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FAQ
Patents, trademarks, designs – what are the differences?
Patents shall be granted for technical inventions which are new,
involve an inventive step and are susceptible of industrial application.
A trademark is a sign which can distinguish the goods and services
of one undertaking from those of another. Words, letters, numbers, and
pictures, sounds and three-dimensional configurations and other packaging
may be protected as trade marks, provided they comply with the provisions
of the Trade Mark Law. A sign can be protected as a trademark by
recording it in the register kept at the German Patent and Trade Mark
Office. In order to apply for registration it is necessary to file a
request giving certain details.
What are the filing requirements?
- Name and complete address of the applicant.
- List of goods and/or services.
- Representation of the mark
- No examples are required for word marks if no particular
typeface is to be protected
- For a word/device mark, a
device mark, or a colored mark, four identical
two-dimensional representations are required.
- For
three-dimensional marks, four identical two-dimensional views are
required. These views may be filed as photographs or as line drawings.
Up to six plain views of the mark may be filed. This also applies to
thread marks.
- Acoustic marks must be filed on a sound
carrier together with four identical representations of the mark in
sheet music (or, should this not be possible, four sonograms).
In cases b) to d), we require one additional representation of the mark
for our files.
- If convention priority is claimed
- Priority data: date, country and serial number(s) of the basic
application(s).
- Uncertified copy (copies) of the basic application(s) or
priority document(s).
The design of products and of packaging and advertising goods has
gained an ever increasing importance for the market position of companies
of all branches. Generally, protection of a design patent is
achieved through registration with a competent authority in each country
where protection is desired. Additionally, under the Hague agreement, a
procedure for an international registration is offered based on a single
international deposit. Moreover, starting April 01, 2003 design protection
may also be achieved throughout the European Union by a single deposition
with the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (OHIM) at
Alicante, Spain. |
TRADEMARKS
Kaufmann & Stumpf