Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs)

Protection of Innovations

Innovations are crucial and cost-intensive at modern businesses. Intellectual property rights (IPRs), amongst other rights, may be a viable option for efficiently protecting innovations. IPRs provide a systematic course of action against copies, plagiarism and the illegal exploitation of innovations. IPRs can assist in business’ long term success.

Choice of IPRs

Often an innovation may not be adequately protected by a single IPR. The term “IPR” refers to several different intellectual property rights which each serve to protect different aspects of a single innovation. Therefore, an optimized IPR concept should also take individual business objectives and needs into account.

The individual IPRs differ from each other with respect to their requirements for protection, their territorial and temporal protection, and the related individual formal proceedings. They are divided systematically into technical and non-technical IPRs.

Technical IPRs - Patents and Utility Models

The Technical IPRs protect technical innovations and essentially comprise Patents and utility models. Examples of patentable inventions are, products, apparatuses and machines, substances, active agents, methods, and computer-implemented inventions (software).

Nontechnical IPRs - Trademarks and Designs

Trademarks are signs capable of distinguishing the goods or services of one company from those of another company. Legally speaking, Designs protect the outward appearance and, hence, what is commonly known as the design of a product. The protection of trademarks and designs may substantially contribute to the success of an enterprise.

Plant Variety Right Protection, Plant Breeders’ Right (PBR)

Varieties of all botanical genera and species may be protected by a PBR, provided a variety is distinct, uniform, stable and new.

  • Technical IPRs

    Patents and utility models, the technical IPRs, protect technical developments as products and methods, including such methods which may be implemented by means of software.

    A patent is an examined IPR, i.e. a patent is examined with respect to formal as well as to substantive requirements for protection by the respective grant authorities (e.g. the German Patent and Trademark Office (GPTO), the European Patent Office (EPO), the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)). In order to be patentable an invention must be new. This is examined by comparing the claimed invention to the prior art, i.e. the state of existing art. Also, the question whether an invention is inventive is examined based on the prior art. The term of a patent is 20 years from the date of filing of the patent application.

    In order to obtain the desired territorial protection with a patent, there is a variety of strategies. In addition to the filing of national patents with the respective national authorities (e.g. with the GPTO for German patents or the USPTO for US patents) patents may also be filed with authorities representing regional organizations, e.g. with the EPO where patents are filed and granted pursuant to the European Patent Convention (EPC). The EPC has several additional contracting states in addition to the 27 contracting countries of the European Union. Additionally or alternatively, patent applications may also be filed as “international applications” pursuant to the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) which has the effect of filing the same application simultaneously in over 140 countries and states.

    Utility models are unexamined technical IPRs which have shorter temporal and limited territorial protection. However, utility models may very well be suitable as additional or alternative IPRs for patents.

    Patent and utility model law is one of our specialties.

  • Technical IPRs

    Patents and utility models, the technical IPRs, protect technical developments as products and methods, including such methods which may be implemented by means of software.

    A patent is an examined IPR, i.e. a patent is examined with respect to formal as well as to substantive requirements for protection by the respective grant authorities (e.g. the German Patent and Trademark Office (GPTO), the European Patent Office (EPO), the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)). In order to be patentable an invention must be new. This is examined by comparing the claimed invention to the prior art, i.e. the state of existing art. Also, the question whether an invention is inventive is examined based on the prior art. The term of a patent is 20 years from the date of filing of the patent application.

    In order to obtain the desired territorial protection with a patent, there is a variety of strategies. In addition to the filing of national patents with the respective national authorities (e.g. with the GPTO for German patents or the USPTO for US patents) patents may also be filed with authorities representing regional organizations, e.g. with the EPO where patents are filed and granted pursuant to the European Patent Convention (EPC). The EPC has several additional contracting states in addition to the 27 contracting countries of the European Union. Additionally or alternatively, patent applications may also be filed as “international applications” pursuant to the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) which has the effect of filing the same application simultaneously in over 140 countries and states.

    Utility models are unexamined technical IPRs which have shorter temporal and limited territorial protection. However, utility models may very well be suitable as additional or alternative IPRs for patents.

    Patent and utility model law is one of our specialties.

  • Technical IPRs

    Patents and utility models, the technical IPRs, protect technical developments as products and methods, including such methods which may be implemented by means of software.

    A patent is an examined IPR, i.e. a patent is examined with respect to formal as well as to substantive requirements for protection by the respective grant authorities (e.g. the German Patent and Trademark Office (GPTO), the European Patent Office (EPO), the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)). In order to be patentable an invention must be new. This is examined by comparing the claimed invention to the prior art, i.e. the state of existing art. Also, the question whether an invention is inventive is examined based on the prior art. The term of a patent is 20 years from the date of filing of the patent application.

    In order to obtain the desired territorial protection with a patent, there is a variety of strategies. In addition to the filing of national patents with the respective national authorities (e.g. with the GPTO for German patents or the USPTO for US patents) patents may also be filed with authorities representing regional organizations, e.g. with the EPO where patents are filed and granted pursuant to the European Patent Convention (EPC). The EPC has several additional contracting states in addition to the 27 contracting countries of the European Union. Additionally or alternatively, patent applications may also be filed as “international applications” pursuant to the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) which has the effect of filing the same application simultaneously in over 140 countries and states.

    Utility models are unexamined technical IPRs which have shorter temporal and limited territorial protection. However, utility models may very well be suitable as additional or alternative IPRs for patents.

    Patent and utility model law is one of our specialties.

  • Trademarks

    Trademarks can be found everywhere and affect our daily lives. This should emphasize the enormous economic importance of this nontechnical IPR. The term “trademark” refers to a symbol or a means for distinguishing the goods or services of one undertaking from those of another company. As means for distinguishing, trademarks may be words, slogans, pictures and symbols, colors, or 3-D forms.

    The usage of a trademark on or in form of a product is often interpreted as a promise of quality to the consumer. It offers a company the opportunity to accentuate its products or services and, hence, to portray a certain reputation.

    Trademark protection may be obtained in different ways and it may, in principle, be sustained without temporal limits. In order to sustain a trademark in a temporally unlimited way, its proprietor is obliged – possibly only after a qualifying or grace period – to also effectively use the trademark. Trademark protection may e.g. be obtained by national (e.g. with the German Patent and Trademark Office (GPTO) or with US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)), regional (e.g. with the Office of Harmonization for the Internal Market (OHIM)) or international registration (with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)) of a sign or symbol (the trademark). Additionally, it is possible to extend an already existing national or regional protection almost worldwide by an international registration with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

    An existing trademark protection offers the possibility to assert and enforce claims against trademark violators with respect to omission, destruction and/or compensation for damages. Due to the substantial economic importance of trademarks, it may be crucial for a company’s success to have a trademark strategy considering both the prosecution and the enforcement of an owned trademark, as well as the elimination of distracting external trademarks.

    We are happy to support you in the development and the realization of your individual trademark strategies.

  • Designs

    Designs and typographical fonts may be protected as designs. A design can be protected by design law to the extent that it is new and has individual character, i.e. the overall impression it produces shall differ from the overall impression produced by any other design which has been made available to the public. Design law allows the protection of products which achieve positive impressions and, purchase decisions of consumers via the appearance of the whole or a part of a product resulting from its features of, in particular, the lines, contours, colors, shape, texture and/or materials of the product itself and/or its ornamentation.

    The term of a registered design may last up to 25 years. Design rights may be requested and registered nationally (with the German Patent and Trademark Office (GPTO) for Germany) or regionally (with the Office of Harmonization for the Internal Market (OHIM) for the European Union). There is also the possibility of an international application with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

    Although the design right is an independent IPR, its use may also be reasonable as a supplementary IPR. E. g., while technical aspects of an innovation are protected by a technical IPR, its esthetical aspects (e.g. the form) may additionally be protected by a supplementary design.

    A registered design principally allows its proprietor to assert and enforce a variety of claims against design violators, e.g. with respect to omission, the destruction of violating products and/or the compensation for damages.

    We would be happy to draft an application for your design and to represent you in the respective registration procedures before the GPTO, the OHIM or the WIPO. We are also capable of coordinating your design application(s) in foreign countries to ensure the enforcement and defense of your protected designs.