Managing Intellectual Property IP Stars 2018: Once again exceptional ranking for BOEHMERT & BOEHMERT

/in

As shortly before in the field of Trade mark experts at BOEHMERT & BOEHMERT were this year too ranked in the top group in the Patent category. IP STARS 2018 highlights the firm’s exceptional service by including it in its Tier 1 list.

Mentioned by name as IP Stars were Prof. Dr. Heinz Goddar, Christian W. Appelt and Dr. Markus Engelhard, in the fields of Patent prosecution, Patent litigation and Patent counselling & strategy.

IP STARS is one of the leading manuals on IP specialists worldwide. In 1996, the first ranking was published. The publication is the result of comprehensive research by an experienced team of analysts and journalists in offices in Hong Kong, London and New York.

The current publication can be accessed here.

Claim by Deutsche Post AG rejected

/in

Dr Florian Schwab reports on the complex trademark decision of the European Court of Justice from 20 February 2018 T-118/16)  in the online magazine World Trademark Review.

The Court rejected the likelihood of confusion with the common element POST and rejected the claim brought by Deutsche Post AG.

In a detailed discussions, in particular regarding similarity of word elements, the Court found that the mark overall was sufficiently different due to the preceding word element BE and that the union trademark registration was valid.

Read the entire article here. This article appeared on 13.03.2018 in WTR Daily (component of World Trademark Review).

Claim by Deutsche Post AG rejected

/in

Dr. Florian Schwab reports on the complex trademark decision of the European Court of Justice from 20 February 2018 T-118/16) in the online magazine World Trademark Review.

The Court rejected the likelihood of confusion with the common element POST and rejected the claim brought by Deutsche Post AG.

In detailed discussions, in particular regarding similarity of word elements, the Court found that the mark overall was sufficiently different due to the preceding word element BE and that the union trademark registration was valid.

Read the entire article here. This article appeared on 13.03.2018 in WTR Daily (component of World Trademark Review).

Patent seminar, Bremen, April 11, 2018

/in

A patent seminar will be held in Bremen on April 11, 2018 Experts will provide information on the following topics:

  • Patent lawyer Dr. Volker Scholz: The right claim: defining the object of invention
  • Patent lawyer Fritz Jetzek: Utility patents: useful protection
  • Patent lawyer Dr. Uwe Manasse: Separation of patent breach and invalidity procedures: judgement against despite uncertain legal validity?
  • Patent lawyer Dr. Matthias Philipp: Recognising patent breaches in practice
  • Patent lawyer Dr. Martin Erbacher: US patent applications: slightly different from the rest

Detailed information on the event location is available in the programme. Please register with Dr. Volker Scholz by reply card or email.

Managing Intellectual Property IP Stars 2018: Rank 1 for the category Trade mark Germany

/in

Another award for the experts at BOEHMERT & BOEHMERT comes in the year 2018: In the Trade mark category, the firm spearheads the list of IP STARS – following on from its success last year in the categories of Copyright, Patent contentious and Patent prosecution.

IP STARS is one of the leading manuals on IP specialists worldwide. In 1996, the first ranking was published. The publication is the result of comprehensive research by an experienced team of analysts and journalists in offices in Hong Kong, London and New York.

The current IP Stars list can be accessed here.

BOEHMERT & BOEHMERT Partner at the #Karajan #MusicTech Conference on 23.03.2018 in Salzburg

/in

The Eliette and Herbert von Karajan Institute acting in coordination with the Salzburg Easter Festival and the University Mozarteum Salzburg will hold a one-day conference on music and technology – the #Karajan #MusicTech Conference.

Prof. Dr. Christian Czychowski will take part in a panel discussion at the event together with Ferdinand von Strantz, CEO Highlight Event AG, and Matthias Röder, CEO Karajan Institute. Here, new forms of exploitation of classical music – in particular in connection with streaming – will be discussed.

More details on the event can be found at.

German Unfair Competition Act (UWG) regulates entries on member structure – Dr Rudolf Böckenholt explains the details in his recent GRUR-Prax article

/in

In Edition 5/2018 (p. 134), Dr Rudolf Böckenholt explains the decision of the Saarland Higher Regional Court which held that, in accordance with §8(3)(2) UWG, associations must set out their active legitimation as regards member structure without giving rise to an actual presumption from previous actions against third parties. 

The magazine GRUR-Prax can be accessed from the publisher. More details can be found at.

German Unfair Competition Act (UWG) regulates entries on member structure – Dr Rudolf Böckenholt explains the details in his recent GRUR-Prax article

/in

In Edition 5/2018 (p. 134), Dr. Rudolf Böckenholt explains the decision of the Saarland Higher Regional Court which held that, in accordance with §8(3)(2) UWG, associations must set out their active legitimation regarding member structure without giving rise to an actual presumption from previous actions against third parties. 

The magazine GRUR-Prax can be accessed from the publisher. More details can be found at.

BOEHMERT & BOEHMERT Partner at the #Karajan #MusicTech Conference on 23.03.2018 in Salzburg

/in

The Eliette and Herbert von Karajan Institute acting in coordination with the Salzburg Easter Festival and the University Mozarteum Salzburg will hold a one-day conference on music and technology – the #Karajan #MusicTech Conference.

Prof. Dr. Christian Czychowski will take part in a panel discussion at the event together with Ferdinand von Strantz, CEO Highlight Event AG, and Matthias Röder, CEO Karajan Institute. Here, new forms of exploitation of classical music – in particular in connection with streaming – will be discussed.

More details on the event can be found at.

Need for action due to Changes to Official Fees at the EPO on April 1, 2018?

/in

Abrogation of Reduction of Fees for Non-European International Search Authorities (ISAs)

In 2005, the European Patent Office (EPO) reduced the fee for the supplementary European search for a patent application under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) if the international search report was drawn up by the national patent offices of the US, Japan, Korea, China, Russia, or Australia.

The Administrative Council has now abrogated this decision, and hence a reduction of the fee for the supplementary European search no longer applies for these cases. In the future, the full fee for the supplementary European search in the amount of 1,300.00 EUR must be paid.

The changes enter into force on April 1, 2018 and are applicable for all PCT applications where the regional phase thereof is entered on April 1, 2018 or later. Thus, applicants of PCT applications in the international phase, for which an international search report was drawn up by one of the above-mentioned patent offices, should consider performing the steps necessary for entry of the regional phase at the EPO by March 31, 2018 at the latest in order to still benefit from the reduced search fee.

The fee reduction for the supplementary European search remains unchanged in cases where the international search report was drawn up by an office being part of the ’European Partnership’ (currently the national patent offices of Spain, Sweden, Finland, Austria, and Turkey, as well as the Nordic Patent Institute and the Visegrad-Patent Institute).

Fee Incentives for the Implementation of XML

The EPO desires to establish online filing using the character-coded format (XML) as the standard format for filings. In order to make this more attractive, the EPO will allow filings in DOCX, the character-coded format that most users use for their daily work. The EPO has announced that it will provide an electronic tool that, starting on April 1, 2018, will make it possible to file online both applications and later filed documents in DOCX. Furthermore, the application fee and the fee for grant are reduced for patent applications in character-coded format.

The application fee is reduced to 90.00 EUR if the European patent application is filed online in a character-coded format. Corresponding regulations are provided for the entry into the European phase based on an international application. If any of the required documents is not filed online in character-coded format the application fee is 120.00 EUR. For a filing of the application on paper the application fee is increased to 250.00 EUR.

The fee for grant is reduced to 835.00 EUR, if, starting from April 1, 2018, all changes and corrections of the application as well as the translation of the claims are filed online in character-coded format. In all other cases the fee for grant, including the publication fee, remains at 925.00 EUR. However, the Administrative Council has already decided to raise this fee to 1,025.00 EUR starting on April 1, 2019.

Additional reductions for the filing of documents online and in character-coded format are planned.

Coverage of Costs in Appeal Proceedings

Currently, the fees for appeal proceedings by far do not cover the costs for the EPO. Thus, on April 1, 2018, the appeal fee is increased to 2,255.00 EUR. The appeal fee remains unchanged at 1,880.00 EUR for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), natural persons or non-profit organizations, and institutions of higher education or public research institutions.