12/03/2020
The Singapore Convention, formally the United Nations Convention on International Settlement Agreements Resulting from Mediation, entered into force on September 12, 2020. It offers parties the opportunity to enforce international agreements reached through mediation to settle disputes across borders. Up to now, the parties involved were dependent on voluntary compliance with the agreement reached and otherwise had to initiate enforcement through legal proceedings in the respective state of enforcement. […]
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11/27/2020
On Thursday, November 26, 2020, the Bundestag approved the Federal Government's draft law on the Convention of February 19, 2013 on a Unified Patent Court. […]
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11/05/2020
JUVE Verlag für juristische Information [publishing house for judicial information] ranks Müller Schupfer & Partner among the recommended law firms for trademark and design law in Germany. In the current edition of the „JUVE Handbuch Wirtschaftskanzleien“ ["JUVE Handbook of Commercial Law Firms"] the editorial staff emphasizes the "decades of tradition in patent and trademark prosecution" and writes: "In addition, the lawyers are constantly expanding their litigation activities in trademark and design law. [...] The partners are well networked internationally, however, the basis is formed by an impressive number of medium-sized company clients, which MSP usually supports in all IP matters". […]
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10/27/2020
In the recently published decision in the patent nullity action "Data Package Conversion", announced on August 11, 2020, the German Federal Supreme Court (BGH) discussed the question, whether a nullity action is admissible, if it is directed to an independent claim on the one hand and further to independent or dependent claims on the other hand. The plaintiff in the nullity suit was sued by the defendant of the nullity action in a parallel infringement proceedings based on the independent claim (but not the dependent claims) and the patent expired in the meantime. […]
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10/20/2020
On 1 October 2020, the 42nd Civil Chamber at the Regional Court Munich I commenced its work under the chairwomanship of Dr. Elke Schwager. With immediate effect, the newly established chamber will handle all disputes concerning Copyright Law for the first and second instance, Design Law including Community Design Law, Publishing Law and disputes concerning claims arising from the production and exploitation of movies. […]
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10/15/2020
On 9 October 2020, the German Bundesrat approved the law to strengthen fair competition, which the Bundestag had already passed on 10 September 2020. The declared aim of the law is to prevent the abuse of cease and desist letters and preliminary injunctions and to protect in particular self-employed persons and small and medium-sized enterprises from the consequences of mass warnings which are harmful to competition. The draft law has been the subject of critical and controversial debate in IP practice. […]
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