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Google Trends for 'Piratenpartei'

The various Pirate Parties which now are active in a large number of countries demand - specific for every country - various modifications of the current system of Intellectual Property law. Hence, they clearly are of relevance for IP professionals. Today I would like to provide an update on the fate of the German branch of the Pirate Party movement, the Piratenpartei.

Today the German Supreme Court (Bundesgerichtshof, BGH) has published the full reasons of the decision in re Xa ZB 20/08 dated April 22, 2010. The decision is related to German patent application DE10232674 filed by Siemens AG on July 18, 2002.

As I recently had posted a report on the state of the campaign for the national general elections, I now feel obliged to provide a few sentences about the results.

Well, on a macroscopic scale there will be a Government again chaired by Angela Merkel of CDU/CSU and supported in a coalition with Liberal Democrats (FDP, Freie Demokratische Partei) under Mr Westerwelle. CDU/CSU suffered slight losses, ending up at 34% or so, but FDP have gained approximately 5% and will end up at about 15% or so.

Due to certain particularities of the German election law, CDU/CSU will gain significantly more seats in the Parliament than according to their share in votes ('Überhangmandate'). Hence, it is expected that the new Government will be supported by a strong majority of seats in the Bundestag.

The Social Democrats (SPD) have slumped by more than 11% and are now expecting to see a disastrous share of about 23%. The Leftists (Die Linke) can expect to gain about 12%, whereas the Greens (Bündnis 90/Die Grünen) will get approximately 10%.

After the most meaningless and boring election campaign ever the Germans are now heading towards the national general election to be held on next Sunday: Three days to go.

In today's issue of the German Official Gazette ('Bundesgesetzblatt Jahrgang 2009 Teil I Nr. 50, ausgegeben zu Bonn am 4. August 2009') we find the publication of an Act for Simplification and Modernisation of Patent Law ('Patentrechtsmodernisierungsgesetz'). For a review of its contents, see here. In accordance with Article 9 thereof, the Act will enter into force on

October 01, 2009.

Affected areas of law are in particular patent nullification proceedings and employee inventions. Moreover, additional fees are introduced for the eleventh and each further claim of a German patent application.

Moreover, another Act amending the German Act on registered designs ('Geschmacksmustergesetz') has also been published today. It confers the German implementation of the provisions of the Hague System (day of entry into force tbd).

Last fall I had reported that after a substantial amount of preparatory work undertaken by German Ministry of Justice ("Bundesjustizministerium") under Ms Brigitte Zypries, the German Government ("Bundeskabinett") had finalised a Draft Bill for Unification and Modernisation of Patent Law ("Entwurf eines Gesetzes zur Vereinfachung und Modernisierung des Patentrechtes"; in German only).

Highligts were:

• To reduce the current huge backlog of pending nullification appeal cases ("Nichtigkeitsberufungen"), the German Federal Supreme Court is set to be changed from an instance fully revising factual and legal points to an instance competent substantially only for legal points. Hence, in future there will be only a single instance where facts and evidence can be presented, the Federal Patents Court ("Bundespatentgericht"). The court system will simply be cut back by eliminating the option of presenting fresh facts and evidence during appeal in patent nullification cases;
• Improvements concerning the legal basis for implementation of electronic workflows in throughout the German Patent and Trade Mark Office, the Federal Patents Court as well as the Federal Supreme Court;
• Cancellation of a current provision of German Patent Act according to which any person who has brought an infringement action may bring a further action against the defendant on account of the same or a similar act on the basis of another patent only if, through no fault of his own, he was not in a position to assert that patent also in the earlier suit.
• Broadening of the Opposition procedure in German Trade Mark Law; also non-registered elder rights shall be eligible as a basis for a Notice of Opposition;
• Reform of the German Act on Employees' inventions ("Arbeitnehmererfindungsgesetz") by introducing a legal fiction to the effect that claiming by the employer of an invention made by an employee is assumed per default.

Today I have seen a press release from German Government announcing that this Bill was approved by Parliament just today. Entry into force will depend on how fast the Bill will get the signature of the Bundespräsident (President of the Federal Republic of Germany) in order to be ready for advertising in the Bundesgesetzblatt (Official Federal Law Gazette).

Below find links to some more related materials (in German only, sorry):

• Protocol of the debate in the German Bundestag on January 22, 2009;
• Statement of the Upper Chamber (Bundesrat) of the German Parliament;
• Counter-Statement of the German Government in response to the statement of the Upper Chamber (Bundesrat) of the German Parliament
• Report an Vote of the Legal Commission of the German Parliament ('Rechtsausschuss')

At present, the German code of civil procedure (Zivilprozessordnung, ZPO) stipulates in Sect. 32 that for lawsuits in cases of tortious acts a court in the circuit of which the tortious act has been committed shall be deemed competent.

In view of the ubiquitousness of the Internet, any of the various courts spread throughout Germany and generally comptentent for tort matters can be selected by a plaintiff when playing Forum Shopping. As it is well known amongst law experts which of the regional or district courts might be more than others inclined to show a tendency towards the plaintiff's general position, the defendant might be in a less privilged situation.

Now Heise Newsticker reports that the German Ministry of Justice is mooting a Bill to stop this kind of Forum Shopping for Internet-related tort cases.

(Foto (C) by hartboy under a CC license via Flickr.)