Deutsches Patent- und Markenamt
Encyclopedia
The Deutsches Patent- und Markenamt (DPMA) or German Patent
and Trade Mark
Office (GPTO) is the German
national patent office
, with headquarters in Munich
, and offices in Berlin
and Jena
. In 2006 it employed 2556 people, of which about 700 were patent examiners.
The legal basis of the German Patent and Trademark Office is § 26 of the Patentgesetz (German Patents Act).
The Chairman of the newly established office was Karl Rudolf Jacobi. On 2 July 1877 was the first German patent was granted on 1 July 1877 for a "method for producing a red ultramarine colour", invented by Johannes Zeltner. The first trademark registration was on 16 October 1894 for a Berlin lamp producer.
In 1905, the Patent Office moved into premised designed by the architects Solf and Wichards on the corner of Gitschiner Straße and Lindenstraße in Kreuzberg
, with a characteristic 243-metre front on the elevated highway.
In 1919, the Patent Office was renamed the Reichspatentamt (State Patent Office).
The Nazi anti-Semitic and anti-foreigner laws strangled scientific output and patent applications. Almost as soon as they came into power, the Nazis moved to throw the Jews out of the German Patent Offices, with only a few exceptions for those who had served at the front during World War I or who had lost a parent or son in fighting. “Law Relating to the Admission to the Profession of Patent-agent and Lawyer of 22 April 1933. The Government of the Reich has resolved the following law which is promulgated herewith: Section 1. Patent-agents which are of non-Aryan descent pursuant to the law relating to the reestablishment of the Professional Civil Service of 7 April 1933 may be taken off the roster of patent-agents kept by the Reich Patent Office up to 30 September 1933…”
In 1938, the “Aryanization
” of patents was mandated, in that new patents could only be proposed and submitted if sponsored by an Aryan
and German citizens, and not by dissidents, foreigners or Jews
. Existing patents held by Jews must also be turned over to a German citizen. As one author stated, “Jewish commercial firms and the associated property, as well as wholesale operations and industry that are Jewish because of the degree to which they are under Jewish ownership, can be de-Jewdified [sic]. Important patents and commercial secrets must be transferred to non-Jewish control.”
The Reich Patent Office came under Nazi political party pressure as well. One of Adolf Hitler
’s chauffeurs, Anton Loibl, invented the idea of attaching small pieces of glass to the pedals of bicycles, that would reflect the lights of approaching cars. In 1936, word of this invention came to the SS, and they decided to form a partnership with Loibl to market his idea. However, the idea was not all that novel, and a similar safety device had already been applied for as a patent. “But this competitor lacked something very important- the SS as a business partner. His patent application was buried. Loibl’s sailed through, and in 1938 Heinrich Himmler
used his supreme authority as head of the German police to pass a new traffic law. This required all German bicycles to be equipped with Loibl’s reflective pedal… in 1938 alone, the SS received a tidy 77,740 reichmarks from the bicycle pedal proceeds.”
In the last months of the war, many of the technical records of the German Patent Office were widely dispersed throughout Germany to preserve them from the Allied firebombing
of Berlin
. “One set of copies of the pending 180,000 patent applications were taken into eastern Germany where they were later lost by fire. The technical library of 300,000 volumes and the records of the secret patents were moved to Heringen
, near Kassel
, and 3,000 valuable reference books were sent through Czechoslovakia
to Bavaria
. Part of the Trademark
records were moved to another building in Berlin
where they were lost also by fire. Some of the technical personnel remained at the Patent Office in Berlin
, some went to Heringen
and others were scattered throughout Germany
. The Patent Office building in Berlin was about one-third destroyed by a heavy bombing attack on February 5, 1945. US and British representatives reached Heringen
in May 1945 and found some 50 former patent employees at work restoring and re-classifying the patent indexes and examination material. The library and the register of secret patents were located in a potash mine in Heringen
. However, the files of the secret applications and patents had been burned upon orders of the German government shortly before the arrival of the US troops… The technical library has been moved from the potash
mine in Heringen
and is again available to the public. The library is equipped with 12 miles of new metal shelves which provide space for about 500,000 volumes.”
Other attempts to preserve German patents was the re-registration of the patents in other countries. In 1945, it was noted that: “Patents Transferred. That Germany is preparing in other ways to salve what she can is indicated by reports that the flight of capital on a large scale is taking place from Germany to Sweden through the transfer of German patents. The Swedish Patent Office is said to be inundated with registrations of patents on behalf of German individuals, commercial corporations and research organizations. Last year, it is said, 60 per cent of the record total of 10,000 patent registrations were German and the proportion has increased this year. Among those who registered were I.G. Farben, the Steyr-Daimler-Benz automobile manufacturers, the Siemens
and A.E.G. Combines. The patents, of course, represent substantial assets."
After the Second World War, the patent office property was seized by the Allied Control Council
, including patents, trademarks, and emblems, under Articles II and X of the Allied Control Council Law No. 5, 30 October 1945. Article II of this Act on 31 August 1951 set aside all Allied Control Council Law but in fact this occurred only on 12 September 1990 with the "Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany". Until 1951 the seized patents were used by the Allies technologically and economically.
On 1 October 1949, the Deutsche Patentamt (German Patent Office) moved to premises in the Deutsches Museum
in Munich
. In 1951 a branch office was opening in the old Reichspatentamt in Berlin. 1959, the Patent Office moved into its own building in Munich.
In 1990, the Office for Amt für Erfindungs- und Patentwesen der DDR (Inventions and Patent Office of the GDR) merged with the Patent Office.
In 1998, an office in Jena
was built and the bulk of the Berlin office moved there. The Office has thus now has three locations, Munich, Jena and Berlin. In the same year was a renaming of Deutsche Patentamt to Deutsches Patent- und Markenamt (DPMA), in order to take the importance of brands as a working area of the office into account.
Originally appeals against decisions of the Office were conducted by the internally, however, since 1961 this is done in the Bundespatentgericht
(Federal Patent Court).
Since 1978 and the entry into force of the European Patent Convention
, the European Patent Office
also issues patents effective in Germany, as part of a European patent's "bundle" of national patents.
, with 2501 patents, Bosch
, with 2202 patents, DaimlerChrysler
with 1626 patents.
Béla Barényi
,
Gerd Binnig
,
Ludwig Bölkow
,
Walter Bruch
,
Jürgen Dethloff,
Artur Fischer
,
Rudolf Hell
,
Heinz Lindenmeier,
Hermann Oberth
,
Hans Joachim Pabst von Ohain,
Oskar-Erich Peter,
Hans-Jürgen Quadbeck-Seeger,
Ernst Ruska
,
Hans Sauer,
Felix Wankel
,
Ernst-Ludwig Winnacker,
Konrad Zuse
Patent
A patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....
and Trade Mark
Trademark
A trademark, trade mark, or trade-mark is a distinctive sign or indicator used by an individual, business organization, or other legal entity to identify that the products or services to consumers with which the trademark appears originate from a unique source, and to distinguish its products or...
Office (GPTO) is the German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
national patent office
Patent office
A patent office is a governmental or intergovernmental organization which controls the issue of patents. In other words, "patent offices are government bodies that may grant a patent or reject the patent application based on whether or not the application fulfils the requirements for...
, with headquarters in Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
, and offices in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
and Jena
Jena
Jena is a university city in central Germany on the river Saale. It has a population of approx. 103,000 and is the second largest city in the federal state of Thuringia, after Erfurt.-History:Jena was first mentioned in an 1182 document...
. In 2006 it employed 2556 people, of which about 700 were patent examiners.
Function and status
The DPMA is the central authority in the field of intellectual property protection in Germany. Its responsibilities include the granting of patents for the registration of industrial designs, trademarks and designs, as well as for informing the public about existing industrial property rights. Recognised partner of the DPMA is the Patentinformationszentrum (Patent Information Centre), united in the Deutscher Patentinformationszentren e.V (German Patent Information Centres Association).The legal basis of the German Patent and Trademark Office is § 26 of the Patentgesetz (German Patents Act).
History
The first unified Patentgesetz (German Patent Act) was adopted on 25 May 1877, which mandated the establishment of an authority tasked with reviewing and awarding patents. On this basis, on 1 July 1877, the Kaiserliche Patentamt (Imperial Patent Office) was founded in Berlin.The Chairman of the newly established office was Karl Rudolf Jacobi. On 2 July 1877 was the first German patent was granted on 1 July 1877 for a "method for producing a red ultramarine colour", invented by Johannes Zeltner. The first trademark registration was on 16 October 1894 for a Berlin lamp producer.
In 1905, the Patent Office moved into premised designed by the architects Solf and Wichards on the corner of Gitschiner Straße and Lindenstraße in Kreuzberg
Kreuzberg
Kreuzberg, a part of the combined Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg borough located south of Mitte since 2001, is one of the best-known areas of Berlin...
, with a characteristic 243-metre front on the elevated highway.
In 1919, the Patent Office was renamed the Reichspatentamt (State Patent Office).
The Nazi anti-Semitic and anti-foreigner laws strangled scientific output and patent applications. Almost as soon as they came into power, the Nazis moved to throw the Jews out of the German Patent Offices, with only a few exceptions for those who had served at the front during World War I or who had lost a parent or son in fighting. “Law Relating to the Admission to the Profession of Patent-agent and Lawyer of 22 April 1933. The Government of the Reich has resolved the following law which is promulgated herewith: Section 1. Patent-agents which are of non-Aryan descent pursuant to the law relating to the reestablishment of the Professional Civil Service of 7 April 1933 may be taken off the roster of patent-agents kept by the Reich Patent Office up to 30 September 1933…”
In 1938, the “Aryanization
Aryanization
Aryanization is a term coined during Nazism referring to the forced expulsion of so-called "non-Aryans", mainly Jews, from business life in Nazi Germany and the territories it controlled....
” of patents was mandated, in that new patents could only be proposed and submitted if sponsored by an Aryan
Aryan
Aryan is an English language loanword derived from Sanskrit ārya and denoting variously*In scholarly usage:**Indo-Iranian languages *in dated usage:**the Indo-European languages more generally and their speakers...
and German citizens, and not by dissidents, foreigners or Jews
Jews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
. Existing patents held by Jews must also be turned over to a German citizen. As one author stated, “Jewish commercial firms and the associated property, as well as wholesale operations and industry that are Jewish because of the degree to which they are under Jewish ownership, can be de-Jewdified [sic]. Important patents and commercial secrets must be transferred to non-Jewish control.”
The Reich Patent Office came under Nazi political party pressure as well. One of Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
’s chauffeurs, Anton Loibl, invented the idea of attaching small pieces of glass to the pedals of bicycles, that would reflect the lights of approaching cars. In 1936, word of this invention came to the SS, and they decided to form a partnership with Loibl to market his idea. However, the idea was not all that novel, and a similar safety device had already been applied for as a patent. “But this competitor lacked something very important- the SS as a business partner. His patent application was buried. Loibl’s sailed through, and in 1938 Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Luitpold Himmler was Reichsführer of the SS, a military commander, and a leading member of the Nazi Party. As Chief of the German Police and the Minister of the Interior from 1943, Himmler oversaw all internal and external police and security forces, including the Gestapo...
used his supreme authority as head of the German police to pass a new traffic law. This required all German bicycles to be equipped with Loibl’s reflective pedal… in 1938 alone, the SS received a tidy 77,740 reichmarks from the bicycle pedal proceeds.”
In the last months of the war, many of the technical records of the German Patent Office were widely dispersed throughout Germany to preserve them from the Allied firebombing
Firebombing
Firebombing is a bombing technique designed to damage a target, generally an urban area, through the use of fire, caused by incendiary devices, rather than from the blast effect of large bombs....
of Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
. “One set of copies of the pending 180,000 patent applications were taken into eastern Germany where they were later lost by fire. The technical library of 300,000 volumes and the records of the secret patents were moved to Heringen
Heringen
Heringen is a small town in Hersfeld-Rotenburg district in eastern Hesse, Germany lying right at the boundary with Thuringia.- Geography :- Location :...
, near Kassel
Kassel
Kassel is a town located on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Kassel Regierungsbezirk and the Kreis of the same name and has approximately 195,000 inhabitants.- History :...
, and 3,000 valuable reference books were sent through Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
to Bavaria
Bavaria
Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
. Part of the Trademark
Trademark
A trademark, trade mark, or trade-mark is a distinctive sign or indicator used by an individual, business organization, or other legal entity to identify that the products or services to consumers with which the trademark appears originate from a unique source, and to distinguish its products or...
records were moved to another building in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
where they were lost also by fire. Some of the technical personnel remained at the Patent Office in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, some went to Heringen
Heringen
Heringen is a small town in Hersfeld-Rotenburg district in eastern Hesse, Germany lying right at the boundary with Thuringia.- Geography :- Location :...
and others were scattered throughout Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. The Patent Office building in Berlin was about one-third destroyed by a heavy bombing attack on February 5, 1945. US and British representatives reached Heringen
Heringen
Heringen is a small town in Hersfeld-Rotenburg district in eastern Hesse, Germany lying right at the boundary with Thuringia.- Geography :- Location :...
in May 1945 and found some 50 former patent employees at work restoring and re-classifying the patent indexes and examination material. The library and the register of secret patents were located in a potash mine in Heringen
Heringen
Heringen is a small town in Hersfeld-Rotenburg district in eastern Hesse, Germany lying right at the boundary with Thuringia.- Geography :- Location :...
. However, the files of the secret applications and patents had been burned upon orders of the German government shortly before the arrival of the US troops… The technical library has been moved from the potash
Potash
Potash is the common name for various mined and manufactured salts that contain potassium in water-soluble form. In some rare cases, potash can be formed with traces of organic materials such as plant remains, and this was the major historical source for it before the industrial era...
mine in Heringen
Heringen
Heringen is a small town in Hersfeld-Rotenburg district in eastern Hesse, Germany lying right at the boundary with Thuringia.- Geography :- Location :...
and is again available to the public. The library is equipped with 12 miles of new metal shelves which provide space for about 500,000 volumes.”
Other attempts to preserve German patents was the re-registration of the patents in other countries. In 1945, it was noted that: “Patents Transferred. That Germany is preparing in other ways to salve what she can is indicated by reports that the flight of capital on a large scale is taking place from Germany to Sweden through the transfer of German patents. The Swedish Patent Office is said to be inundated with registrations of patents on behalf of German individuals, commercial corporations and research organizations. Last year, it is said, 60 per cent of the record total of 10,000 patent registrations were German and the proportion has increased this year. Among those who registered were I.G. Farben, the Steyr-Daimler-Benz automobile manufacturers, the Siemens
Siemens
Siemens may refer toSiemens, a German family name carried by generations of telecommunications industrialists, including:* Werner von Siemens , inventor, founder of Siemens AG...
and A.E.G. Combines. The patents, of course, represent substantial assets."
After the Second World War, the patent office property was seized by the Allied Control Council
Allied Control Council
The Allied Control Council or Allied Control Authority, known in the German language as the Alliierter Kontrollrat and also referred to as the Four Powers , was a military occupation governing body of the Allied Occupation Zones in Germany after the end of World War II in Europe...
, including patents, trademarks, and emblems, under Articles II and X of the Allied Control Council Law No. 5, 30 October 1945. Article II of this Act on 31 August 1951 set aside all Allied Control Council Law but in fact this occurred only on 12 September 1990 with the "Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany". Until 1951 the seized patents were used by the Allies technologically and economically.
On 1 October 1949, the Deutsche Patentamt (German Patent Office) moved to premises in the Deutsches Museum
Deutsches Museum
The Deutsches Museum in Munich, Germany, is the world's largest museum of technology and science, with approximately 1.5 million visitors per year and about 28,000 exhibited objects from 50 fields of science and technology. The museum was founded on June 28, 1903, at a meeting of the Association...
in Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
. In 1951 a branch office was opening in the old Reichspatentamt in Berlin. 1959, the Patent Office moved into its own building in Munich.
In 1990, the Office for Amt für Erfindungs- und Patentwesen der DDR (Inventions and Patent Office of the GDR) merged with the Patent Office.
In 1998, an office in Jena
Jena
Jena is a university city in central Germany on the river Saale. It has a population of approx. 103,000 and is the second largest city in the federal state of Thuringia, after Erfurt.-History:Jena was first mentioned in an 1182 document...
was built and the bulk of the Berlin office moved there. The Office has thus now has three locations, Munich, Jena and Berlin. In the same year was a renaming of Deutsche Patentamt to Deutsches Patent- und Markenamt (DPMA), in order to take the importance of brands as a working area of the office into account.
Originally appeals against decisions of the Office were conducted by the internally, however, since 1961 this is done in the Bundespatentgericht
Bundespatentgericht
The Bundespatentgericht , or German Federal Patent Court, is a German federal court competent for particular legal matters, such as patent and trademark cases. It has its seat in Munich, Germany.- External links :...
(Federal Patent Court).
Since 1978 and the entry into force of the European Patent Convention
European Patent Convention
The Convention on the Grant of European Patents of 5 October 1973, commonly known as the European Patent Convention , is a multilateral treaty instituting the European Patent Organisation and providing an autonomous legal system according to which European patents are granted...
, the European Patent Office
European Patent Office
The European Patent Office is one of the two organs of the European Patent Organisation , the other being the Administrative Council. The EPO acts as executive body for the Organisation while the Administrative Council acts as its supervisory body as well as, to a limited extent, its legislative...
also issues patents effective in Germany, as part of a European patent's "bundle" of national patents.
| Name | Dates of Presidency |
|---|---|
| ... | |
| Kurt Haertel | 1963 – 1975 |
| ... | |
| Jürgen Schade Jürgen Schade Dr. Jürgen Schade was president of the Deutsches Patent- und Markenamt for 7 years, from 2001 to December 31, 2008. He studied theology and obtained a PhD in law, before starting to work in 1977 at the Deutsches Patent- und Markenamt.-References:... |
2001 – December 31, 2008 |
| Cornelia Rudloff-Schäffer Cornelia Rudloff-Schäffer Cornelia Rudloff-Schäffer is the current president of the Deutsches Patent- und Markenamt , a post she holds since January 1, 2009... |
January 1, 2009 – |
Patent applicants
In 2006, the leaders in terms of numbers of patents at the DPMA were SiemensSiemens
Siemens may refer toSiemens, a German family name carried by generations of telecommunications industrialists, including:* Werner von Siemens , inventor, founder of Siemens AG...
, with 2501 patents, Bosch
Robert Bosch GmbH
Robert Bosch GmbH is a multinational engineering and electronics company headquartered in Gerlingen, near Stuttgart, Germany. It is the world's largest supplier of automotive components...
, with 2202 patents, DaimlerChrysler
DaimlerChrysler
Daimler AG is a German car corporation. By unit sales, it is the thirteenth-largest car manufacturer and second-largest truck manufacturer in the world. In addition to automobiles, Daimler manufactures buses and provides financial services through its Daimler Financial Services arm...
with 1626 patents.
Inventors gallery
In 1984, the DPMA opened an "inventor's gallery", as "an incentive for all innovative forces to express themselves more, and a signal to the insurance companies to promote them long term." It was enlarged in 1987 and again in 1999 and now covers 17 German inventors:Béla Barényi
Bela Barenyi
Béla Barényi was a Hungarian-Austrian engineer, regarded as the father of passive safety in automobiles. He was born in Hirtenberg near Vienna during the Austro-Hungarian Empire...
,
Gerd Binnig
Gerd Binnig
Gerd Binnig is a German physicist, and a Nobel laureate.He was born in Frankfurt am Main and played in the ruins of the city during his childhood. His family lived partly in Frankfurt and partly in Offenbach am Main, and he attended school in both cities. At the age of 10, he decided to become a...
,
Ludwig Bölkow
Ludwig Bölkow
Ludwig Bölkow was one of the aeronautical pioneers of Germany.-Background:Born in Schwerin, in north-eastern Germany, in 1912, Bölkow was the son of a foreman employed by Fokker, one of the leading aircraft constructors of that time.-Early career:Bölkow’s first job was with Heinkel, the aircraft...
,
Walter Bruch
Walter Bruch
Walter Bruch was a German engineer who invented the PAL color television system at Telefunken in the early 1960s. In Addition to his research activities Professor Bruch taught at Hannover Technical University. He was awarded the Werner-von-Siemens-Ring in 1975.-Biography:He was born at Neustadt an...
,
Jürgen Dethloff,
Artur Fischer
Artur Fischer
Artur Fischer is an inventor.He registered his first patent in 1949 for a Photo Flash Light, with syncronised trigger...
,
Rudolf Hell
Rudolf Hell
Rudolf Hell was a German inventor. He was born in Eggmühl, Germany.From 1919 to 1923 he studied electrical engineering in Munich....
,
Heinz Lindenmeier,
Hermann Oberth
Hermann Oberth
Hermann Julius Oberth was an Austro-Hungarian-born German physicist and engineer. He is considered one of the founding fathers of rocketry and astronautics.- Early life :...
,
Hans Joachim Pabst von Ohain,
Oskar-Erich Peter,
Hans-Jürgen Quadbeck-Seeger,
Ernst Ruska
Ernst Ruska
Ernst August Friedrich Ruska was a German physicist who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1986 for his work in electron optics, including the design of the first electron microscope.Ruska was born in Heidelberg...
,
Hans Sauer,
Felix Wankel
Felix Wankel
Felix Heinrich Wankel was a German mechanical engineer and inventor after whom the Wankel engine was named. He is the only twentieth century engineer to have designed an internal combustion engine which went into production.-Early life:Wankel was born in Lahr, Baden, in the upper Rhine Valley...
,
Ernst-Ludwig Winnacker,
Konrad Zuse
Konrad Zuse
Konrad Zuse was a German civil engineer and computer pioneer. His greatest achievement was the world's first functional program-controlled Turing-complete computer, the Z3, which became operational in May 1941....
See also
- BundespatentgerichtBundespatentgerichtThe Bundespatentgericht , or German Federal Patent Court, is a German federal court competent for particular legal matters, such as patent and trademark cases. It has its seat in Munich, Germany.- External links :...
- European Patent OfficeEuropean Patent OfficeThe European Patent Office is one of the two organs of the European Patent Organisation , the other being the Administrative Council. The EPO acts as executive body for the Organisation while the Administrative Council acts as its supervisory body as well as, to a limited extent, its legislative...
- GebrauchsmusterGebrauchsmusterIn German and Austrian patent laws, the Gebrauchsmuster , also known as German utility model or Austrian utility model, is a patent-like, intellectual property right protecting inventions....
- German Association for the Protection of Intellectual PropertyGerman Association for the Protection of Intellectual PropertyThe German Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property is a German professional association "concerned with the protection of intellectual property rights"...
(GRUR e. V.) - Ralf Sieckmann v Deutsches Patent und MarkenamtRalf Sieckmann v Deutsches Patent und MarkenamtIn trademark law, Sieckmann v German Patent Office issued on December 12, 2002, is widely recognised as a landmark decision of the European Court of Justice on the graphical representation of non-conventional trademarks under the European Trade Marks Directive.The case involved a "methyl...