Search results for

Last year we witnessed celebrations of significant anniversaries connected with patent offices and IP rights in Germany and Austria. Meanwhile, the Czech Patent Office quietly marked the 80th anniversary of its foundation in 1919.

A recent Federal Circuit decision should make it easier for US trade mark owners to block the importation of grey goods. Mark S Sommers and Louis J Levy say it continues the trend of improved protection against parallel imports

There is no recent decision of the German Federal Patent or Supreme Court dealing with the patentability of plants or animals. However, issuance of the EC Directive on Biotechnological Inventions on July 6 1998 and the decision G1/98 by the Enlarged Board of Appeal of the European Patent Office (EPO) on December 20 1999, will influence the interpretation of the provisions on the patentability of plants and animals.

Singapore’s High Court recently delivered its ruling in Merck v Pharmaforte. Ella Cheong & G Mirandah in Singapore reveal that the decision has big implications for all patent owners in Singapore

According to German case law, patents directed to the use of a substance or a device for a certain purpose may confer protection which goes beyond the actual application of the method of use. If the product involved shows an "obvious orientation" or "apparent adaptation" towards the protected use, a use claim protects a patentee essentially in the same manner as a product claim directed to that product. This adaptation of the product includes acts as formulation, ready-for-use packaging together with instructions, dosage (for medical substances), or similar preparations towards the protected use.

Brave choices, unpopular decisions

Firm names and commercial emblems are included in the category of industrial property rights in Romania. Along with trade marks, they make up the main distinctive commercial signs.

The Netherlands "cross-border" judgments in European patent proceedings are famous. In the past a European patent owner could obtain a pan-European cross-border injunction from the Netherlands judges.

Estonia has revised many of its IP laws in recent years

The German Federal Supreme Court recently issued two decisions on the registrability of slogans (Radio von hier, Radio wie wir and Partner with the Best, both dated December 8 1999), which have terminated an ongoing controversy in Germany. According to these decisions, the requirements for distinctiveness of slogans are not any greater than for regular word marks.