Legal Protection of Intellectual Property

Either as a specific request of our clients, or as a part of an execution of a larger intellectual property protection strategy, our office takes part in the filings and administration relating to the extension of previous intellectual property protections into the European area.

Our main focus includes trademark, design and patent applications and extensions:

• In the topics of Trademark and Design, legal protection for the European market can be achieved within the framework provided by the European Union.
• Patents covering the countries of the European market can be registered through the European Patent Convention (EPC). The European Patent Convention also has members nations from outside the European Union, which means that patents for these countries can also be registered. In the present legal framework, the European patent needs to be validated after granting for each member state of the European Patent Convention.

Legal Priority and Precedent

Within the legal environment of the European Union and the European Patent Convention the existence of previous legal protection is an important factor for deciding upon the preferred method of protection in the European level. In certain cases, with reference to the previous, preliminary or pending intellectual property protection, the continuation of the rights can be established for the European level in the European Union or the member states of the European Patent Convention.

In case if it is not possible to refer for any earlier intellectual property right regarding the product, service or technology, then the choice and preferred way for a new European registration of property rights needs to be determined considering the legal possibilities and the business and market interests of the client.

Publication and Previous use

The European continuation of intellectual property rights relating to technical solutions which have been published or have otherwise been put into practice is governed by strict time limits.

According to the principal rule, after the publication of a technical solution it is no longer considered to be novel, and thus patenting is no longer possible. However, the extension and continuation of national patent rights to the international or European level is still possible if done within the appropriate time window.

In the case of European Trademarks the previous use or publication is not a limiting factor. The registration of European Designs are also governed by strict time limits and regulations.