Specialists in Intellectual Property Law

Patents and utility models protect technical inventions that are new and commercially applicable and are based on an inventive activity. They give the owner the sole right to use the protected invention. Nobody is allowed to manufacture, offer for sale, market, use or import or own products for these purposes that make use of the protected technical method.

Employee invention law seeks to balance the interests of employers and such employees who have invented something patentable or utility patentable or have made a (non-protectable) technical suggestion for improvement within the scope of their employment. It governs in particular the transfer of rights to the employee invention to the employer and the remuneration to be paid by the employer to the employee in return for them. This way, employee invention law protects the inventor who is in a dependent employment relationship.

Rights to commercial designations (trademarks, company designations, names, work titles) protect designations of goods and services of individuals and legal entities to the extent they are applicative to differentiate them from other goods and services. The owner has the sole right to forbid others from using an identical or confusingly similar designation.

Registered or non-registered design rights protect the outer design of two- or three-dimensional objects if this design is new and demonstrates individuality that differentiates it from the overall impression of another design. The owner has the exclusive right to use the design and can forbid others from using the protected design for another product without their permission. The prohibitive right extends to the manufacturing, offering for sale, marketing, importing and exporting as well as the using and possessing of such another product.

Copyright law protects creators of works of literature, science and art, in particular works of music, fine arts, of photographic works and film works in their intellectual and personal relationships to the work as well as in its usage and is intended to secure appropriate remuneration for the permitted use by others. The requirement for protection is the presence of a personal, intellectual invention by the creator. The creator has the exclusive right to use this work and can forbid others unpermitted exploitation. The right of publication is the exclusive right to reproduce and disseminate a work of literature or musical art and is acquired from the creator of the work via the publication agreement.

Art law is a legal cross-sectional matter which, besides copyright and copyright contract law, covers many different problem areas such as purchasing, auctioning and liability laws, the rights of the galleries and museums, art forgery, looted and stolen art as well as monument conservation and national heritage protection.

The right of fair trade serves the protection of co-competitors and consumers as well as the interest of the general public in unfalsified competition. Misleading, aggressive or harassing business activities by companies can be forbidden as unfair and thus impermissible. The industrial property protection based on competition law against unfair imitations and misrepresentations of origin complements industrial property law.

The manufacture, sales and advertising of food as well as feed, cosmetic products and utensils are subject to the regulations of food law that are meant to protect the market from health risks and deception. According to the law, the commercial placing or advertising of food on the market with misleading names, specification or presentation is prohibited.

When advertising drugs, medical products and cosmetics, the strict restrictions of the law on advertising medications must be observed. The statutory bans on advertising are meant to protect individuals from improper self-medication and improper use of medication caused by false advertising promises.

In line with the convergence of the media, IT law covers especially the areas of EDP, computer and Internet law, e-commerce, and telecommunications law as well data protection law and IT security. Data protection law in particular provides a hold against undesired and above all commercial use of one’s own personal data.

Press and media law stipulates the requirements and limitations of permissible reporting and is frequently characterized by the consideration of conflicting interests. On the one hand, there is the freedom of opinion and of the press of the expresser, on the other hand, the individual protected interests of the person affected by certain reporting or the collective need for protection of certain user groups such as children and adolescents.

Common personal law is a comprehensive defensive right developed by legislation to protect the closer personal life sphere and its basic conditions against state or private interventions. It is meant to secure an autonomous area of one’s own lifestyle for the individual in that the individual fundamentally decides for themselves how they present themselves towards third parties and whether and how they step forward with their own opinions. Common personal law ensures the greatest protection against attacks by the media in the private sphere of an individual citizen.