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It can be traced back to times before the
establishment of what may be called the first
modern law for protection of inventions in Austria,
the "Privilegiengesetz" of 1852, as it is
on the basis of which professional representation
in patent matters was officially started.
At that time, usually inventors, who themselves had
successfully taken the steps needed to obtain own
"technical privileges" i.e. patents, on their own
inventions, were in charge of handling patent cases for
others. For instance, the ancestors of our office came from
the machinery and textile field, the high-tech area of these
days.
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Frederick Paget, brother of Sir James Paget, personal
physician of Queen Victoria (and discoverer of "Paget's
disease", a rare type of breast cancer), was the founder
of the first office of patent representations ("Erstes
Privilegienbureau") in Austria in 1851. Right from the
very beginning, he established his office in the centre of
Vienna, in Riemergasse, where our office today still is. Soon
thereafter, he was joined by his son, Charles Octavius Paget,
and by Julius Moeller. Among their early clients were such
luminaries as Thomas A. Edison, Henry Bessemer and George M.
Pullmann, all of whom entrusted our office to file for grant
of their technical privileges.
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In 1886, Mr. John George Hardy joined the office as a
partner. His father, John Hardy, was the inventor of the
Hardy-Vacuum-brake; J. G. Hardy himself had continued
working on this brake and was honoured at the World Fair in
Paris 1878 with the gold-medal for his new inventions
relating to the brake.
At that time – the end of the 19th century –
major reforms were initiated relating to industrial property
protection in Austria. C. O. Paget and J. G. Hardy
were members of various working groups as representatives of
their profession. The efforts of all these working groups led
in 1897 to today's Patent Law and the foundation of the
Patent Office in Austria. Together with their partner
J. Moeller, they were members of the Austrian
Intellectual Property Law Association already when the German
and Austrian national interest groups formed a Joint
Committee and decided to create AIPPI, which held its first
Congress in 1897 in Vienna. The then partners of our firm
were among the leading participants of this Congress.
With the new Austrian Patent Law of 1897, a new regulation
for the profession of patent attorneys came into force.
Anyone, who wanted to become a patent attorney, had to pass
an examination. From the very beginning J. G. Hardy was
one of the two representatives of patent attorneys on the
Examination Board.
Between World Wars I and II our office – then under
the name Baumann, Bing & Lant – was the seat of the
Patent Attorneys Institute, and its partners created, and
were the first editors of the journal called
"Österreichische Blätter", which to this day is the
leading publication in the field of intellectual property in
Austria.
Mr. Robert Ettenreich, when he joined our office, was a
famous professor at the University of Technology in Vienna.
When Austria was annexed to Germany in 1938, all of his
partners were removed from the Register of Patent Attorneys.
He himself had to give in to the pressure of that time and
had to move our office from Vienna to Berlin, Kurfürstendamm.
With the restoration of the industrial property system in
Austria in 1947, the Patent Attorneys Register reopened and
Mr. Ettenreich was immediately enrolled, whereupon he moved
our office back to Vienna, Riemergasse.
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After Dr. Ettenreich's death, Dr. Alexander Sonn, who had
been enrolled in the Patent Attorneys Register since 1947,
and who had worked in another large patent attorneys' office
in Vienna since 1919, took over and continued. He carried on
with the tradition of our office in that he worked
intensively for the development of the protection of
industrial property in Austria and on an international scale,
as a series of publications in the leading journals for
intellectual property rights have shown. His book on Austrian
Trademark Law is still highly renowned.
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In 1962,
» Heinrich Pawloy
joined our office as a partner specialised in organic
chemistry, after having been a member of our office since
1954.
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After the death of Alexander Sonn in
1971, his son,
» Helmut Sonn,
member of our office since 1966, continued his father's
work both as a partner and on national and international
developments concerning the protection of intellectual
property.
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In May 1978
» Arnulf Weinzinger
joined the partnership after having worked in our office
for many years.
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When Austria joined the European Patent Convention in
1979, all three partners became
European Patent Attorneys on May 1, 1979.
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At the beginning of 1992,
the offices of Messrs. Sonn, Pawloy & Weinzinger
merged with that of Dipl.-Ing. Gustav Wolfram. Mr.
Wolfram originally established his office in 1955 and
became well-known in Austria and all over the world,
especially in the fields of chemistry and chemical and
mechanical engineering. He was on many occasions asked by
the Commercial Court of Vienna to serve as Court expert
in patent litigation. Since January 1, 1992 until his
death in 1998, he acted as counsellor to the
partnership.
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Continuing with the tradition to succeed his father,
» Peter Pawloy
became partner of our office in
1995 after having passed the
European Qualifying Examination (1994) and Austrian
finals (1995).
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In 1997,
» Daniel Alge
joined the partnership after passing his European
Qualifying Examination in 1995 and the Austrian
Examination in 1997.
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On January 1, 2000, Sonn,
Pawloy, Weinzinger & Wolfram merged with the office of
» Johann Köhler-Pavlik.
The office of Mr. Köhler-Pavlik was founded by his
father, Dipl.-Ing. Franz Köhler.
Franz Köhler, a construction engineer graduated from
the Technical University of Vienna, first served in the
imperial Austrian army under emperor Franz Joseph I as a
chief lieutenant and was honoured several times. After
World War I, he entered the field of intellectual
property and established his own patent attorney's office
in 1926. After World War II, Franz Köhler was a driving
force in the committee for re-erecting and -establishing
the Austrian Patent Office.
Mr. Johann Köhler-Pavlik joined, having been first in
industry after graduation in 1951, the office of his
father in 1953 and gradually enlarged it. Besides a
trademark and law department, the office of Mr.
Köhler-Pavlik especially had a specialised mechanical and
electronical engineering department of high
reputation.
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In 2001,
» Georg Heger
became partner of our office after having passed the
European Qualifying Examination in 1999 and the Austrian
Qualifying Examination for Patent Attorneys in March
2001.
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With effect from January 1,
2003 the legal form of our office
has been transformed to meet the requirements of the
future: as "Sonn & Partners" ("Sonn
& Partner Patentanwälte").
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In the beginning of 2006,
» Rainer Beetz
became partner of our office after having been with us
since 1999.
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NEWS |
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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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02/2013
Broken wings
» more
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