<\/div><\/li><\/ul><\/div><\/div>\nActivities<\/h2>
In addition to issues relating to patents and utility models, trademarks and designs, we also assist you in matters regarding employee inventions, license agreements and infringements.<\/p>\n<\/div>
<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n\n\nPatents<\/div>\n\n\nA Patent protects technical inventions from imitation.
\nTo become a Patent, the invention disclosed in a patent application has to be novel, based on an inventive step and of commercial use.
\nThe application is filed with the competent office. It has to contain information about the inventor, the applicant and the invention in form of a description and claims.<\/p>\nIt is of uttermost importance to thoroughly formulate the description and claims to guarantee that the inventor obtains the best possible protection for his invention.<\/p>\n
Duration:<\/b>
\nThe German Patent is valid for 20 years, starting from the filing day and dependent on paying an annuity fee.<\/p>\nEuropean Patent <\/b>
\nA European Patent is bundle of national Patents, applied for with and granted centrally by the European Patent Office in Munich. After grant, each national part of the European Patent becomes independent from the other parts. It may be licensed, sold, kept in force or abandoned.<\/p>\nInternational Patent Application (PCT)<\/b>
\nA PCT-Application is a bundle of national and regional patent applications, valid in more than 130 states worldwide. By filing a PCT-Application, the applicant gets the possibility to postpone his final decision about proceeding with a certain national patent application up to 31 months. During the PCT-Proceedings, the application will be checked for formal compliance and a search for state of the art will be conducted.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\nUtility Models<\/div>\n\n\nThe German Utility Model is closely related to the Patent. It protects technical inventions methods. The differences to the patent are mainly the lack of an official examination proceeding with regard to novelty and inventive step, the differences in the definition of the state of the art and the novelty grace period for applicant\u00b4s disclosure up to six months prior to the filing date. The duration is 10 years only. Due to the lack of examination, a utility model may be invalid although registered. Before starting court proceedings, it is therefore highly recommended to search for state of the art.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n
Trademarks<\/div>\n\n\nField of use:<\/b>
\nA trademark serves as a mean for distinguishing the goods and services of a company from those of other companies. Trademarks may come as words, letters, cyphers, slogans, devices, colours, sounds.<\/p>\nexcluded from protection:<\/b>
\nare all those trademarks which do not have distinctive character, that is, which are merely descriptive with regard to the captured goods and services.<\/p>\nProtection in the European Community and other non-German countries:<\/b>
\nBesides single, national trademark applications, protection can be obtained by Community Trademarks in the European Community and the International Registration of a national trademark according the Madrid Agreement in selected states. The main difference in the last two trademarks can be seen in the Community Trademark being valid unitarily in all member states of the European Community whereas the International Registration being a bundle of independent national trademarks.<\/p>\nDuration:<\/b>
\nThe protection period of a trademark extends for a period of ten years from the application date. It can be extended in ten years increments as often as desired.<\/p>\nGeneric Top Level Domain Protection<\/b>
\nvkk\u00b0Patent is official agent of the Trademark Clearinghouse:<\/p>\n\u00bbThe Trademark Clearinghouse (TMCH) is the most important rights protection mechanism built into ICANN\u2019s new gTLD program. Operators of new gTLDs will be responsible for implementing certain rights protection mechanisms, supported by the Trademark Clearinghouse. The Clearinghouse allows brand owners to submit their trademark data into one centralized database, prior to and during the launch of new gTLDs.<\/p>\n
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- Trademark holders will be able to submit their trademark information to a centralized repository.<\/li>\n
- After verification, the trademark holder has fulfilled the basic (most important) condition to be able to register its corresponding domain name during the pre-registration period of multiple TLDs \u2013 also known as the „Sunrise period“.<\/li>\n
- Trademark holders will also have the option to be notified when someone registers a domain name that matches their record in the Clearinghouse.\u00ab<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n