About Friederike Stephan and simply patent / einfach patent
Who I am and what drives me
I am a German Patent Attorney, European Patent Attorney and trainer.
With einfach patent , I have created a 2022 offer that combines legal expertise with didactic clarity – for all those who work with innovations in everyday life and want to understand what really matters when it comes to patents.
After all, patents do not only affect lawyers.
They affect people who have ideas, make decisions and bear responsibility – often without a deeper knowledge of intellectual property.
This is exactly where I come in: understandable, practical and at eye level.
Privately, I live with my Mexican boyfriend and our daughter in northern Germany, right next to a field. Due to my studies and also out of my own interest, I used to travel a lot, e.g. in Oman in close contact with a camel.
My mission
To make patents understandable – for people, not for paragraphs.
I founded a patent simply because I have experienced how much potential remains untapped in companies when patents are perceived as foreign, bureaucratic or dissuasive.
My mission is to convey patent knowledge in such a way that it can be understood, thought about and applied. Not in the form of lectures on Section 34 German Patent Act – but as a practical tool that protects innovation, provides orientation and strengthens accountability.
I believe that when people understand how the patent system works, they make better decisions – for their ideas, their projects and their company.
My career
I studied geosciences with a focus on geophysics and graduated with a master’s degree in “Marine Geosciences” from the University of Bremen and the University of Waikato (NZ). The step into patent law was the result of the desire to combine technical understanding with legal systematics – and to support people in protecting their ideas.
I completed my training as a patent attorney in a law firm, with stations at the German Patent and Trademark Office and the Federal Patent Court. I then worked for eight years as a patent assessor in a DAX-listed company , with responsibility for national and international IP portfolios.
Since 2022, I have been a licensed European Patent Attorney – and I am continuously educating myself, especially in the areas of didactics, communication and organizational development. To professionalize my work, I did a train-the-trainer training at the Chamber of Industry and Commerce in 2024. In the spring of 2025, I trained as an Agile Practitioner.
How I work
I support companies in imparting patent knowledge in such a way that it really arrives – and remains.
To this end, I combine legal expertise with didactic clarity, empathy and a systemic view of learning in organizations.
In recent years, I have worked with very different companies:
From large, well-known corporations to small family businesses where we ate potato soup at the kitchen table during our lunch break. I had homogeneous development teams as participants as well as inhomogeneous groups from development, administration, management and IP – online and offline.
My aim is not only to convey content, but to create space for reflection, application and further development. After all, good training does not only mean an increase in knowledge – it changes perspectives.
Collaborations and Collaboration
Currently I have a cooperation with PATOffice. Among other things, we organize monthly free webinars on LinkedIN.
I also work with the passionate inventor and innovation manager Sonja Labitzke , who offers innovation workshops for companies, among other things.
