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Abolition of the 10-day notification fiction at the European Patent Office

In view of the digital age, in which documents will only be served electronically in the future, the European Patent Office will abolish its so-called 10-day fiction of service, which previously governed the calculation of time limits, as of November 1, 2023.

Dr Dorothea Hofer has obtained the European Patent Litigation Certificate

We are delighted to announce that our managing partner Dr. Dorothea Hofer has obtained the European Patent Litigation Certificate issued by the University of Maastricht in cooperation with the Academy of European Law (ERA) in Trier. This includes an extensive practical and theoretical training in the law underlying the Unified Patent Court (#UPC) and related fields of European law so that she is well prepared for representing clients in all proceedings before the Unified Patent Court.

Prüfer & Partner recognized in IAM Patent 1000 2023 für Patent Prosecution and Nullity

We are pleased to share that our firm Prüfer & Partner together with four of our intellectual property attorneys have been recognized for their outstanding work in patent prosecution and nullity in the newly published 2023 Edition of iam Patent 1000, one of the world’s leading rankings with regard to patent services providers.

Prüfer Experts Listed as Best Lawyers of the Year 2023 by Handelsblatt

We are very pleased that our patent attorneys Dr. Dorothea Hofer, Mr. Jürgen Feldmeier as well as Dr. Andreas Oser are listed as beste Anwälte des Jahres 2023 (best attorneys of the year 2023) in the ranking published by Handelsblatt on June 16, 2023.

PRÜFER & PARTNER is ranked again in “The Legal 500 – Germany 2023”

Prüfer & Partner mbB Patent- und Rechtsanwälte is again recognised for its outstanding performance in the current ranking of “The Legal 500 – Germany”. The firm is recommended in the areas of “Patent Law: Patent Attorneys: Patent Prosecution” and “Patent Law: Patent Attorneys: Litigation” and is thus listed among the best IP law firms in Germany.

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.