Das Europäische Patentamt wird die meisten seiner Gebühren zum 1. April 2024 um durchschnittlich ca. 5% erhöhen. Deutlich höher fällt die Gebührenanhebung bei der 3. und 4. Jahresgebühr aus, die sich um fast 30% erhöht.

Die Entrichtung von Jahresgebühren beim EPA ist frühestens 3 Monate vor Fälligkeit möglich. Für etwaige Einsparungen wäre es daher ratsam, fällige Jahresgebühren bis 30. Juni 2024 noch vor dem 1. April 2024 zu entrichten.

Die vollständige Gebührentabelle des EPA finden Sie hier.

Bei Fragen oder Anmerkungen kontaktieren Sie uns gerne unter office@pruefer.eu.

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”! We are very pleased about this further award for our work and would like to sincerely thank all our clients, foreign colleagues as well as employees for the trust they have placed in us and the good cooperation.

The link to the detailed ranking result on LEGAL500 can be found here.

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“Prüfer & Partner are a strong team, which is particularly effective in the interaction between back office (very strong and extremely friendly!), drafting of applications/prosecution and legal advice in the conflict/licensing environment.”

“Dorothea Hofer: Excellent, conscientious and comprehensive advice in the conflict/licensing environment, very pragmatic and savvy and exceptionally helpful.”

“Very high level of expertise.”

“Dorothea Hofer, Jürgen Feldmeier and Andreas Oser. They are very good at understanding complex technical issues, give appropriate advice, and handle urgent matters expeditiously. Mr. Feldmeier selects his associates very well in order to be able to handle important mandates well, especially litigation.”

“Dorothea Hofer and Jürgen Feldmeier are IP veterans, which is apparent in their practical advice and background knowledge of procedures and possible outcomes of office actions or conflicts. I find them very strong and attentive, especially with clients from Asia who feel safe with them. Perfect English and cultural sensitivity help them.”

The Legal 500 is a renowned research agency that specializes in law firm recommendations. As part of its research, the independent team of experienced editors conducts hundreds of interviews with attorneys and consults more than 23,000 clients each year, allowing for a comprehensive and thorough evaluation of law firms in a wide range of practice areas.

In the recently published handbook for Germany, the publisher The Legal 500 recognises Prüfer & Partner as Leading Firm in the field of patent application and office actions. The Munich boutique Prüfer & Partner convinces with its brisk filing activity before the German Patent and Trade Mark Office (GPTO) and the European Patent Office (EPO) as well as its continuously growing business in China.

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‘The level of service is excellent. Their responses are always very quick and appropriate.’

‘We appreciate the high level of professionalism and expertise, the comprehensive advice and the prudent and timely handling of tasks.’

‘They are very good at getting to grips with the product to be registered and thereby also finding the appropriate formulations.’

‘Excellent and highly agile capacity provision; even short-notice requests are always handled and finalised in a highly professional manner. Strong problem-solving awareness even with complex non-standard requests.’

‘Jürgen Feldmeier: Very good and broad technical understanding; excellent direct ‘line’ to developers and inventors; holistic understanding of company-specific strategies and processes.’

The renowned research agency for in-house counsels, The Legal 500, has been dealing with law firm recommendations since 1987. As part of its research, the independent team of experienced editors conducts hundreds of interviews with lawyers and surveys more than 23,000 clients every year. The research feeds into a detailed analysis that provides a comprehensive and thorough assessment of law firms’ strengths and capabilities across a wide range of practice areas.

Despite successfully passing by the two German chambers, Bundestag and Bundesrat, the planned EU Unified Patent Court is again back on “on-hold” before the German Federal Constitutional Court (BVerfG).

It looked like it was finally done: on November 26, 2020, the German Bundestag had passed the ratification law on the Unified Patent Court for the second time – and now correctly with the required two-thirds majority. Only a few days later, the second chamber, the Bundesrat, had also waved the law through. This seemed to clear the way for the start of the Unified Patent Court. However, unsurprisingly, two appeals have now been filed with the Federal Constitutional Court.

As a reminder: as we reported on March 20, 2020, the BVerfG had declared the German law approving the UPC and the EU unitary patent null and void due to the lack of the required two-thirds majority. This problem had been solved by the German Bundestag and Bundesrat shortly before the turn of the year, and it seemed that entry into force would only be a formality in the form of the signature of the Federal President.

Now, at the beginning of the year, the BVerfG has again received two constitutional complaints directed against the law on the Agreement of February 19, 2013 on a Unified Patent Court, as a press spokesman of the BVerfG confirmed to LTO (Ref. 2 BvR 2216/20 and 2 BvR 2217/20). Next, it remains to be seen whether the BVerfG will accept the complaints or not. If it does not accept the appeals, the Unified Patent Court and the Unitary Patent can be launched in 2021 and is expected to begin operations in 2022. However, if any one of the appeals will be accepted by the court, we can again expect longer delays.

So even without the UK, it’s just a case of wait and see… we’ll stay tuned.