Search results for

Tamás Bokor of SBG & K Patent Office in Budapest explains how the amended Hungarian Patent Act has affected the protection of service and employee’s inventions

Sam Mamudi

New legislation, unveiled in Japan in the middle of February, will boost protection for Japanese owners of online IP rights, according to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (Meti). The bill will clear up the position regarding the patentability of computer programs and trade marks displayed temporarily on computer screens, said a Meti official.

Ralph Cunningham, Hong Kong

Despite the lack of current law, IP owners are not helpless against parallel imports into Myanmar. They just have to be a bit more ingenious with their prevention strategies, explains Alec Christie

Hector Chagoya and Armando Gomez of Becerril Coca & Becerril in Mexico City explain how to claim priority from consecutive applications in Mexico

Members of the Baker & McKenzie Latin American Patent Practice Group1 compare the laws on compulsory licences throughout Latin America

The Mexican Law of Industrial Property establishes certain exclusions for the enforcement of patents.

The late Jerome H Lemelson is well known to numerous manufacturers, not only in the United States but all around the world. During his lifetime, Lemelson, who was the extremely litigious inventor-owner of a large number of patents granted by the United States and many other countries, was also famous for his pursuit of what are known in the United States as submarine patents. The term submarine, which is not unique to Lemelson patents, is based upon the fact that US patents so termed have matured from divisional or continuation applications of parent, grandparent, or even more remote ancestor patent applications filed, in some cases, 20 to 30 years before issuance of the submarine descendant patent.

If the subject-matter of a granted German patent is an invention for which a European patent to the same inventor or its successor in law has been granted (which has the same priority and is valid in Germany) then the German patent becomes ineffective to the extent to which it protects the same invention as the European patent. This happens (1) at the end of the opposition period of the European patent, provided no opposition has been filed, or (2) at the end of European opposition proceedings, provided the European patent has been (at least partially) maintained, or (3) when the German patent is granted after (1) or (2).