“No General Third Party Effect!” – Comment by Dr. Martin Schaefer on the DSM Directive on the CCC portal

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The EU Directive on the “Digital Single Market” (DMS) must be transposed into German law by the beginning of June 2021. The subject of the controversial directive is copyright law in the digital single market and thus a whole bundle of legislative issues ranging from text and data mining to the preservation of cultural heritage and copyright contract law. 

Special focus is given to Article 17 of the DMS Directive and thus the role of Online Content Sharing Service Providers (OCSSP) – providers of online services for user-generated content such as YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and Co.

For the general public, the Directive is linked to the debate about the so-called “upload filter”, which is nothing more than the routine known for many years as “notice and stay-down” and which has been practiced without any problems. But it also raises licensing issues: Who needs a licence in connection with such user-generated content and who does not? 

In his blog article “No General Third Party Effect!” on the portal of the company “Copyright Clearance Center” BOEHMERT & BOEHMERT attorney Dr. Martin Schaefer provides answers  and refers to old familiar structures which continue to exist unchanged in the new environment.

Read the complete article here! 

About CCC
The Copyright Clearance Center (CCC) is, according to own statements, a world leader in voluntary collective licensing and a promoter of copyright law. For more than 40 years, the company has been setting standards with its products and services for an efficient global market of exploitation rights and licensing solutions. 

Dr. Eckhard Ratjen in an interview with the trade magazine “Tightly Packed” on the subject of “How do I protect a packaging?”

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In the jungle of offers of similar products, not only the brand serves potential customers as orientation, but also the packaging of a product. Consequently, their protection under trademark law is often very important. 

But how do you proceed when applying for registration of a packaging as a trademark? Which protection criteria must be fulfilled? And can any product packaging be protected as a trademark? 

BOEHMERT & BOEHMERT attorney Dr. Eckhard Ratjen addresses these and other questions as well as prominent case studies in his detailed interview with the trade magazine “Tightly Packed”. 

Read the complete interview here (temporarily only available in German)!

Dr. Laura Haas on “Supplementary Protection Certificates” in the summer 2020 issue of European Biotechnology

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In the “Summer Edition 2020” of the specialist magazine “European Biotechnology”, BOEHMERT & BOEHMERT patent attorney Dr Laura Haas discusses a legal case before the Court of Justice of the EU which resulted in a specific set of rules for patent protection in the case of SPCs (Supplementary Protection Certificates). 

In detail, the CJEU ruled that it is in principle possible to grant an SPC, even if the product is not specifically disclosed in the basic patent. However, a person skilled in the art must be able to deduce directly and unequivocally that the product falls within the scope of protection of the basic patent. 

As a consequence of this CJEU ruling, Laura Haas, who holds a doctorate in biochemistry, sees the option that an infringement defense can be created based on a later obtained patent which is the result of “independent inventive activity” over a basic patent. 

Read the detailed presentation of the ECJ decision here and learn more about the background (only available in English)!

Silke Freund and Dr. Sebastian Engels contribute to the “International Comparative Legal Guide – Digital Business 2020“

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The Global Legal Group has published the first edition of the “International Comparative Legal Guide – Digital Business 2020”. The guide is aimed specifically at corporate attorneys and offers a comparative legal analysis of current legal requirements and topics for digital business. 

Under the heading “Digital Business Laws and Regulations – Germany”, BOEHMERT & BOEHMERT attorneys Silke Freund and Dr. Sebastian Engels provide an insight from a German perspective. 

In eleven chapters, they deal with regulations for e-commerce, data protection, cyber security, cultural norms, brand enforcement online, cloud computing and further digital topics. 

The complete article is available here online or as PDF.

Interview with Prof. Dr. Heinz Goddar in the current issue of “IAM Global Leaders 2020”

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Every year, the editorial staff of IAM GLOBAL LEADERS talks to the elite of international patent and trademark attorneys about their insights into IP law, politics and practice and their many years of experience in the IP environment.

This year, Professor Dr. Heinz Goddar was also asked for an interview as “IP Hall of Famer”, according to the IAM quote, and awarded the Gold Level of the IAM Patent 1000. 

In it, Mr. Goddar talks about his professional career, his rewarding work as Professor of IP Law and his commitment to LES International, which culminated in the founding of LES Chinese Taipei and a fruitful cooperation with China.

Other topics include the challenges of managing big portfolios of patents, win-win situations and attorneyorney skills as prerequisites for business success, and new evolvements in the European patent environment. 

Read the detailed interview with Prof. Dr. Heinz Goddar here!

Dr. Florian Schwab discusses important case of the Court of Justice of the European Union regarding genuine use of an EU collective mark for packaging system in WTR Daily

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Attorney Florian Schwab reports on a legal dispute before the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) on genuine use of a collective mark in the online portal of the trade journal World Trademark Review.

In the case Der Grüne Punkt – Duales System Deutschland GmbH v European Court of First Instance (EUIPO) (C-143/19 P, 12 December 2019), the CJEU, overruling the judgment of the General Court, has given guidance on the genuine use of a collective mark. The court fundamentally strengthened this type of EU trade mark as proof of genuine use of a collective mark concerning a system of collection and recovery of packaging waste was also accepted for countless (every day consumer) goods (such as beverages, foodstuff or clothing) on whose packaging the collective mark was affixed. .

Read the whole article here.

The article was published on 09.01.2020 in WTR Daily (part of the World Trademark Review).

Dr Martin Wirtz discusses current issues in trademark law in the Mitteilungen der deutschen Patentanwälte German patent attorney bulletin (1/2020)

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An article by BOEHMERT & BOEHMERT partner Dr Martin Wirtz was published in Issue 1/2020 of the Mitteilungen der deutscher Patentanwälte German patent attorney bulletin (p. 9 ff.), entitled “Aktuelles aus dem Markenrecht” (“Current issues in trademark law”). In this piece, attorney Dr Wirtz addresses a number of recent rulings and new developments in the field of trademark law.
Although the author’s article, in his own words, “does not purport to be exhaustive”, he does take a detailed look at new developments within the field in 2019.

The following topics of trademark law are discussed:
Registration/cancellation procedures, absolute grounds for refusal, identity protection/risk of confusion/protection based on reputation/protection of geographical origin, usage that preserves rights, infringing usage, proceedings.

The aforementioned article is the author’s 24th consecutive piece to be published. Dr Martin Wirtz has been writing reports about new rulings in the field of trademark law for the Mitteilungen der deutschen Patentanwälte German patent attorney bulletin for twelve years; these articles are published in the bulletin twice a year.

Read the whole article here (only available in German).

Dr. Sebastian Engels in WirtschaftsWoche: Trademark law in Beethoven’s anniversary year

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This year he would be 250 years old: Ludwig van Beethoven, eternal superstar of classical music and formative composer to the present day. Therefore, the efforts of numerous manufacturers to advertise their own products with “Beethoven” are undiminished. There is Beethoven beer, Beethoven tea, even a computer centre is adorned with the name of the famous composer. The list of entries in the trademark register is long. So the question remains, in what way the name of this unique musician may still be used without committing trademark infringement?

BOEHMERT & BOEHMERT attorney Dr. Sebastian Engels was interviewed on these topics by WirtschaftsWoche in the context of the article “Beethoven Anniversary Year – Who benefits from the Beethoven brand”.

Read the complete article here!

Dr Florian Schwab discusses current trademark case decided by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) regarding TESTA ROSSA in WTR Daily

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Attorney Dr. Florian Schwab reported on the decision of the European Court of Justice in Hesse / EUIPO (TESTA ROSSA) in the online portal of the World Trademark Review (cases T-910/16 and T-911/16). In its decision from April 2019, the ECJ dealt with the procedural requirements for proof of use in the context of an application for revocation with regard to the trademark TESTA ROSSA registered for various goods.

Read the whole article here.

This article appeared on 30.04.2019 in the WTR Daily (part of the World Trademark Review).

Prof. Dr. H. Goddar and Dr. C.-R. Haarmann with contribution in “Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice”

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In the “Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice” (jpz109, 04.09.2019) the article “The myth of the ‘small patent for the small inventor’-strategic motives to use second-tier patent systems (utility models) in selected European countries” was published. The authors are all specialists in the field of utility model law, including patent attorney Prof. Dr. Heinz Goddar and attorney Dr. Carl-Richard Haarmann, both BOEHMERT & BOEHMERT.

In this article, the team of five authors explains the strategic use of utility models in the European context and possible adaptations: “There are at least six major parameters of first-tier patent systems that can be changed to create a UM-system. While this makes national UM systems highly heterogeneous, we found that changing certain parameters (like lowering the maximum term of protection compared to first-tier patents) may be in practice less problematic than changing others (like lowering the inventive step threshold).”

The whole article can be read via this link.