INVENTION-GENERATING

By now, there are a multitude of ideas and creative techniques to develop ideas or to generate invention. Algorithms (AI) can also meanwhile generate these, but the art lies in recognizing the decisive and good innovations here, which not only lead to solving problems, but will likewise be economically successful in the long term. Precisely for this purpose, Jostarndt Patent and Trademark Attorneys, together with various economic, technology and legal experts, have developed ways to recognize corresponding inventions.

Search & Analysis

Depending on the property right, it is useful to search inventions by features, functional description, or keywords, a corresponding search strategy is hereby defined. If it should hereby result that similar approaches already exist, further processing should be considered carefully. Achieving this step before an application is important, since the German Patent and Trademark Office (DPMA) does not examine for novelty, but rather grants the right of refusal. Here, it can turn out that already-existing trademark rights were infringed upon. For this reason, it makes sense to have an application examined in advance, inter alia in the form of a needs examination, market gaps research or availability research. Such searches can be very time intensive and, ideally, should be assigned to an expert. With a comprehensive knowledge of the competitive situation and one’s own chances, decision-making security and recommended actions can be produced for your inventions.

If you would like to learn more about this, please feel free to pose your questions about patent searches and analysis in a cost-free initial consultation.

Our services at a glance:

  • searches and expert opinion ahead of investments or in the development and market launch of products and services
  • strategy development for safeguarding development and investments through property rights
  • assessment of risk and work-up of measure to reduce the risk of infringing upon property rights
  • preparation of property rights strategies
  • monitoring of legal state and status and examination of property rights in accordance with agreed-upon criteria
  • information and expert opinion about the property rights situations domestically and abroad
  • advise in licensing matters
  • strategies for the prevention and combating of product and trademark piracy and counterfeiting incl. the analysis of risk potentials

Property Rights Portfolio

These days, patents very often represent the enterprise and innovative value of a company, and therefore, often not only one property right is to be coordinated and to be strategically handled, but rather a plurality of property rights. Patent portfolios allow themselves to be deployed as an instrument in strategic R&D (Research and Development) planning. Here, a differentiation is to be made between product-oriented and technology-field oriented portfolios. The evaluation of these property rights portfolios, in the event of mergers & acquisitions as well as transfers of property rights, belongs to our spectrum of services if industrial property rights are concerned, as with the analysis and securing of the economic value of property rights, incl.:

  • examination and evaluation of the know-how, as well as of the property rights portfolio of companies
  • technological and monetary evaluation of property rights
  • patent-attorney-related involvement in due diligence examinations

In the event of a purchasing of the patent portfolio, nationally as well as internationally, it is very critical that the holder-registration or property right transcription are properly handed in company acquisitions, -sales and -foundings, initial public offerings, etc. A time-intensive and complex process, in which we are happy to professionally and rapidly support – likewise in strategic portfolio management.

Law

If we speak of law, a differentiation must initially be made between industrial property rights and copyright law. Patent rights here safeguard technical inventions and are a government monopoly protection for economically exploitable inventions. According to the European Patent Convention of 1973, e.g. computer programs are thus explicitly excluded from patentability. Here copyright law comes into play, as here functionality is not protected, but merely the format in which it is constituted. Different to industrial property rights, copyright protection originates with the creation of the work. Here, formalities are not to be observed. An entry into the official register is thusly neither necessary nor possible for copyright protection. Here, the author is entitled to moral rights, such the recognition of their authorship, and the protection against distortion of his work, as well as rights to economic exploitation (Source: Citation).
What still counts as an invention nowadays, and what rights do you have as an inventor or provider of ideas? As there are ever more copies, counterfeits and copyright infringements, it is important to know the boundaries exactly. Thus, there are also legal conditions if you are an employee and developed inventions during your employment – so-called employee inventions (§ 4 Sec. 2 ArbNErfG). According to the Employee Inventions Act, these initially belong to the employer, but of course rights also lie with the inventor in this case, and a claim to a reasonable compensation (inventor’s compensation) for a successfully submitted patent. In working-out the discretionary threshold, we can point you in the right direction with corresponding expertise in an initial cost-free consultation.

Business

Patent assertion entities, commonly known as “patent trolls”, so-called non-practicing entities (NPEs) possess property rights exclusively for the purpose of collecting excessive licensing fees. Frequently, these concern associations of financial investors, attorneys-at-law and patent attorneys with corresponding experience in the enforcement of property rights. Here, patents are acquired such that they are customized to the manufacturing companies already chosen in advance as defendants. Estimates about the economic damage through patent assertion entities vary between €30 bn. and €100bn annually.

Jostarndt Patent and Trademark Attorneys have more than 15 years of experience in the defense against claims by patent enforcement entities. Together with you, we analyze your opponent’s situation, as well as your own requirements and necessities. The result will be a strategy tailor-made to your individual requirements. Please feel free to make further inquiries to our team.

Patent Litigation

According to § 9 Sec. 1 PatG, a patent claim exists if that for which protection is sought as patentable (§ 34 Sec. 3 Nr. 3 of the German Patent Act); in one piece or shall be divided into a preamble and characterizing portion (two-piece). In both cases, the version may be broken down according to features. According to § 34. Sec. 3 Nr. 3 PatG, the application must contain one or more patent claims, in which it is specified, what is to be protected by the patent. The patent may, according to Sec. 3 Nr. 5 PatG, contain one invention only or a group of inventions so connected amongst one another as to implement a single general inventive concept. In the event of a patent action for annulment, per § 81 Sec. 1 PatG, is an action for the declaration of the annulment of a patent or of the supplementary protection certificate. The action is to be brought against the person entered in the Register as holder of the patent or against the holder of the compulsory license. The action against the supplementary protection certificate can be connected with the action against the underlying patent and can also rely thereupon that a ground for annulment (§ 22) exists against the underlying patent.
§ 143 (1) PatG governs corresponding patent litigation cases, the civil divisions of the regional courts have exclusive jurisdiction, irrespective of the value in dispute. Here, the place of jurisdiction Dusseldorf is the uncontested number one place for patent litigation cases in Germany and Europe (Source: LINK). A unitary patent court seated in Düsseldorf is under discussion, in order in future to make an effective cross-border patent protection with unitary effect possible. Even today, however, we can already offer you long-standing national as well as international expertise for your property rights, in order to implement this as smoothly as possible for you, inter alia:

  • examinations to avoid property right infringements and to defend against infringement accusations
  • extrajudicial enforcement of property rights
  • obtainment of, and defense against preliminary injunctions
  • representation in infringement proceedings in collaboration with attorneys-at-law
  • customs seizures and seizures at trade fairs and exhibitions by customs and police in collaboration with attorneys-at-law
  • patent attorney involvement in the assertion of, and defense against competition claims
  • defense against product and trademark piracy

Please feel free to ask us without obligation!