Intellectual Property

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European countries have pursued the project of creating a Unitary Patent and a Unified Patent Court (UPC), since the early seventies. Success seemed within reach in 2013 when the international Agreement on a Unified Patent Court (UPCA) was concluded and subsequently ratified by several states. However, in 2017 the project came to a grinding halt…

On February 6, 2020 the case management judge of the Paris High Court (Tribunal Judiciaire) made a decision that is of great importance in terms of both the legal qualification of the undertaking of the owner of patents essential to the implementation of standards to grant to anyone a fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) license,…

The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York recently invalidated Western Express Bancshares, LLC’s (Western Express) U.S. Patent No. 8,498,932 relating to a method of transferring funds through a bankcard. This decision was the result of a motion to dismiss a patent infringement action brought by Western Express against Green Dot Corporation…

Within two weeks, Miami International Holding Inc. and its subsidiaries (MIAX) have attained five victories before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

The PTAB declared that five Nasdaq patents (U.S. Patent Nos. 6,618,707, 7,246,093, 7,921,051, 7,747,506, and 8,386,371), related to electronic securities trading systems, are invalid under…

On 9 September 2019, the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (Bundesministerium für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung – BMZ) introduced a new, state-regulated environmental label for “Green Button” (Grüner Knopf) certified textiles with a press release. The BMZ also launched the official Green Button website, which is available in German at http://www.gruener-knopf.de/.

In a nutshell

The Green Button is a logo that serves as evidence that the textile products concerned were manufactured and placed on the market in a socially and environmentally sustainable manner. The state is responsible for determining the requirements for Green Button certification.

The Green Button is intended to help consumers and public procurement agencies in identifying such textile products. The logo can be attached directly to certified textile products to demonstrate that the products meet the demanding social and environmental requirements.Continue Reading Germany launches new, state-approved label for environmentally certified “Green Button” textiles (Grüner Knopf)

The Summer 2019 Edition of the quarterly IT & Data Protection Newsletter by Reed Smith Germany has just been released:

English version

German version

In this edition we cover the following topics:

  1. ECJ and GDPR: Another decision hitting social media activities by companies
  2. EDPB does not opt for changes to EU standard contractual clauses
  3. EU

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The Spring 2019 Edition of the quarterly IT & Data Protection Newsletter by Reed Smith Germany has just been released.

We provide updates on cookies and tracking tools, Facebook fan pages, fines under GDPR, influencer marketing, email encryption, platform provider obligations, framing, the new German Trade Secrets Act, and more. The newsletter also includes multiple…

The Winter 2019 edition of the quarterly IT & Data Protection Newsletter by Reed Smith Germany has just been released.

We provide updates on Facebook Custom Audiences, social plug-ins, influencer advertising, withdrawal right information, the EU copyright law reform and more. The newsletter also includes multiple recommended reads on the GDPR.

We hope you enjoy

Germany is a leading jurisdiction for patent litigation, yet it is still not popular for those bringing trade secrets disputes. Frankfurt partner Dr Anette Gärtner has published a case comment, “German Federal Supreme Court: Hohlfasermembranspinnanlage II — Enforcement of Claims for Misuse of Trade Secrets”, looking at the recent Supreme Court decision regarding the misappropriation…