Exit: PARAGON sells NovumIP to Questel

Munich — Para­gon sells Novu­mIP to Ques­tel. As part of the tran­sac­tion, Para­gon is inves­t­ing in the Ques­tel Group in addi­tion to its exis­ting share­hol­ders. The acqui­si­tion is subject to anti­trust clearance and appr­oval by Bafin.

Novu­mIP was crea­ted by the merger of PAVIS and Nova­graaf in 2019. The aim of this was to offer the two compa­nies’ custo­mers an even broa­der range of IP consul­ting, manage­ment and tech­­no­­logy-based services and to become the central point of cont­act for all IP-rela­­ted inqui­ries, along the entire value chain.

Ques­tel is a leading global IP solu­ti­ons provi­der with an end-to-end inte­gra­ted plat­form of soft­ware and tech­­no­­logy-based services that address the needs of corpo­ra­ti­ons and law firms throug­hout the IP lifecycle.

“After the combi­na­tion of PAVIS and Nova­graaf to form Novu­mIP, the merger with Ques­tel is the next step on the way to beco­ming the leading global provi­der of end-to-end IP solu­ti­ons,” elabo­ra­tes Dr. Krischan von Moel­ler, Mana­ging Part­ner at Para­gon, adding, “We would like to thank Rein­hard Ottway (Execu­tive Board Member, Novum IP), Lutgarde Liezen­berg (CEO, Nova­graaf) and Thomas Gruber (CEO, PAVIS), their manage­ment team and all employees for their contri­bu­tion and extra­or­di­nary commit­ment over the past years.” Max Moser von Fils­eck, Prin­ci­pal at Para­gon, adds “Toge­ther we have achie­ved great succes­ses in the past years, which serve as a basis for conti­nuing and further acce­le­ra­ting the strong growth momen­tum, which toge­ther with Ques­tel will gain even more momentum. ”

Para­gon and Novu­mIP were supported in the tran­sac­tion by Alva­rez & Marsal (Finan­cial), Baker McKen­zie (Law), KPMG (Tax) and Roth­schild (M&A).

About Nova­graaf
For more than 130 years, Nova­graaf has been helping well-known brands and inno­va­tive compa­nies around the world build their compe­ti­tive advan­tage. As one of the leading IP consul­tancies in Europe, Nova­graaf specia­li­zes in the protec­tion and global manage­ment of IP rights, inclu­ding trade­marks, patents, designs, domain names and copy­rights. Nova­graaf is head­quar­te­red in the Nether­lands and has 18 offices world­wide. In 2020, Nova­graaf acqui­red Thom­sen Tram­pe­dach — a firm that excels at provi­ding clients with tail­o­red legal exper­tise, effi­ci­ency-enhan­cing admi­nis­tra­tive services and proac­tive commer­cial insights. www.novagraaf.com.

About PAVIS
PAVIS is a leading global provi­der of IP manage­ment services. For more than 40 years, PAVIS has been a valuable part­ner for law firms and corpo­rate IP depart­ments with large IP port­fo­lios. Inno­va­tive tech­ni­cal solu­ti­ons, relia­ble proces­ses and a high level of auto­ma­tion have made PAVIS one of the most effi­ci­ent and relia­ble IP manage­ment service provi­ders. PAVIS has a focus on patent and trade­mark rene­wals. The subsi­diary PAVIS Payments is offi­ci­ally licen­sed as a regu­la­ted payment service provi­der under the Payment Services Super­vi­sion Act (Zahlungs­diens­te­auf­sichts­ge­setz — ZAG) and is thus able to provide all services in compli­ance with the legal requi­re­ments. www.pavis.com.

About Ques­tel
Questel’s mission is to faci­li­tate the deve­lo­p­ment of inno­va­tion in an effi­ci­ent, safe and sustainable manner. Ques­tel is a provi­der of compre­hen­sive end-to-end intellec­tual property solu­ti­ons. The company offers a compre­hen­sive soft­ware suite for sear­ching, analy­zing and mana­ging inven­ti­ons and IP assets. Ques­tel also provi­des services along the entire IP life­cy­cle, inclu­ding prior art sear­ches, patent draf­ting, inter­na­tio­nal filings, trans­la­ti­ons and rene­wals. These solu­ti­ons, combi­ned with Questel’s IP cost manage­ment plat­form, provide their clients with an average savings of 30–60% over the entire patent prose­cu­tion budget. www.questel.com.

Advi­sor to Ques­tel, IK Invest­ment Part­ners, Eura­zeo and Raise Inves­tis­se­ment: Will­kie Farr & Gallagher
The multi­di­sci­pli­nary Will­kie team from two offices was coor­di­na­ted by Paris-based part­ner Eduardo Fernan­dez (Corpo­rate) and led in Frank­furt by part­ner Dr. Kamyar Abrar (Corpo­rate).

About Para­gon
Para­gon is an owner-mana­­ged invest­ment company and has been inves­t­ing in medium-sized compa­nies in German-spea­king count­ries since its foun­da­tion in 2004. Para­gon works closely with its port­fo­lio compa­nies to ensure sustainable growth and improve opera­tio­nal proces­ses. The invest­ment port­fo­lio covers various indus­tries and curr­ently compri­ses 14 compa­nies. Para­gon is based in Munich and curr­ently mana­ges €1.2 billion in equity. More infor­ma­tion can be found at www.paragon.de.

Legal advi­sor PARAGON PARTNERS: Baker McKenzie
Lead: Corporate/M&A:
Dr. Ingo Strauss (Part­ner), Dr. Heiko Gotsche (Part­ner, both Düsseldorf)
Other lawy­ers involved:
Corporate/M&A: Manuel Metz­ner (Coun­sel, Frank­furt), Juan Garcia Jacob­sen (Asso­ciate, Düssel­dorf), Lena von Richt­ho­fen (Senior Asso­ciate, Düssel­dorf), Jana Upschulte (Senior Asso­ciate, Düssel­dorf), Dr. Richard Stefan­ink (Asso­ciate, Düssel­dorf), Celina Zaim (Asso­ciate, Düssel­dorf), Denise Tayler (Asso­ciate, Frankfurt)
IT: Dr. Holger Lutz (Part­ner, Frank­furt), Simone Rieken (Senior Asso­ciate, Frankfurt)
Public Law: Anahita Thoms (Part­ner, Düssel­dorf), Alex­an­der Ehrle (Asso­ciate, Berlin)
Anti­trust: Dr. Nico­las Kredel (Part­ner, Düssel­dorf), Dr. Florian Kotman (Asso­ciate, Düssel­dorf), Dr. Jonas Brueck­ner (Coun­sel, Berlin)
Labor Law: Dr. Chris­tian Reichel (Part­ner, Frank­furt), Dr. Sebas­tian F. Pfrang (Asso­ciate, Frankfurt)
Real Estate: Dr. Daniel Bork (Senior Asso­ciate, Düsseldorf)
Tax: Chris­toph Becker (Part­ner, Frank­furt), Ariane Schaaf (Coun­sel, Frankfurt)
IP: Nadine Neumeier (Senior Asso­ciate, Frankfurt)
Banking & Finance: Phil­ipp Thimm (Asso­ciate, Frankfurt)
Commer­cial: Joachim Fröh­lich (Coun­sel, Munich)

Other Baker McKen­zie offices: Attor­neys from Baker McKen­zie offices in Belgium, Nether­lands, UK, France, Switzerland.