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EU Commercial Law 2011
III. A. Protecting IPR (patents, trademarks and designs)
in the EU
Professor Jens Schovsbo
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Overview
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Introduction to IPR and the EU
Trade Marks
Designs
Patents
Summing Up
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What are IPRs (for the present purposes)?
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Exclusive rights to:
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Trademarks
• “Any signs capable of distinguishing the goods or services of
one undertaking from those of other undertakings”
•
Designs
• “The appearance of the whole or a part of a product”
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Patents
• “Any inventions, in all fields of technology, which are new,
involve an inventive step and are susceptible of industrial
application”
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C6H5-CH = CHCOOCH3
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Why do we have IPR?
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Information is a special commodity (“public good”) which is
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non-rivalrous and
non-excludable
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These qualities make it risky for companies to invest in the
production of information (because of “free riders”)
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IPRs incentivize companies by creating property rights in
information. This leads to innovation
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Trade marks also benefit society by furthering undistorted
competition and reducing consumers’ search costs
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Communication from the Commission to the European
Parliament, the Council and the European Economic and
Social Committee - An Industrial Property Rights Strategy
for Europe (2008)
A clear regime for intellectual property rights is an essential
condition for the single market and in making the "fifth
freedom", the free movement of knowledge, a reality.
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Protecting IPR in the EU
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Territoriality and sovereignty
•
Sovereignty is the exclusive right to exercise, within a
specific territory, the functions of a nation-state and to be
answerable to no higher authority
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By joining the EU the Members have chosen to limit
(“bundle”) their sovereignty (“supranationality”)
•
But IPR still follow national frontiers and the principle of
territoriality still applies:
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IPR are issued and exercised according to national law
• Respect for national rights
• May potentially prevent intra EU imports and exports
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Can IPR form barriers to trade?
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Arts. 34 and 36: Quantitative restrictions on trade
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Dassonville: “Directly or indirectly, potentially or actually …”
Casis de Dijon: Legitimate restrictions
• “the protection of industrial and commercial property”
Harmonization
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“Negative harmonization”: Identifying cases where IPR form
barriers to trade and eliminating national legislation
Positive harmonization”: Streamlining legitimate barriers to
trade by “reregulation”
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IPR Directives and Regulations
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Trademarks
• Regulation 40/94 on the Community trade mark (”CTM”)
• Directive 2008/95/EF to approximate the laws of the
Member States relating to trade marks (first Directive in
1989)
Designs
• Regulation 6/2002 on Community designs (”CD”)
• Directive 98/71/EC on the legal protection of designs
Patents:
• (European Patent Convention (EPC))
• Directive on the legal protection of biotechnological
inventions
• (Proposal for a Regulation)
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Trade marks: Basic features of the EU Trade mark
System (”CTM”)
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Directive AND Regulation
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CTM has ”Unitary Character”
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National trade mark systems exist in ALL the Union countries
Valid in the European Union as a whole. Impossible to limit
protection to some Member States
CTM’s are enforced by national ”CTM-courts”
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Protection is based on the TM-Regulation
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What signs may constitute a CTM?
• TMR Article 4:
”A trade mark may consist of any signs capable of being
represented graphically, particularly words, including
personal names, designs, letters, numerals, the shape of
goods or of their packaging, provided that such signs are
capable of distinguishing the goods or services of one
undertaking from those of other undertakings.”
• Article 7
1. The following shall not be registered:
…
(e) signs which consist exclusively of:
(i) the shape which results from the nature of the goods
themselves; or
(ii) the shape of goods which is necessary to obtain a technical
result; or
(iii) the shape which gives substantial value to the goods;
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”Capable of distinguishing”
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The distinctive character of a trade mark means that the
mark in question makes it possible to identify the product
for which the mark is being used as originating from a
particular undertaking, and thus to distinguish that
product from those of other undertakings.
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That distinctive character must be assessed, first, by reference
to the products or services in respect of which
registration has been applied for and, second, by reference
to the perception of the relevant public.
In order to assess whether or not a trade mark has any
distinctive character, the overall impression given by it must
be considered.
The competent authority may not carry out an examination in
the abstract but must of necessity undertake its examination by
reference to the actual situation.
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What are (un)conventional trademarks?
C6H5-CH = CHCOOCH3.
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Obtaining CTM with OHIM
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Community Trade Marks (CTM)
1. Registration with OHIM (TMR Art. 6)
2. Unitary character
1. Covers ALL 27 Member Stats (as a principle CTMs can only
be registered if the mark could have been registered in any
Member State as a national TM).
3. Basic fee EUR 900 (e-filing)
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OHIM
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OHIM is the official trade marks and designs registration
office of the European Union
An independent, self-financing, non-profit-making European
agency
Based in Alicante in Spain
Employs around 660 people and has an annual income in
the region of €200m
In 2010 it received approx. 100.000 CTM applications
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The registration procedure before OHIM (the
“Alicante Model”)
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Grounds for refusals of an application
1. Absolute grounds for refusal (TMR Article 7)
1. Including signs which are devoid of any distinctive character and
purely functional signs etc. (Art. 7(e))
• Leads to automatic refusal by OHIM (article 38)
2. Relative grounds for refusal (TMR Article 8)
1. Including earlier CTM or national marks which are
identical/confusingly similar to the mark for which protection is
applied for
• Dealt with after grant by opposition by the holder of the
earlier mark
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Trade mark exclusivity (CTR Article 9)
Article 9
Rights conferred by a Community trade mark
1. A Community trade mark shall confer on the proprietor
exclusive rights therein. The proprietor shall be entitled
to prevent all third parties not having his consent from
using in the course of trade:
…
(b) any sign where, because of its identity with, or similarity to,
the Community trade mark and the identity or similarity of
the goods or services covered by the Community trade mark
and the sign, there exists a likelihood of confusion on the
part of the public; the likelihood of confusion includes the
likelihood of association between the sign and the trade
mark;
…
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Art. 9/ctd.
2. The following, inter alia, may be prohibited under paragraph
1:
(a) affixing the sign to the goods or to the packaging thereof;
(b) offering the goods, putting them on the market or
stocking them for these purposes under that sign, or
offering or supplying services thereunder;
(c) importing or exporting the goods under that sign;
(d) using the sign on business papers and in advertising.
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Designs: Basic features of the EU Design System
(”CD”)
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Directive AND Regulation
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”Unitary character”
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Valid in the European Union as a whole. Impossible to limit
protection to some Member States.
”The design approach”
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Registered CD’s AND unregistered CD’s
Neutral design definition: ”Functional designs” (”the appearance
of a product …”)
Exclusions and limitations
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”Design” and ”product”
Article 3:
(a) "design" means the appearance of the whole or a part of a
product resulting from the features of, in particular, the
lines, contours, colours, shape, texture and/or materials of
the product itself and/or its ornamentation;
(b) "product" means any industrial or handicraft item,
including inter alia parts intended to be assembled into a
complex product, packaging, get-up, graphic symbols and
typographic typefaces, but excluding computer programs;
(c) "complex product" means a product which is composed of
multiple components which can be replaced permitting
disassembly and re-assembly of the product.
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”Designs”
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Requirements for Design Protection
DR Article 4: A design shall be protected by a community
design to the extent that it is new and has individual
character.
Commencement and term
Article 11: Unregistered Community design:
Three years as from the date on which the design was first
made available to the public within the Community.
Article 12: Registered Community design
Upon registration by OHIM, a design shall be protected ... up to
a total term of 25 years from the date of filing.
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Design Rights Granted
Article 19
1. A registered Community design shall confer on its holder
the exclusive right to use it and to prevent any third party
not having his consent from using it.
2. An unregistered Community design shall, however, confer
on its holder the right to prevent the acts referred to in
paragraph 1 only if the contested use results from copying
the protected design.
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Patenting in EU(rope)
Basically two ways of acquiring patent rights in the EU:
1. National patents
1. Not harmonized by positive EU harmonization (except for the
directive on Biotec.-inventions) but by the EPC (on central issues
e.g. regarding the patentability criteria and the invalidity
reasons)
2. European (EPC) patents
1. The European Patent Convention (EPC)
1. Central issue (by the EPO) and national effect in the
countries selected (“designated”) by the applicant.
3. For matters of completeness: An international application via the Patent Cooperation Treaty
designating either the EPC or individual EPC countries
•
The result in all situations is a (number of) national
patent(s), i.e. patents which have to be enforced in the
individual countries and which may be revoked for individual
countries.
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The EPC
• The European Patent Convention (EPC) signed in
Munich in 1973
• A revised version of the EPC entered into force on 13
December 2007 (“EPC 2000”). The provisions of the
revised Convention apply unless the transitional
provisions provide for the applicability of the EPC 1973
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EPC Member States (38)
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2. Basic Features of the EPC
The European Patent Organization (and EPO)
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The European Patent Organisation is an
intergovernmental organisation that was set up on 7
October 1977 on the basis of the European Patent
Convention (EPC) signed in Munich in 1973.
It has two bodies:
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a) the European Patent Office (EPO), located in Munich with a
branch in The Hague and sub-offices in Berlin and Vienna, and
b) the Administrative Council
Applications:
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Applying for a European Patent
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The European grant procedure takes about three to five
years from the date the application is filed
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There are two main stages:
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Formalities examination and search report preparation
Substantive examination
Once the patent has been granted, there may be a further
procedure:
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Opposition proceedings
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EPC and the EU
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The EPC is NOT a part of the EU legal order
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The EPC is not “piece of EU-legislation” (but a Treaty)
The EPO is not an “EU-institution”
As a consequence:
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No competence of the EU-institutions relating to EPC or
European patents
• Notably not the EU Courts (ECJ and CFI)
No political control via the EU-institutions:
• Com. Working Document, April 2009: The activities of the
Community include the establishment of an internal
market … A patent to which uniform protection is given and
which produces uniform effects throughout the Community
should feature amongst the legal instruments which
undertakings have at their disposal.
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European patents and national patents
• Article 2 European patent
(1) Patents granted under this Convention shall be called
European patents.
(2) The European patent shall, in each of the Contracting
States for which it is granted, have the effect of and be
subject to the same conditions as a national patent
granted by that State, unless this Convention provides
otherwise.
• Article 3 Territorial effect
The grant of a European patent may be requested for one or
more of the Contracting States.
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EPC and the national patent systems
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The EPC only centralizes the issuing of patents.
Enforcement and validity are left to national courts.
As a consequence (from www.epo.org):
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Legal action is always cost intensive.
• First instance litigation in three countries can cost over
€700,000.
No unified legal practice and patent laws.
Cases are processed at different speeds.
Damages and fees can differ significantly.
Competence of judges can be problematic when it comes to
patent rights.
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Current Patent Reforms
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Towards a “Unified and Integrated European Patent
Litigation System”?
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Towards a “Community Patent”?
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Centralized court system (national/regional 1. Instances and
central Court of Appeal) to deal with both infringement and
validity of European patents and Community patents.
1975 Luxembourg Convention on the Community patent (failed)
Proposal for a Council Regulation on the Community Patent
(2000/2009)
• Parallel to national and European patents
Reducing Costs
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The London Agreement (May 2008)
The EPC contracting states undertake to waive, entirely or
largely, the requirement for translations of European patents.
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Overall conclusions
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Companies wanting to do business in the EU need to take
account of both national and EU rules
CTM and CD offer easy ways of having pan EU protection
The patent system lacks behind
The lack of a central IPR court is a major problem
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