Insights
PCT to the rescue
By AWA | Posted on April 22, 2014
According to Wikipedia, “time to market is the length of time it takes from a product being conceived until its being available for sale“. However, the success of the product can often not be determined until the product has been on the market for a period of time. For some products, the success is immediate,...
Tags: EQE, European Patent Attorney
The (trade) secret of success
By AWA | Posted on April 8, 2014
We have all heard of success stories such as the Coca-Cola recipe and the Google search algorithm. Many companies value their trade secrets and consider them important for competitiveness and innovative performance. Although the general understanding is that trade secrets are good for business, there seem to be many incorrect assumptions about their legal protection....
Tags: EU, trade secrets
Fighting the bad guys with customs surveillance
By AWA | Posted on April 3, 2014
Most classic feel-good Hollywood movies reach a point when things look most bleak, and you almost doubt whether the hero will defy all odds and beat the villain. The eternal fight against counterfeiting is starting to reach a similar point. As IP specialists and larger companies are aware, one of the most effective remedies in...
Fatal success
By Claus Marcussen | Posted on February 14, 2014
When introducing a product, the company must have as a goal or at least a hope that the trademark related to the product will become known. Some may even pray for well known or famous. They may get exactly what they hope for and some of those may find themselves cursing the day, when it...
Tags: trademarks
Changed conditions regarding the possibility to register “geographical” trademarks
By AWA | Posted on February 6, 2014
As you might have heard before, a fundamental requirement for registering a trademark is that the trademark is distinctive, meaning that it must have the ability of distinguishing the goods or services provided from the goods and services of others. The Swedish Trademark Act holds that a trademark might lack distinctiveness inter alia when it...
There is no such thing as luck; there is only adequate or inadequate preparation to cope with a statistical universe
By Malin Gullstrand Bergh | Posted on January 17, 2014
Required study preparations before our fourth lesson of the EQE Basic program concern the topics “Rights Conferred” and “Inventive step”, and include 25 Articles, 14 Rules, two Protocols and a number of Enlarged Board of Appeal decisions. Browsing through the material, I realize that while my copy of “The Annotated European Patent Convention” uses a...
Tags: EQE, European Qualifying Exam
The IP5 launch a PPH pilot programme
By Troels Peter Rørdam | Posted on January 9, 2014
According to the EPO, the world’s five largest Intellectual Property Offices, called IP5, have announced the agreement to launch a comprehensive IP5 Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) pilot programme, IP5 PPH, intended to take effect in January 2014. The IP5 are the European Patent Office (EPO), the Japan Patent Office (JPO), the Korean IP Office (KIPO),...
New Global Patent Prosecution Highway to be launched to simplify use
By Troels Peter Rørdam | Posted on December 10, 2013
Using the Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) for obtaining accelerated examination is set to become considerably simpler as 13 Intellectual Property Offices around the world announce the intent to launch a Global Patent Prosecution Highway (GPPH) arrangement to be taking effect as of 6 January 2014. The 13 offices include the Danish Patent- and Trademark Office...
“The more you learn, the more enjoyable it gets”
By Mattias Pierrou | Posted on November 29, 2013
What does it mean that something is ”new”? New to you, new to some designated person, or new in an absolute sense? This naively straight forward, but in practice very complex, concept was the subject of our last class in preparation for the European Qualifying Examination (EQE). How can it be “new” to make a...
Tags: EQE, European Patent Attorney
Wider scope of protection for Swedish patents?
By AWA | Posted on November 20, 2013
Last week the Swedish government referred an amendment of the Swedish patent law to the Council on Legislation for reconsideration. According to the suggested amendment, patent applications filed in English need not be translated into Swedish. Instead, they can be granted in English. For applicants filing a Swedish patent application in English and wishing to...
Tags: EPO, Europe, patent application, sweden
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