BOEHMERT & BOEHMERT Patent- und Rechtsanwälte: B&B Bulletin

Issue July 2017

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5 Jul 2017 | Patents and Utility Models

Go German Patents! – Special rules allowing double patenting and parallel enforcement for the Unitary Patent System and national patents in Germany

With the rise of the Unitary Patent Court (UPC) and the Unitary Patent – a single European Patent for the European Union – the German implementing regulations of international patent law were recently...

5 Jul 2017 | Patents and Utility Models

Overview: The German case law on standard-essential patents after Huawei ./. ZTE

Standard-essential patents controlling the access to key technologies have been the subject of debate for several years. In the landmark decision Huawei vs. ZTE, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) es...

5 Jul 2017 | Patents and Utility Models

G1 / 15 – the antidote against “poisonous priority”

In its latest decision, G1 / 15, the enlarged Board of Appeal of the European Patent Office ended the possibility of “poisonous priority”. According to this decision, under the EPC, entitlement to par...

5 Jul 2017 | Copyright

Reform of copyright contract law enters into force

On 1 March 2017, the reform of German copyright contract law took effect. The reform brings along new challenges, in particular, new claims to information and accountability as well as new provisions ...

5 Jul 2017 | Copyright

CJEU Filmspeler: Landmark ruling on streaming and preparatory acts to copyright infringements

CJEU Filmspeler is a ground-breaking copyright decision in many ways. By qualifying the distribution of technical devices (intended to make streaming of copyright infringing content possible) as a mak...

5 Jul 2017 | Copyright

The German Federal Supreme Court rules on World of Warcraft

Computer games are becoming more and more important, not only in everyday life but also in legal theory. The German Federal Supreme Court (BGH) has now issued a decision on the online game World of Wa...

5 Jul 2017 | Unfair Competition

Recall obligation always part of injunctive relief?

In a recent unfair competition case, the Federal Supreme Court (BGH) ruled that injunctive relief prohibiting product distribution and / or advertisement may also implicate an obligation to actively r...

Special Edition April 2017

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11 Apr 2017 | Trademarks

Update Brexit – Exit triggered on March 29, 2017

The notification by the UK Government of March 29, 2017, delivered to the EU Council, is now setting the stage for the exit negotiations. These have to be concluded between the parties and ratified by...

Issue December 2016

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1 Dec 2016 | Patents and Utility Models

The Initiative “Early certainty from Examination” – possible collateral damages and what this means for the applicant

Early certainty from examination for patent applications is the aim of the European Patent Office’s initiative which bears the same name. In the future, there should only be 12 months between the appl...

1 Dec 2016 | Patents and Utility Models

The Patenting of Graphical User Interfaces

The Boards of Appeal of the European Patent Office (EPO) have recently commented several times on the question of the patenting of graphical user interfaces and have more narrowly defined the area in ...

1 Dec 2016 | Patents and Utility Models

Equivalent patent infringement if only one possible embodiment is addressed by the claims

In two of the latest decisions of the Federal Court of Justice of Germany, the earlier case law regarding claim construction has been discussed. In particular, the scope of protection by way of equiva...

1 Dec 2016 | Patents and Utility Models

First provisional compulsory license issued in Germany on a European patent for an AIDS medicament

The German Federal Patent Court has ordered for the first time a provisional compulsory license under Section 24 of the Patent Act, allowing Merck (US) to continue to market the HIV-drug raltegravir, ...

1 Dec 2016 | Anti-Trust

CJEU: The antitrust assessment of licence contracts for patents which have become invalid

In its decision of 7 July 2016 (case C-567/14 – Genentech / Sanofi-Aventis), the CJEU followed up on its antitrust Ottung case law (320/87, EU: C: 1998: 195, para. 11 et sqq.) and confirmed that licen...

1 Dec 2016 | Trademarks

Change of policy by the CJEU: Application for partial renewal of European Union trademark does not contain an implicit partial renunciation

With its decision of 22 June 2016, the CJEU, the highest European instance in trade mark matters, corrected the previously constant practice of partial renewals of European Union trade marks (EUTM) in...

1 Dec 2016 | Trademarks

CJEU: On the liability of operators of physical market places

In its decision of July 7, 2016 (file no. C-494/15), the CJEU continued its case law on online-market places (L´Oreal./.ebay, file no: C-324/09) and applied it to so-called offline-market places. The ...

1 Dec 2016 | Copyright

Interview in the journal Neue Juristische Wochenschrift (NJW) - Germany’s publishers take on Google

It seems they will not be friends, Germany’s publishers and Google. In February, they met before the Regional Court of Berlin. Market abuse is the accusation made by 41 publishers against the search e...

1 Dec 2016 | Copyright

What happens now after the German Federal Constitutional Court’s Metall-auf-Metall Decision?

Sampling technology has become an integral part of today’s music production. It is not unusual in recording studios for artists and producers to recall sounds from other artist’s productions which the...

1 Dec 2016 | Copyright

Reform of EU Copyright Law - Proposals by the European Commission for a digital single market

"Copyright is everywhere": In the digital knowledge and entertainment society of today, copyright law controls the distribution and use of content. Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the European Union...

Special Edition June 2016

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1 Jun 2016 | Patents and Utility Models

The “Brexit” and its Consequences for IP Rights

On Thursday last week (23 June 2016), the UK voted to leave the EU, and thereby decided for what has become known as the “Brexit”. As of today, it is still uncertain what the exact implications of thi...

Issue June 2016

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1 Jun 2016 | Unfair Competition

Uniform protection for trade secrets in the EU is in the offing

The upcoming EU directive on trade secrets will provide enhanced protection for trade secrets almost on a par with intellectual property rights. ...

1 Jun 2016 | Data Protection

Compulsory Information on Online-Dispute Resolution from EU-Directives and EU-Regulation

Online sellers have to cope with the introduction of dispute resolution procedures for consumer transactions. This applies on a national level and to cross-border trade in goods and services on a Euro...

1 Jun 2016 | Patents and Utility Models

Swiss-Type claims cannot be changed to Compound-For-Use claims

In a recent decision, the Technical Board of Appeal of the European Patent Office ruled that Swiss-type claims pertaining to the use of a known medicament in the treatment of a further disease cannot ...

1 Jun 2016 | Patents and Utility Models

No Supplementary Protection Certificates for Medical Devices

The German Federal Patent Court refused to grant a Supplementary Protection Certificate (SPC) for aminosilane-coated iron oxide nanoparticles which were authorized for the European market as a medical...

1 Jun 2016 | Patents and Utility Models

News on the Unitary Patent

In our Bulletin, we report regularly (most recently on the renewal fees in the December 2015 issue) on the route to a unitary European patent system. The recent progress comprises in particular the su...

1 Jun 2016 | Patents and Utility Models

No registration requirement for a license to use a EUTM

On February 4, 2016, the CJEU confirmed with its Judgment in Case C-163/15 that a licensee may bring proceedings alleging infringement of a European Union Trademark (EUTM) which is the subject of a li...

Special Edition February 2016

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1 Feb 2016 | Trademarks

Reform of the Community Trademark Regulation

The long debated reform of the European Union Trademark System has finally led to a new Regulation on the Community Trademark as well as new Directive for the EU member states concerning the national ...

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