The German Federal Court of Justice (Bundesgerichtshof) stated today in a decision (I ZR 139/20) that the golden colour of the Lindt Gold Bunny is protectable as a trademark under German law. The full reasons for the decision have not yet been published and, only a press release of the...
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Accelerating Patent Grants in Europe
Accelerating Patent Grants in Europe through the Patent Prosecution Highway We’re often being told that it takes too long for patents to be granted. Recently, we were asked to support a client that had received a favorable search report during the international phase of a patent filed under the Patent...
Unified Patent Court and Unified Patent in Europe – Back on Track?
The latest episode in the efforts to obtain a single European patent and patent court to cover (most of) the countries in the European Union has overcome its latest hurdle with the decision of the German Federal Constitutional Court (Bundesverfassungsgericht) to reject the request for an interim injunction to stop...
European Directive on Open Data
The deadline for European Union Member States to transpose the European Union's 2019 Open Data Directive into national law expired on 16 July 2021. The new rules update a directive originally agreed in 2013 and address some of the issues that arose in implementing that directive.
Patentfreigabe wegen Corona-Pandemie
Vor dem Hintergrund der weltweiten Corona-Pandemie ist eine intensive Diskussion über die Herstellung und Verteilung der Impfstoffe im Gange. Dabei wurden zuletzt Forderungen lauter, den Patentschutz für Impfstoffe gegen das Corona-Virus SARS-CoV-2 aufzuheben. Die Befürworter dieser Forderung versprechen sich davon eine raschere Steigerung der weltweiten Impfstoffproduktion. Ungeachtet der Frage, ob...
Patent Searching – Freedom to Operate or Patentability?
Let's suppose that you have developed a new product and you want to carry out a prior art search of existing patents. There's often a misconception about the objectives for a search. There's often confusion between a search based on "freedom to operate" and "patentability". In some cases, the main...
Priority Claim for European Design Rights based on Patent Application
Can an application for a community design registration claim priority of an international patent application – and if so for how long? That was the question that the Court of Justice of the European Union had to decide in matter T-579/19. Their decision dated 14 April 2021 was very interesting...
Non-Fungible Tokens and IP Rights
Fungible tokens (FT) are tokens that enable one part or quantity to be exchanged by another equal part or quantity which means that the tokens can be easily exchanged for another item of value. Every token is the same as every other token and is capable of mutual substitution. For...
Trade and Cooperation Agreement with UK Approved by the European Parliament
The European Parliament finally put its approval to the Trade and Cooperation Agreement between the United Kingdom and the European Union on 28 April 2021 and the Agreement came into full effect from Saturday 1 May. The Agreement includes a number of measures on protection of intellectual property which we...
International Trademark Registration Strategies
With a few exceptions, such as in the European Union or some African countries, trademarks are territorial rights and only give protection in the country in which the trademark is registered. If you are selling products and services in a large number of countries, then it may be necessary to...