Patent applicants can now obtain a patent with the German and Korean patent authorities more quickly. The German Patent and Trademark Office (GPTO) and the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) have closed the agreement to the so-called "Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH)" on March 12, 2010. One of the requirements for accelerated examination by the German and Korean patent examiners is that the patent application has already been registered at the other office.

 

As in the previous years attorneys of our firm will participate in the ECTA besides approximately 700 delegates from all countries of the European Union. This congress is one of the most important conferences in the field of trademark law at European level. It offers education programs, seminars and lectures and serves the professional exchange of international colleagues.

 

This meeting, held each May, can be regarded as the most important and respected conference in the field of trademark law. More than 7,000 participants from more than 130 countries of the international IP community are going to take part in this event. As in the previous years, of course, also attorneys from Klinger & Kollegen are going to take advantage of a week of educational programs, committee meetings, exhibitions and networking opportunities.

 

From March 1, 2010 it will be possible to extend to Montenegro the protection conferred by European patent applications and patents. Extended European patent applications and patents will confer essentially the same protection in Montenegro as the patents granted by the European Patent Office for the now 36 member states of the European Patent Organisation.

 

Especially small and medium-sized firms do often desist from protecting their innovations by a patent due to excessive costs. By means of the program SIGNO - Protection of Ideas for Commercial Use - the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (BMWi) promotes those applicants in the manufacturing sector who file a patent for the first time with up to 8,000.00 EUR. The support program permits the applicants to achieve a high-quality patent or utility model application - which is also the reason why the costs for a patent attorney are partially borne - thus creating an inventor and innovation-friendly climate in Germany and improving the implementation of research and development results into marketable products.

 

The Act for Simplification and Modernisation of Patent Law ("Patentrechtsmodernisierungsgesetz") that has been passed by the federal cabinet is going to enter into force on October 01, 2009. Its function shall be to accelerate and improve protracted lawsuits. Affected areas of law are in particular patent nullification proceedings and employee inventions. Moreover, some administrative barriers are going to be abolished from the employee invention law: In the future, a so called "Inanspruchnahmefiktion" shall be in force, according to which an employee's invention is going to devolve to the employer after the period of four months, unless the employer releases it beforehand.

 

The Federal High Court of Justice (BGH) has decided on July 16, 2009 on the legal validity of the registration of the lego brick as a trademark.

The lego brick with its typical arrangement of studs on the upper surface was registered by the German Patent and Trademark Office (GPTO) in 1996 as a three-dimensional mark for the product "game elements". Against this registration, several requests for cancellation were filed as in the opinion of the petitioners, the three-dimensional trademark should not have been registered.

The BGH has now confirmed the cancellation ruled by the Federal Patent Court. He supposes that the lego brick is excluded from the registration as a three-dimensional brand according to Article 3 Section 2 No. 2 of the German Trademark Act as the trademark exclusively consisted of a form which is necessary to achieve a technical effect. This technical function nevertheless had to be kept free in the interest of the competitors and was not able to claim trademark protection. Therefore, the lego brick was cancelled with justification.

 

The ECTA is one of the most important conferences in the field of trademark law at European level. The congress serves the professional exchange of international colleagues and offers education programs, seminars and lectures. Beside attorneys of our firm approximately 700 delegates from all countries of the European Union will participate the congress.

 

This meeting, held each May, can be regarded as the most important and respected conference in the field of trademark law. More than 7,000 participants from more than 130 countries of the international IP community are going to take part in this event. Of course, also attorneys from Klinger & Kollegen are going to take advantage of a week of educational programs, committee meetings, exhibits and networking opportunities.

 

The cost of having a Community trade mark fell by 40% from 1 May, 2009. This brings the fee for an online application down to 900 EUR. The President of the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (OHIM) Wubbo de Boer said: "We hope that the very significant drop in the cost of Community trade marks will encourage companies to continue to protect their future right to market their brands freely in Europe. As a non-profit-making European agency, we have been trying to play our part in providing value for money in this essential service. Taking into account the earlier cut in trade mark fees in 2005, through efficiency measures and greater use of computer technology we have been able to more than halve the cost of Community trade marks over a five year period."

 

The so-called London Agreement causes a significant cost reduction in the national validation procedure of European Patents. For many european countries there is now no longer needed a complete translation of the European patent specification into the respective local language. The reduced cost for preparing translations increases the attractiveness of the European patent process, by means of which patent protection in more than 30 countries of the European region can be requested through a single patent application.

 

The Governments of the Kingdom of Norway and the Republic of Croatia deposited their instrument of accession to the European Patent Convention (EPC) and to the Act revising the EPC. As from 1 January 2008, the European Patent Organisation will thus comprise the following 34 member states: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and the United Kingdom.

 

With the accession of Malta effective on December 01, 2006, the number of states bound by the PCT (for filing of an International Patent Application) will be further increased to the total of 134 states.

Each national or resident of a contracting state is entitled to file an International Patent Application. An International Patent Application, which fulfills the minimum requirements for granting an International filing date, has in every designated state same effect as a national application.

 

Lately, holders of intellectual property rights increasingly get offers from firms, which offer against payment of money entry of intellectual property rights in a register. Many of these companies bear business terms which sound a lot like official authority names and use forms which seem to be official invoices. The German Chamber of Patent Attorneys warns in this context especially of the following companies:

WIG – Wirtschaftszentrale für Industrie und Gewerbe AG
F.I.P.T.R. – Federated Institute for Patent & Trademark Registry
Matic-Verlagsgesellschaft mbH
AGR – Allgemeine Gewerbedatei e. K. (Zentrale Patentdatei, Zentrale Gebrauchsmusterdatei)
DHV – Deutscher Handelsregisterverlag AG
VFV – Verlag für Veröffentlichungen
VVB – Verlag für Veröffentlichungen und Bekanntmachungen GmbH
DT-Medien – Deutscher Verlag für Televerzeichnis- und Medien
PV – Patentverlag Ltd.
SRV – Schutzrechtsverlag Ltd.
WIHH – Wirtschaftsinstitut für Industrie, Handel, Handwerk AG

 

 

 

The Government of the Republic of Iceland deposited its instrument of accession to the European Patent Convention (EPC) and to the Act revising the EPC of 29 November 2000.

As from 1 November 2004, the European Patent Organisation will thus comprise the following 29 member states: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and the United Kingdom.
 
 

A new design law came into force in Germany on June 01, 2004. The following is a brief summary of the most significant changes:

Whereas the law used to only prohibit the imitation of protected designs, it is now possible to prevent third parties from making use of the protected design without prior authorization. Anyone working in the design sector must therefore be well informed about which designs are protected.
The protectability of a design is decided based on the factors novelty and individuality. Novelty is given when experts are not aware of the existence of an identical design. This does not include designs the inventor (or his or her legal successor) brought to experts’ attention (e.g. at a trade fair, in trade journals, etc.) up to 12 months before the design was filed (previously 6 months).

A design can claim protection for a maximal period of 25 years. The term of protection now begins on the day of the design’s inclusion in the register of the German Patent and Trademark Office (GPTO).

The owner of a design may request disposal, discontinuance and damages from anyone who infringes upon his or her rights, i.e. anyone who introduces an essentially identical design onto the market.

The accession of 10 new member states (the Czech Republic, Estonia, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Slovenia and Slovakia) to the European Community has had considerable effects on the community trademark/design system. Prior contracting states were Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Denmark, Germany, Finland, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Austria, Portugal, Sweden, Spain and Great Britain. The geographic range of protection of all community trademarks registered or filed before May 01, 2004 will "automatically" be extended to the countries that have just acceded to the European Community without the necessity of paying additional fees or filing special applications. New regulations have come into force, e.g. concerning collisions with older national rights, absolute grounds for refusal, enforcement of trademark rights and official languages at the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market Trade Marks and Designs (OHIM).