Our Services
Patent
In order to obtain a patent or a utility model for an invention in Germany, an application must be filed at the German Patent and Trademark Office (GPTO) or at the European Patent Office (EPO) in Munich.
The invention is described in the application and shown in the figures, the required scope of protection for the invention being defined in the claims. The patent office examines whether the criteria for patenting are met. If this is the case, a patent can be granted immediately – otherwise, amendments can also be introduced in the examination procedure on the basis of the description, if necessary, in order to ultimately obtain the grant of a patent.
Prior art plays a central role in the evaluation of inventions. For a patent to be granted for an invention, it must be new and based on an inventive step. This is certainly the case if it does not belong to the prior art at the time of its first application at a patent office. Therefore, the chances of success of a patent application can be better assessed if the prior art is (completely) known. We offer suitable searches.
Prior art includes everything that has been made available to the public in written or oral form or through use. This can therefore also be articles in journals, lectures at conferences, or exhibitions. The most important access to prior art, however, are the thousands of patent applications published each year by patent offices all around the world. The patent offices also draw on this pool in their examinations of patent applications.
Incidentally, prior art also includes publications that can be traced back to the inventor. Therefore, the following applies: Before explaining the invention to someone who is not bound to secrecy, the invention should have been filed at a patent office.
Patents have a maximum term of 20 years from the date of filing.
A utility model is often called the “patent‘s little brother”. This is due to the fact that a utility model, unlike a patent, is not examined with regard to patentability, but only has to meet the formal requirements and, where appropriate, is immediately entered in the register. For this reason, the utility model is also referred to as an unexamined intellectual property right.
Another difference to the patent is the shorter term of protection of only 10 years compared to the 20 years of a patent. There are numerous other smaller differences to the patent, which can come into play depending on the exact purpose of the protective right. For example, there is even a grace period for utility models with regard to publications that stem from the applicant. Please feel free to contact us for details!
Utility Model
Trademark
We encounter trademarks primarily as words and images (e.g. the word ‘Coca-Cola’ or the image ‘Mercedes star’). However, not only words and images can be protected as trademarks, but also all signs that are capable of distinguishing the goods and services of one company from those of other companies. The Trademark Law mentions, among other things, sound signs and the shape of goods and their packaging, as well as colors and color combinations.
For a sign to be protected as a trademark, it must have distinctive character. A consumer must perceive the sign namely as an indication of the origin of a product or service and not as a description of its characteristics. Therefore, all words and images that are imaginatively formed are in principle initially amenable to trademark protection.
Furthermore, a trademark should not be confusable with trademarks of another company in the same or similar field of goods or services (likelihood of confusion). If confusable trademarks exist, the very thing that trademarks are intended to prevent could happen: Customers, because they are guided by trademarks, buy a product that does not come from the company whose goods they prefer, for example, because of their quality.
Protection for a trademark is primarily obtained by registering the trademark with a competent office, which for Germany is the German Patent and Trademark Office (GPTO) or the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO). For this purpose, in addition to the sign, a list must also be filed that specifies the goods and services for which the sign is to be used as a trademark.
Trademarks are initially entered in the register for 10 years (without the likelihood of confusion being examined). After 10 years, the trademark can be renewed again and again for 10 years periods, so trademark protection can in principle last forever.
Guess how old the trademarks Melitta, Persil and Daimler are? A click on the trademark shows the earliest entry in the register of the GPTO.
A registered design protects the external appearance of an object or a particularly formed surface, independent of technical functions. Appearance features of products that are exclusively determined by their technical function are therefore excluded from design protection.
The Design Law (DesignG) defines a design as the two-dimensional or three-dimensional appearance of a whole product or a part thereof, resulting in particular from the features of the lines, contours, colors, shape, surface structure, and materials of the product itself or its ornamentation.
A product is any industrial or handicraft item, including packaging, accessories, graphic symbols and typographic characters.
Therefore, not only things such as jewelry, furniture and everyday objects, where design is typically important, but also, for example, machines and machine parts or even car headlights are amenable to design protection. Although, as an engineer, one initially sees the technical function and automatically thinks about patent protection, it should also be considered whether such products, which are in themselves of technical nature, could also be registered as a design.
Design protection can be helpful if it is to be expected that not only the technology will be copied 1:1, but also the external appearance of the product. For customs authorities, who seize infringing goods upon request, it may be much easier to identify a design infringement than a patent infringement. In the case of a design infringement, the possibly infringing product only has to be compared with the images on the official register. This means that it makes sense to also file a design in parallel with a patent or utility model application.
To register a design, one or more images of the design are filed with the competent office, i.e. for Germany the German Patent and Trademark Office (GPTO), the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) or the WIPO in Geneva. The costs are comparatively low, since neither a description nor claims have to be formulated (but if necessary a description can be added). Design protection is for 25 years, with a maintenance fee payable every 5 years.
Design
Searches
For the preparation of a patent or utility model application as well as for the preparation of a trademark application we are happy to conduct searches on published intellectual property rights and other documents.
In the context of opposition and nullity proceedings or for the exemption of your products (“FTO” – freedom to operate), for example, we also carry out comprehensive and complex searches, if necessary with the help of external researchers, in order to be able to offer you an optimal price-performance ratio. These sort of searches can easily take up to 100 hours. At the same time, the attorney’s work, e.g. the preparation of expert opinions or the preparation of an opposition remains in the hands of the attorney.
Intellectual property rights such as patents, utility models, designs or trademarks are prohibition rights. In principle, they can be used to prohibit third parties from infringing the protected rights.
Nevertheless, it can be advantageous for all sides if third parties are granted the use of a protected right. This can, for example, be arranged within the framework of a license which permits the granting of rights against payment of a license fee. In this way, cross-licensing situations can also be depicted and resolved by means of suitable contracts, in which two parties each have their own intellectual property rights, which would prohibit the other party from acting in a certain way.
I am also at your disposal to clarify questionable infringement or licensing situations and to prepare delimitation or licensing agreements so that there is no need for the enforcement of rights.
Licensing rights
Enforcement
Intellectual property rights such as patents, utility models, designs or trademarks exert a considerable deterrent effect on potential infringers and imitators by their very existence, so that many intellectual property rights have never had to be enforced in court and nevertheless provide the owner of the intellectual property rights with a prominent market position.
In principle, intellectual property rights empower their owners to also claim the scope of protection in court. Thus, an IP right can protect one’s own production like a shield, but can also be used as a weapon in the case of a potential infringement (e.g. product imitation) in that relevant claims can be enforced up to the destruction of an entire production. We examine each individual case meticulously and offer you our ideas and our network for the optimal enforcement of your legal position – on both sides –, regardless of whether an action is brought against you or if you want to enforce your position.
No matter for what reason you come to us: If you already have intellectual property rights in your portfolio, we will of course be happy to take over representation of these and all further matters for you, so that you will have in us just the one contact for your intellectual property rights – with full all-round service if you so desire. We can also intervene at any time in ongoing applications and proceedings in the field of intellectual property protection.
We are on-site in Bad Nauheim and the surrounding area, such as Frankfurt, Fulda, Gießen, Hanau, and are happy to be personally available for you. This is an invaluable asset. In the case that you are not satisfied with your previous representation, please contact us and, together, we will find a solution.
Representation
Employee Invention Law
Who owns the right to an invention?
The vast majority of inventions in Germany are made by employees in connection with their dependent employment for an employer. According to PatG § 6, for example, the right to the patent belongs (initially) to the inventor or his legal successor. However, no entrepreneur would invest in a technical development if he could only use the resulting inventions with the permission of the inventors employed by him.
It is therefore reasonable to (automatically) transfer the rights to a patent to the employer as the legal successor of the inventor. This transfer (and its compensation) is governed by the Employee Invention Law. According to this law, the inventor must notify the employer about his invention in the form of an invention disclosure and the employer is then entitled to claim the rights to the invention.
If you have questions in connection with the Employee Invention Law, such as the specific form of an invention disclosure or a claim declaration, or if you need to make an agreement on an inventor’s compensation or to calculate an inventor’s compensation for an employee invention, you are in the right hands.
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kanzlei@rauch-ip.de