AWA Point

Spotlight on the IP strategy

By AWA | Posted on December 2, 2016

Heliospectra’s IP strategy is an important part of the company’s work and has been since the company was founded in 2006. Just a year later Heliospectra applied for its first patent. The company prepared an IP strategy at an early stage and the Board of Directors helped with its development. The strategy is important from...

Good relations with local partners – the key to success in China

By AWA | Posted on December 1, 2016

The steel company SSAB has operations in China and works directly with Chinese partners on IP-related issues. As SSAB is so heavily dependent on its local IP consultants in China, it is essential that the company feels able to rely 100 percent on the advice it receives.

Tags: china, chinese ip, IP, relationsship, ssab

Cautious optimism regarding 2017 UPC implementation

By AWA | Posted on November 29, 2016

During the meeting of the EU Competitiveness Council on 28 November 2016 in Brussels, the UK Minister of State for Energy and Intellectual Property stated that the UK will proceed with their ratification process in the months to come. The statement from the UK Minister for State and Intellectual Property Baroness Neville-Rolfe now seemingly paves...

Tags: UK, unified patent court, UP, UPC

Interesting decision on conflicts of interest

By Ole Bokinge | Posted on November 21, 2016

Ethics and the risk of conflicts of interest are issues that all law firms have to beware of and manage properly. When you use a law firm, you should always expect that your information is handled with confidentiality. Today, many law firms represent multiple clients within the same technical field and sometimes their clients are...

Tags: conflicts of interest, epi

Trademark protection allowed DEKO to go global safely

By AWA | Posted on November 16, 2016

With 45 years of experience, 35 of which on the international market, the Danish company DEKO has become established as one of Europe’s leading suppliers of mobile interior walls, wall systems and doors. Thanks to long-term, continuous and strategic trademark work with Awapatent, DEKO has gradually and safely been able to advance its position globally...

A more efficient trademark application process in China? 13 new Trademark Application and Service centers opened.

By AWA | Posted on November 8, 2016

China’s State Administration of Industry and Commerce (SAIC), which also administers the China Trademark Office and all trademark applications in China, is on a reform path and is putting efforts into facilitating trademark registrations across China’s provinces and lower tier cities and spreading the work outside of Beijing. The need for reform is a result...

Tags: Application, awa asia, china, China Trademark Office, SAIC, trademarks

Referral to the Enlarged Board of Appeal regarding negative features in a claim (i.e. disclaimers).

By AWA | Posted on November 3, 2016

The use of undisclosed disclaimers in a filed application has been practiced since the start of the EPC (European Patent Convention) and was codified in G 1/03. According to this decision, three exceptions from the general principle (a patent or patent application may not be amended in such a way that it contains subject-matter which...

Tags: applications, awapatent, EBA, epa, EPC

EPO gets Stricter on Requirements for Recording Assignments

By AWA | Posted on October 24, 2016

The EPO is going to take a stricter approach for recording an assignment of EP applications. Up until now the EPO has accepted assignment documents evidencing a transfer that had only been signed by the Assignor. Recordal of assignment is governed by Article 72 EPC which states that “An assignment of a European patent application...

Tags: awapatent, EP application, EPO, Patent, patent application

European Patent Office: New PPH agreements on the way

By Troels Peter Rørdam | Posted on October 20, 2016

The ever expanding Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) network keeps getting new additions, and as usual, the AWAPATENT IP Blog sums up the new expansions and arising possibilities. The PPH is a system of bilateral agreements allowing for requesting accelerated examination at one participating office. The system is based on the search results and a set...

Tags: awapatent, EPO, Patent, patent application, PPH

The value of design patents

By Joacim Lydén | Posted on October 18, 2016

It is a perfectly clear, crisp morning as I make my way from Washington DC’s Union Station, through a clean and perfectly trimmed Senate Park, to the white neoclassical palace that houses the United States Supreme Court. The wide pavement and massive stairs leading to the building’s entrance is filled with journalists, photographers and television...

Tags: awapatent, IP, Patent, Trademark, USA