Business Law German Patent Law

German Patent Law reflects a long history in Germany, one whose laws on patents and other forms of protection have been adopted by other countries like Japan. Up until the adoption of the German Utility Model Act (1986/1994), German Patent Law was distinct in one major way. In Germany, it was only possible to be granted a patent if you invented something that was truly new. Involved in this concept was the criterion that something worth a patent must exceed current state-of-the-art technology. For example, Amazon.com's "one-click-shopping" would not qualify. As the intellectual property law firm of Ladas & Parry (2003) assert, "German Patent Law required that for patent protection an invention must not only be new, but represent a technical step forward" (Germany, 1).

It is most often intellectual property, an intangible product of the mind's efforts, which is protected by patent, copyright, trademark and trade secret law. On one level intellectual property is akin to material or personal property. As such intellectual property can be sold, purchased, licensed, or transferred like personal property. Patent protection is one of the most common forms of intellectual property protection. According to Auerbach (1994), patent protection affords protection to more than the actual invention:

Patents provide a means for protecting the physical embodiments of certain classes of new and useful inventions. It is the broadest fo

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ods, those needed to achieve a technical outcome, and those that add significant value to the product or services. According to Chapter 1, Article 3(1), signs capable of being protected by trade mark also include the following: Any signs particularly words, including personal names, designs, letters, numerals, sound marks, three-dimensional configurations, including the shape of goods or their wrapping as well as other packaging, including colors and combination of colors, which are capable of distinguishing the goods or services of one undertaking from those of other undertakings (German, 1998, 1). Copyright protection differs from patent protection in a number of ways. In general copyright protection is granted for a longer duration than patent protection. So, too, patent protection covers the functional and non-artistic aspects of intellectual property, while copyright law only affords protection from infringement of non-functional aspects of an invention or idea. German Copyright Law was last amended in 1998. Under the German Copyright Law of 1998, the following types of works are protected by copyright: Article 2 Protected Works (1) Protected literary, scientific and artistic works: 1. works of language, such as writing

Category: Government - B