Questel acquires majority stake in Brandstock

Press releases

Questel, one of the world’s largest intellectual property software and service providers, has signed an agreement to acquire a majority stake in Brandstock, an international player in IP Services.

Founded in 1993 and based in Munich (Germany), Brandstock leverages their advanced technology platform to provide the highest quality services in the most cost-effective manner for trademark searches and filings, IP maintenance fee payments, IP costs benchmarking, data verification, brand protection, portfolio management and IP recordals. Led by its founder, Volker Spitz, and supported by over 140 employees, Brandstock serves 400 clients globally.

This acquisition is part of Questel’s ongoing strategy to build a one-stop-shop offering in the areas of IP and innovation. Brandstock’s trademark filing service is highly synergetic with Questel’s international patent filing service. With the Brandstock acquisition, Questel achieves an annual turnover of c. M€ 150 and 700 worldwide employees, firmly establishing itself as a global leader in the IP industry.

“Brandstock is the right fit for Questel,” says Charles Besson, Questel CEO. “Germany is now Questel’s main place for business in Europe, and Brandstock markedly expands our catalog of IP services.”

“Brandstock already holds one of the top market position for trademark renewals and is a serious contender for patent renewals,” adds Volker Spitz CEO and founder of Brandstock, “We have an ambitious plan to disrupt the patent annuities business, and Questel has just the right market leadership and entrepreneurial spirit to accelerate that plan.”

Questel is a true end-to-end intellectual property solutions provider to more than 5,000 clients and 1M users across 30 countries. We offer a comprehensive software suite for searching, analyzing and managing inventions and IP assets. Questel also provides services throughout the IP lifecycle, including prior art searches, patent drafting, international filing, translation, and renewals. These solutions, when combined with our IP cost management platform, deliver clients an average savings of 30-60% across the entire prosecution budget.

Brandstock — From the beginning in 1993, Brandstock has grown into one of the leading providers of Intellectual Property services. Headquartered in Munich, Germany with offices in Italy, US, France, Slovenia and Switzerland, Brandstock employs over 140 professionals from 43 different countries in a range of disciplines, and the services encompass trademark filings, renewals, IP benchmarking and recordals, monitoring and enforcement, and IP consultancy.