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BLOG@IP::JURPatent Attorney Axel H Horns' Blog on Intellectual Property Law.
Thursday, January 19, 2006Germany to Amend the Rules of Patent Opposition Proceedings.The German Government has launched a Draft Bill to amend the regulations on patent opposition proceedings within the German Patents Act ("Patentgesetz") as well as to amend the German Act on Official Fees of the German Patent and Trade Mark Office ("Patentkostengesetz"). Furthermore, a number of other IP-related German Acts are also affected. The text is available in German only.At the time being, patent opposition proceedings of the first instance are held before the German Federal Patents Court ("Bundespatentgericht"). This was made a couple of years ago in order to utilise spare capacities of the Federal Patents Court and to reduce the backlogs of the German Patent and Trade Mark Office. It is now intended to give back such proceedings to the German Patent and Trade Mark Office by July 01, 2006. However, in certain cases parties to the proceedings can request a transter of the proceedings of the first instance to the Federal Patents Court, e.g. if the proceedings before the German Patents and Trade Mark Office take too long a time (i.e. more than 15 months) or if an important legal question is to be decided. Furthermore, the Draft Bill provides the removal of the procedural option for the bearer of a patent to divide a patent during opposition proceedings which had favoured the patent bearer and had caused much headache for the Courts because at the time being it is possible to divide a patent until opposition proceedings are closed, forming a divisional application from the full disclosure of the original application. If so requested by a party to patent opposition proceedings, oral proceedings will in future be mandatory. The Draft Bill will have to pass the German Parliament before entering into force. Obviously, the Government is confident to manage this before the summer of this year. Technorati Tags: Patents, Law, Germany
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