The UNION of European Practitioners for Intellectual Property will host its annual Round Table on 25.02.2011 at the German Patent and Trademark Office in Munich. This year, the hot topic will be: “Enforcement of Patent Rights through Customs Confiscation Proceedings”. European IP experts will present various aspects over three sessions with keynote speakers and invites participants to take part in discussions and share experiences. BOEHMERT & BOEHMERT partner Nils T. F. Schmid will organise and coordinate this Round Table as Vice President of the UNION.

In the winter semester of 2011 three departments in Berlin’s Freie, Humboldt and Technische Universities will co-host a series of seminars on the theme of patents and property rights targeting scientific teaching staff at Berlin institutes of further education. Underpinning the seminars is the fact that universities, too, will in future be under increasing pressure to profit commercially from their own research findings. The series will be hosted in partnership with the German Patent and Trade Mark Office and will be composed of blocks covering five themes. The block entitled “Special forms of property rights: Copyright” will be led by BOEHMERT & BOEHMERT partner Dr. Thomas W. Boddien on 22nd February 2011 and will focus on copyright issues associated with the internet. On 8th March Prof. Dr. Jan Bernd Nordemann will lead the “Domain and trade mark law” seminar and address practical issues such as obstacles to be overcome in choosing a trade mark or domain. The seminars aim to set out the scope of industrial property rights and explain the procedures for securing these rights.