The creative potential is an important building block for a company’s success. This makes effective protection of intellectual property all the more important to guard against imitators.
To ensure comprehensive protection of intellectual property, there is a bundle of industrial property rights grouped under the term industrial property protection. These essentially include trademark law, competition law, copyright law, and patent law, explains the business law firm MTR Rechtsanwälte.
Patent law serves to protect technical inventions. By registering a patent, the exclusive right of use and exploitation is granted to the patent holder. The European Court of Justice made it clear in its ruling of April 28, 2022 (Case No.: C-44/21) that an interim injunction for patent infringement must not be denied on the grounds that the patent has not at least survived a first-instance opposition or nullity procedure. This means that interim legal protection for patent disputes in Germany is now more enforceable.
The German patent courts have tended to decide conservatively on matters of interim legal protection in patent cases. The background is that the courts often do not want to order interim measures if they cannot be sure that the patent in question is legally valid. The ECJ has rejected this practice. The case law of several higher regional courts, which generally refuse interim injunctions in patent infringement cases if the disputed patent has not yet proven itself in a first-instance opposition or nullity procedure, is contrary to European law, the ECJ clarified.
Until now, several higher regional courts assumed that for the issuance of an interim injunction in a suspected patent infringement, it is not enough for a patent to have been granted by the responsible patent office. They demanded that in addition to the technical examination of patentability by the patent office, confirmation of patentability must also be provided.
The Munich Regional Court considered this view to be contrary to European law and appealed to the ECJ. It ruled that the case law of the higher regional courts violated Union law and was not compatible with Article 9 paragraph 1 of the Enforcement Directive 2004/48. The directive ensures a high level of protection for intellectual property but is practically unenforceable with the case law of the higher regional courts, according to the ECJ.
Lawyers experienced in industrial property protection can provide advice on patent protection, trademark law, competition law, or copyright law.
