Your patent attorneys and attorneys at law for the legal protection of industrial property rights

The Unified Patent Court will start on June 1, 2023

Years of planning finally become reality: The official starting signal has now been given! Germany ratified the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court (UPC) on February 17, 2023.

Start of the Sunrise Period for Filing Opt-out Requests with the Unified Patent Court on March 1, 2023

According to the current schedule, the Unified Patent Court will start its work on June 1, 2023. The so-called sunrise period, during which opt-out requests can be filed with the Unified Patent Court for granted European patents or published European patent applications will start on March 1, 2023, according to the current planning of the Unified Patent Court.

Adjustment of the timeline –The start of the Sunrise Period is postponed for two months till 1 March 2023.

The start of the Sunrise Period is postponed for two months. The initial roadmap foresaw 1 January 2023 as the beginning of the Sunrise Period with an entry into force of the UPCA on 1 April 2023. Although the general preparatory work of the UPC is on track, the decision was made that additional time may be given to allow future users to prepare themselves for the strong authentication which will be required to access the Case Management System (CMS) and to sign documents.

Plausibility – an unsolved problem in patent granting

The decision of the Enlarged Board of Appeal (GBK) of the European Patent Office (EPO) in the currently pending proceedings G2/21 is awaited with great excitement. This could have a significant impact on the future filing strategy of applicants, because at its core is the question of when an invention is “ready” to file.

The European patent grows to 39 contracting states with the accession of Montenegro

On July 15, 2022, Montenegro completed the final step towards accession to the European Patent Convention (EPC) by depositing its instrument of accession and became the 39th member state of the European Patent Organization (EPO) on October 1, 2022.

Amendments of regulations before the German Patent and Trade Mark Office (DPMA)

In the months of May and July 2022, some amendments relevant for practice before the DPMA will enter into force. The most important ones in brief are listed here.

Andreas Jacob listed on WTR 1000 2022

Intellectual Property specialists Prüfer & Partner are celebrating as the firm together with its Managing Partner Andreas Jacob were listed in the prestigious ranking Word Trademark Review WTR 1000 2022.

Newly published Legal 500 Germany Ranking 2022

Prüfer & Partner has again been awarded by the renowned professional publisher Legal500 in the field of Intellectual Property Law, both in the category “Prosecution” and in “Litigation”!

All good things are worth waiting for

“All good things are worth waiting for”. Now the time has finally come: The Unified Patent Court has announced on its website that it plans to commence operations on April 1, 2023.

Roadmap and preparations for the EU Unitary Patent and EU Patent Court System

As previously reported, following ratification in Germany, the way is cleared for the European patent with unitary effect (EU unitary patent) and the Unified Patent Court (UPC). As a result of the deposit of the instrument of ratification by Austria on 18 January 2022, the “provisional application of the EPC/UPC” has now entered into force.