exclusively on these issues for different companies. One of these "patent agents", as they were called in those days, was the engineer Alexander Specht (s. photo 1). In anticipation of the upcoming Patent Act he founded our law firm in December 1876 at its Hamburg location. On November 4, 1878, he filed "his" first application for a "Reichspatent" (Reich patent) in the name of Charles Horatio Waterous jr. from Brantford / Canada. It was entitled "innovations on locomobiles" and was given the filing number 20626 (see publication in "Illustriertes Patent-Blatt"of 1878) (2).

As the German Patent Act was taking off quickly the law firm was also growing. As early as 1879, Alexander Specht took in the engineers Rudolph Ziese and Johann Petersen as partners. The law firm resided at the old fish market in Hamburg (see photo from the 1880s) (3). The law firm was registered as the firm "Specht, Ziese & Co." as a commercial company of partners with unlimited liability in the trade register of the Hamburg district-court (see extract from the commercial register of No. 18334) (4). Around the turn of the century the engineer Julius Stuckenberg joined the law firm.

The profession "patent agents" was first regulated in Germany by the "Act on Patent Attorneys" of 1900 and the designation "patent attorney" was introduced (see photo 5). The law firm's attorneys were referring to themselves as patent attorneys (see extract from the trade register of No. 32907 and file cover) (6) and (7).

The engineer Rudolf Specht joined the law firm just before the First World War, and run it from 1918 until his death in 1930 on his own. Afterwards, it was taken over by the engineers Johannes Fritze and Carl Stoepel (see extract from the commercial register HRA 13627) (8). Thus, the law firm became supra-regional, since Carl Stoepel was active from Berlin (see file cover) (9), the former place of the Reich Patent Office ("Reichspatentamt"). In those days the localities of the Hamburg office were in Spitaler Strasse and later in Lilienstrasse.

As far as it is known today, the Second World War did not leave the law firm unharmed. According to our information Carl Stoepel was bombed, left the law firm and set up his own law firm at his hometown Landau (Pfalz). Johannes Fritze was able to continue his practice, but had to change office localities repeatedly. After the war the chemist Werner Koch joined, who had been active before as a patent attorney in Berlin and had to give up his law firm during the war chaos (see file cover) (10). Around 1949 the law firm moved into its Hamburg localities in Simon-von-Utrecht-Strasse. Since it became more and more apparent that the new German Patent Office would have its location in Munich, Werner Koch started to set up office localities on site in Kolbergerstrasse. However, the law firm had to quickly abandon this second place of business, since Johannes Fritze unexpectedly died already in 1950.

Today's Munich office was, however, reopened in 1952 by Dr.-Ing. Richard Glawe, after he had finished his training as a patent attorney under Werner Koch and had joined the law firm as a partner. In 1964, the engineer Klaus Delfs reinforced the Hamburg office (see file cover) (11), and in 1968, the physicist Dr. Walter Moll joined the Munich office.

After the death of Werner Koch the law firm adopted its present name "GLAWE DELFS MOLL". In the meantime, it has successively grown by taking in patent attorneys of various technical fields as well as one attorney-at-law and it offers all services in the field of intellectual property (see attorneys).