News: Uncategorized

Increasing number of patent filings to EPO

By AWA Editor | Posted on January 16, 2015

According to preliminary data from the European Patent Office (EPO), the number of patent filings received by the office last year increased by around 3% to more than 273 000. This is a new all-time high and the fifth year in a row with growing number of filings. Much of the growth is coming from...

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US university auctions patents

By AWA Editor | Posted on November 26, 2014

Over the last 10 years, some 400 patents have been issued to Penn State. Only about half of them have been licensed to companies that want to commercialise the patents. The auction is a way to find companies that can benefit from the remaining patents. The online auction, which will take place in December, will...

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Faster examination of community trademarks

By AWA Editor | Posted on November 21, 2014

Starting 24 November, the European Union trademark authority (OHIM) offers trademark applicants the opportunity to have their applications examined and published faster. The accelerated procedure is called Fast Track and according to the OHIM, applications can be published in half of the time or less compared with regular applications. To qualify for the Fast Track...

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Spain’s challenge to unitary patent package rejected

By AWA Editor | Posted on November 19, 2014

The Advocate General proposes to dismiss Spain’s challenges to the creation of the Unitary Patent package on the grounds that unitary protection is expected to provide a genuine benefit in terms of uniformity and integration, whilst the choice of languages reduces translation costs considerably and safeguards better the principle of legal certainty. In most cases,...

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Google and LG co-operate on patents

By AWA Editor | Posted on November 6, 2014

Google and Korean electronics company LG Electronics have signed a long-term patent cross-licensing agreement covering a broad range of products and technologies. The agreement covers the two companies’ existing patents as well as those filed over the next 10 years. Google has previously entered into similar agreements with Samsung, Cisco and Ericsson.

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EU Commission “follows the money” in fight against IPR infringements

By AWA Editor | Posted on October 13, 2014

The European Commission recently adopted an action plan to address infringements of intellectual property rights in the EU. The plan sets out a number of actions to focus the EU’s IPR enforcement policy on commercial scale infringements (the so-called ‘follow the money’ approach). The plan includes a proposition for a dialogue with online advertising agencies...

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Monkey selfies: animals cannot own copyright

By AWA Editor | Posted on September 16, 2014

One of the most popular news stories this summer was the ape that swiped the camera from a wildlife photographer to take a series of photos of itself – selfies. When one of the photos ended up on Wikimedia Commons, a database of images that are free for anyone to use, the photographer protested, asking...

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