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2011 was the year of global financial crisis and recession and, sad to say, many expect for 2012 this situation to go even worse, with what in the Internet is called Financial Crisis 2.0 looming over the horizon. (December 2011)
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Our Christmas donation 2011 was given to
"Nachbar in Not" (Neighbor in Need) and
"SOS-Children's Village". (December 2011)
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| About the dissimilarity of wine and ham |
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Some of the more vinophile IP enthusiasts might have heard of young Austrian wine called "Junker" coming from southern Styria. Already in 1986 some wineries from Styria joined together to the sell young white wine from Styria under a common name and a joint advertising campaign. An advertising agency developed the label "Styrian Junker". The marketing of the new wine was successful, so more and more Styrian wine growers were interested in collaborating. This led to the founding of the plaintiff, a common marketing agency, according to whose statutes the protection and promotion of Styrian wine is aimed. In 1996 the trade mark "Steirischer Junker" ("Styrian Junker") for wines (class 33) was applied for and registered; in 2004 the same word mark was registered for foods (class 30) without filing a proof of the reputation of the mark. (November 2011)
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| Protection of merchandising articles strengthened |
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In a recent decision the Austrian Supreme Court changed its case law with respect to merchandising articles. In the present case the defendant sold souvenir plates showing one of the famous Lipizzaner white horses of the Spanish horse riding school in Vienna. Below the picture of the horse the text "Spanische Reitschule" (Spanish Riding School) appeared. However, "Spanische Reitschule" was registered as a trade mark for the operating company of the Spanish horse riding school in Vienna. Accordingly, the trade mark owner filed an infringement action. (October 2011)
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| Trade Mark Infringement Action by Competitors |
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A merchant (not related to the firm Puma) in the perfume market sued a competitor for infringement of one of Puma's trade marks (September 2011)
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| Trade Mark Use with Comparative Advertising |
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We can report an interesting decision of the Austrian Supreme Court (Oberster Gerichtshof (OGH)), applying the decisions of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) under C-532/06 on 02 Holdings Limited and
C-487/07 L'Oreal to a specific case in Austria. (August 2011)
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| Fraudulent requests for payment relating to Patent and Trademark applications |
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At regular intervals, patent and trademark applicants are confronted with fraudulent requests for payment. The fraudulent attempts are usually designed similarly, the scammers take the address data of the applicants and the relevant details of a patent or trademark application from the public registers and contact the applicants directly, requesting payment of a not inconsiderable amount (usually about € 1.000,-) for the alleged registration of their application. (July 2011)
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| Paradigm Shift on the Inventiveness Requirement of Utility Models |
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Austria is one of the countries which offers protection for technical inventions not only via patents but also utility models. When the Austrian legislator enacted the first Utility Model Act in 1994 he commented the requirement of inventiveness for utility models was lower than that for patents. (June 2011)
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| Advocate General gives opinion on SPCs |
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Memantine, a drug developed by Merz back in the 1960s, had been on the market in Germany even before September 1, 1976, when it was authorised on the basis of Article 3(7) of the AMG 1976 on the basis of transitional arrangements, provided for under the national legislation transposing Directive 65/65, which exempted medicinal products already on the market from the application of the Community authorisation procedure for a period of 12 years. This old German transitional authorisation expired on January 1, 1990, however, Merz remained on the German market until July 9, 2002. (May 2011)
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| No trade mark protection for the famous mixed drink "FLÜGERL" |
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Everybody who has ever been to Austria for skiing holidays, is very likely to have come across the famous mixed drink "FLÜGERL"; a "FLÜGERL" is a shot-like drink consisting of a RED BULL® and red or white vodka and is very commonly offered at après-ski huts in Austrian ski resorts. The trade mark "FLÜGERL" was registered for non-alcoholic drinks (class 32) as well as for alcoholic drinks (class 33). (April 2011)
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| Scope of Protection of Renowned Marks |
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On the basis of its RED BULL- and BULL-marks for alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks and class 3 goods like perfumes, the firm behind RED BULL has requested cancellation of the word mark PITBULL and the device mark showing in the center the head of a pit-bull terrier with the word PITBULL above it and below the words "get the Power". (March 2011)
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Sonn & Partner offers consolatory letter. (March 2011)
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| No declaratory action solely based on invalidity of IP rights |
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There are countries, e.g. the United States, where it is common to file a declaratory action with the courts solely based on the ground that the IP right of the defendant is invalid. This is not possible in Austria, decided now the Austrian Supreme Court (OGH). (February 2011)
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| Austrian Patent Office: Significant increase in fees as part of the Budget Framework Act |
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The Austrian Parliament has enacted the Budget Framework Act shortly before the end of the year. Part of the Budget Framework Act was also an amendment to the Patent Office Fees Act. As part of this change, the Parliament has now adopted some substantial fee increases. (January 2011)
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NEWS |
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05/2013
Demerger and Company name dispute
» more
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04/2013
Remuneration for employee inventions in a group of companies
» more
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03/2013
Take it e@sy
» more
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