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

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.