Please be advised that our offices Dusseldorf, Frankfurt and Munich as well as the German Patent and Trademark Office (GPTO) and the European Patent Office (EPO) will be closed on Thursday, June 08, 2023 (national holiday, Corpus Christi). Kindly send us any urgent instructions well in advance. Thank you very much!
With kind regards
BOEHMERT & BOEHMERT
Medium-sized companies form the heart of our economy and can be found in large numbers in the BVMW. The association promotes entrepreneurial self-development, offers members the opportunity to network at a variety of events and cooperates with politics, business, science and culture for their benefit. Comprehensive personal support for the many thousands of members by regional contact persons positively round off the profile of the association.
All reasons for BOEHMERT & BOEHMERT to join the BVMW, because this is where philosophies meet that fit together! In our daily work, comprehensive personal advice and customised practical solutions for the protection of intellectual property are also at the centre. Small and medium-sized businesses are one of the most important pillars of our firm.
Our competent team of patent attorneys and attorneys-at-law advises companies in the fields of chemistry, electrical engineering and mechanical engineering, as well as in the fields of physics, pharmacy, biotechnology, IT, software, internet and the creative industries. At six modern locations in Germany and three international offices, we are available to answer our clients’ questions and provide support. Feel free to contact us! You can also find out more about the areas of law covered by our firm.
In succession of late Melvin F. Jager, who died in September of last year, the sole editor of Standard Handbook “Trade Secrets Throughout the World” (“TSTW”), ISBN 978-1-731-92418-6, last edition 2022 Thomson Reuters, fulfilling a sincere wish of late Mel Jager, BOEHMERT & BOEHMERT partner and patent attorney Heinz Goddar and Melanie Müller, attorney at law at BOEHMERT & BOEHMERT, since January 2023 are joint editors of “TSTW”.
Already at this opportunity, they would like to express their sincere hope that the numerous authors who, in cooperation with Mel Jager, in the past has been contributed to the handbook, will continue the fruitful cooperation in the past, together with the new co-editors, in honor and in continuation of Mel Jager’s great work.
It is a young spin-off of ETH Zurich and aims at the global regeneration of coral reefs, the organization rrreefs based in Zurich.
Founded in October 2020, the team has developed an artificial reef structure as a modular system made of 3D-printed bricks of pure clay and has already installed it at a pilot site in San Andrés in Colombia. In the meantime, initial successes have been seen in the form of increased coral growth as well as a greater variety of fish.
In terms of size and design, the reef structure can be individually adapted to local topographies and flow conditions of the seawater. The surface structure of the artificial reef stones supports the settlement as well as the survival of coral larvae and thus promotes the reproduction and growth of corals as well as their adaptation to new environmental conditions.
In 2023, Marie Griesmar, Ulrike Pfreundt, Hanna Kuhfuß and Josephine Graf plan to establish rrreefs as an environmental social enterprise.
Under the leadership of attorney Dr. Carl-Richard Haarmann, BOEHMERT & BOEHMERT is supporting the dedicated team on this path by means of pro bono legal advice.
“We are pleased to be able to contribute to the success of such an innovative company,” said Dr. Carl-Richard Haarmann. “Our oceans are the livelihood of a growing global population and play an essential role in our climate system. Protecting the oceans should therefore be the predominant task of our present.”
Due to the pleasing growth of our office in Frankfurt, we have moved to new premises. In the future, you can reach us at Feldbergstraße 35. As usual, you can reach us by public transport via the subway station Westend. Parking spaces are available for those arriving by car.
The new office in the Main metropolis will not only offer us more space in the future, it will also for even more digitized and cross-location work thanks to the use of state-of-the-art digital technologies. The central location in the heart of Germany also ensures short distances to the regions of Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate, Baden-Württemberg, northern Bavaria and Thuringia.
At the BOEHMERT & BOEHMERT office in Frankfurt, interested parties and clients can expect competent support across the entire spectrum of intellectual property law. A particular focus of the resident team is on patent prosecution and litigation, employee invention law, design law, trademark, contract and licensing law. The interdisciplinary expert teams of the law firm are broadly positioned in this regard and offer in-depth industry knowledge in chemistry, physics, software industry, medical technology, semiconductor technology and mechanical engineering.
You can find more information about the new location and all contact details here.
Deciding to undertake additional training after successfully completing your studies and parallel to your working life requires a great deal of commitment and hard work. Therefore, we are all the more delighted that six of our young patent attorneys have successfully passed the European Qualifying Examination.
From now on, Robert Bernin, Dr.-Ing. Jonas Boschung, Dr. Oleg Lebedev, Dr. Michael Lohse, Suraj Singh Attri and Dr. Adrian Steffens may bear the title “European Patent Attorney”. This makes them professional representatives before the European Patent Office.
We are very proud of our dedicated young colleagues and the entire BOEHMERT & BOEHMERT team congratulates them on this great milestone!
Under the heading “Wir laufen für den Frieden” (We run for peace) the Berlin company run takes place for the 20th time this year. Our Berlin colleagues are once again taking part with great pleasure and commitment.
As in previous years, donations are collected for charitable purposes during the run. This year’s donations of EUR 13,200 will go to the “Stiftung RTL – Wir helfen Kindern” (RTL Foundation – We help children) and the “Sonnenhof, ein Hospiz für Kinder, Jugendliche und junge Erwachsene der Björn Schulz Stiftung ” (Sonnenhof, a hospice for children, adolescents and young adults of the Björn Schulz Foundation).
With effect from 1st May 2022, BOEHMERT & BOEHMERT patent attorney Prof. Dr. Heinz Goddar and BOEHMERT & BOEHMERT attorney at law Melanie Müller have been appointed as lecturers for industrial property rights at Bucerius Law School (BLS).
Bucerius Law School – Hochschule für Rechtswissenschaften in Hamburg was founded in 2000 by the ZEIT Foundation and Gerd Bucerius as the first private law school in Germany. It is stately recognised, accredited by the German Council of Science and Humanities and has the right to award doctoral and post-doctoral degrees.
The Regional Court of Munich I grants protection of reputation to Hofbräu München’s trade marks and corporate identifiers “Hofbräuhaus”.
A dispute between Hofbräu München, represented by BOEHMERT & BOEHMERT attorney at law Claudia Deppe, and John Scheller, owner of four Edeka stores in Dresden, which has lasted for more than ten years, has come to an end with a court settlement.
In the oral hearing at the end of February 2022, the Regional Court Munich I had come to the preliminary legal assessment that the lawsuit of Hofbräu München had good chances of success at least because of the reputation of the earlier rights of Hofbräu München to the designation “Hofbräuhaus”.
In order to finally end the long-standing conflict and in view of the costs and time involved in continuing through further instances, the court recommended that the legal dispute should be settled by means of a compromise. This could include in particular that Mr. Scheller withdraws the registration of his trademark „Seit 1872 Dresdner Hofbrauhaus“ and ceases to use this mark. In return, Hofbräu München should waive to claim damages.
The conflict was triggered in spring 2011 when the defendant applied for registration of the German word and figurative mark “Seit 1872 Dresdner Hofbrauhaus“ The owner of four Edeka stores in Dresden has had a beer brewed outside Dresden and sold in his stores under this word/figurative mark since 2011.
Hofbräu München initially filed an opposition with the DPMA against the registration of the defendant’s word/figurative mark on the basis of its earlier trade mark rights to the designations “Hofbräuhaus” and “Hofbräu” and, in parallel to these opposition proceedings, which have not yet been concluded, repeatedly made attempts to reach a settlement.
However, as the defendant did not want to give up its trade mark, continued to offer and advertise its beer under the disputed trade mark and ran a café in one of its Edeka stores under the name “DRESDNER HOFBRAUHAUS”, Hofbräu München filed an infringement action with the Munich Regional Court I in November 2020.
With the action, Hofbräu München claimed in particular that the defendant ceases to use the disputed figurative mark as well as the declaration of invalidity of this mark and based its claims, inter alia, on the reputation of its earlier trade mark rights in the designations “Hofbräuhaus” and „Hofbräu“ for beer and gastronomy services, as evidenced by survey reports.
After both the degree of distinctiveness of Hofbräu München’s earlier trade marks “Hofbräuhaus” and “Hofbräu” and their reputation were questioned in the opposition proceedings, the Regional Court Munich I even expressed in the oral hearing that it considered the reputation of these earlier trade mark rights of Hofbräu München to be an obvious fact known to the courts.
In the meantime, the parties have settled the dispute in accordance with the court’s suggestion.
Representing Hofbräu München: Claudia Deppe, attorney at law BOEHMERT & BOEHMERT
COVID-19 presents us all with great challenges on a daily basis. Therefore, the performances of our young patent attorneys, who passed the European Qualifying Examination under pandemic conditions, deserve all the more respect.
In future, Simon Cornet, Dr. Hanno Flentje, Dr. Lara Gwinner, Dr. Laura Haas, Dr. Lennart-Knud Liefeith, Dr. Michael Rübsamen, Paul Schieler and Dr. Sebastian Schlegel will be entitled to use the title “European Patent Attorney”.
The BOEHMERT & BOEHMERT team would like to congratulate them on this extraordinary achievement. We are proud of our successful young professionals!
