A recent German Patent Court decision No. 19 W (pat) 7/22 from 1 June 2022 reflected the practice of the European Patent Office in assessing the inventive step of an invention employing machine learning or artificial intelligence. The German Court decided that the mere inclusion of a reference to a...
Wie spitze ist die Marke Spezi?
Vor dem Landgericht München I wurde kürzlich darüber verhandelt, inwiefern die Paulaner-Brauerei Lizenzgebühren für den von ihr vertriebenen „Paulaner Spezi“ an die Brauerei Riegele in Augsburg leisten muss. Die Brauerei Riegele vertreibt selbst ein Cola-Mix-Getränk mit dem Namen Spezi und hat gegen Paulaner geklagt. Es ist unbestritten, dass die Brauerei...
Industrial Technologies 2022 Grenoble
This week three of our colleagues (Robert Harrison, Kilian Müller, and Eva Magd) took part in the EU-organised conference on Industrial Technologies 2022, held in Grenoble (France). The event is designed for research and technology organizations (RTOs), representatives of industrial companies as well as policymakers to discuss current trends, challenges...
Preparing Patent Specifications for Quantum Technologies
The requirements for a patent specification or description for an invention in the field of quantum technology are the same as for other patents. It is necessary to show that the claims of the granted patent define the subject matter for which patent protection is sought and the granted claims...
When is an invention “novel”?
One of the key requirements to get a patent application is that the invention needs to be "new" or "novel". That may sound a simple definition - the European Patent Convention states an invention is "considered to be new if it does not form part of the state of the...
Unified Patent Court – Administrative Committee established
The next step in setting up the new European Unified Patent Court has been established on 22 February with the inaugural meeting of the Court's Administrative Committee, according to an announcement on the court's website. The meeting adopted a number of items of secondary legislation, including the rules on the...
All Change for European Patent Litigation
What will change for you once the UPC is up and running?
Birth of Unitary (European) Patent System
The Protocol to the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court on provisional application (PPA) has entered into force on 19 January 2022 following the deposit of the instrument of ratification by Austria. This event marks the start of the Provisional Application Period (PAP) and the birth of the Unified Patent...
Kann ich mir den Schutz von Innovationen leisten?
Insbesondere kleinere Unternehmen stellen sich häufig die Frage, ob sie sich den Schutz ihres geistigen Eigentums leisten können. Neben vermeintlich hoher Kosten für die Erlangung gewerblicher Schutzrechte bestehen Bedenken vor hohen Folge-Kosten, beispielsweise im Falle einer Verletzung der eigenen Schutzrechte durch Dritte. Im folgenden Artikel möchten wir diese Bedenken aufgreifen...
Quantum Computing Innovations
Regular analyses of patent applications world wide show that quantum computing is one of the fastest growing technologies and governments are investing large sums of money. One prediction, dating from 2020, suggests that the quantum computing market could read USD 1 trillion by 2035. With such large sums being poured...