Insights

As a diverse and inclusive workplace, we are extremely proud of the support and development we offer our female employees. This week celebrates International Women in Engineering day so what better time to highlight the achievements of the women in our Engineering team by taking the time to find out what inspired them to begin their career in the industry.

We interviewed Melissa Lever, Technical Assistant in our Munich office:

Whilst patent protection from the European Patent Office for individual plant varieties is excluded by Article 53(b) EPC, it is possible to obtain plant variety rights in Europe under the UPOV (International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants) provisions by applying to the Community Plant Variety Office. In order to obtain plant variety protection in Europe, there are several requirements which must be met by the variety.

A divisional patent application is one created when a ‘parent’ application is divided in order to seek protection for subject matter disclosed, but not (or no longer) claimed, in the parent application. A properly filed divisional retains the filing and priority date of the parent application, but thereafter is treated independently. A European divisional application is limited to member states designated in the parent application at the time the divisional was filed.

Under the so-called ‘Bolar’ exemption, clinical trials for generics and biosimilars are exempt from infringement. In some European countries, including the UK, the exemption even extends to innovative products.

The 11th of February is The International Day of Women and Girls in Science.  To mark this day, and honour the effort the global community has made in inspiring and engaging women and girls in science, technology, maths and engineering, we wanted to add our voices, as the lack of visibility of female role models is one of the key factors that contribute to gender stereotypes across these industries, which can influence a girl’s choice in deciding whether to pursue an education or career in STEM.

The European Commission has called on EU member states to rapidly roll out the long proposed unitary patent system. This means that the Unified Patent Court (UPC) could be operational and Unitary Patents available in early 2022.

Lewis Hamilton has recently been crowned Formula One World Champion for a record-equalling seventh time but, move from the race track to the slightly less glamorous arena that is trade mark law, and things are not looking quite so rosy.  A recent appeal decision from the EU Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) has rejected the F1 driver’s attempt to cancel a third party trade mark registration for HAMILTON.  This decision could, in turn, have a serious impact on any commercial plans the driver may have for selling watches bearing his name.

In this episode we look at a range of important IP topics not yet covered by our previous episodes and which any size of company should consider as a way of protecting and using their IP to help achieve their corporate goals.

We can all undoubtedly learn a lot from Greta Thunberg – whether that’s greater awareness of the extent of the climate crisis, how we can take steps to reduce our own environmental impact or the power and influence of youth activism. But what does her story tell us about trade marks?

In this podcast episode, Dehns Partner and Oppositions expert Laura Ramsay takes a look at Oppositions and how the system works in Europe