IP-NEWS

Lego may defend the design protection of a building block before the General Court

In the judgement of 24.01.2024, ref. T-537/22 of the European Court of Justice in the dispute over the design of a Lego building block, the validity of the Community design of a Lego building block was confirmed. The rival company Delta Sports had already tried uns...mehr

New ECTA Patent Committee: mission, vision, and destiny

The European Communities Trademark Association (ECTA) has established a Patent Committee, which is a surprising move since its traditional focus on trademarks. However, considering ECTA's evolution into various intellectual property (IP) fields over the years, including geographical indications, designs, copyright, and others, and the internationalization...mehr

Order of the Court of Appeal of the Unified Patent Court concerning the effective service of an application

In the order of October 13, 2023, the Court of Appeal ruled that a statement of claim may be validly served even if annexes mentioned in the statement of claim are not attached, provided that the statement of claim enables the defendant to assert its rights in court proceedings before the UPC even without the annexes. In this case, however, a request by the defendant for a...mehr

Enlarged Board of Appeal sets new EPO priority rules

The Enlarged Board of Appeal of the European Patent Office (EPO) has issued a landmark decision in cases G 1/22 and G 2/22: First, the Enlarged Board of Appeal ruled that the EPO is competent to assess whether a party is entitled to priority. It may therefore be assumed that the EPO will continue to examine the validity...mehr

A dynamic and exciting area of IP law: #patents.

We are pleased to announce that ECTA (European Communities Trademark Association), an association with a long history in various aspects of IPR, is embarking on this important issue of the intellectual property law. Today, ECTA's Board of Supervisors officially gave the go-ahead for the establishment of a Patent Committe...mehr

Landmark decision on platform liability in design law

In its decision of August 22, 2023 (14c O 67/23), the LG Düsseldorf ruled that Amazon is liable for an infringement of a Community design offered by third parties on its marketplace. In this regard, the LG Düsseldorf states that a claim against Amazon under the Community Design Regulation (Art. 19 (1) CDR) is justified...mehr

Board of directors and managing directors not personally liable for a company’s antitrust fines

In its ruling of July 27, 2023 (VI-6 U 1/22), the 6th Cartel Senate of the Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court (OLG) confirmed that neither the board of directors of a company nor the management must assume personal liability for antitrust fines. According to antitrust regulations, different fine standards are provided for...mehr

Black Friday” trademark must be cancelled

The word mark "Black Friday" must be deleted from the register of the German Patent and Trade Mark Office. This was decided by the Federal Court of Justice in the last instance, as reported by plaintiff Simon Gall, who operates the website "blackfriday.de". Previously, the Kammergericht Berlin (KG) had already ordered the deletion due to an invalidity of the trademark .Acc...mehr

Germany has deposited its instrument of ratification for the Unified Patent Court (UPC)

Germany deposited its instrument of ratification of the Unified Patent Court on 17 February 2023. This means that the "sunrise period" - as last planned - will start on 1 March 2023. With the deposit of the instrument of ratification by Germany, the Agreement on the Unified Patent Court (UPC) will enter into force on 1 June 2023....mehr

The ending of the German-Swiss Trademark Agreement of 1892

In terms of the Trademark Law Modernization Act (TMA), Germany has terminated the "Agreement between Switzerland and Germany Concerning the Mutual Protection of Patents, Designs and Trademarks" of 1892. The agreement was concluded at the time between the Federal Council of the Swiss Confederation, on the one han...mehr