and other services
Application procedure / Grant procedure
If you have invented a technical solution to solve a technical problem by technical means, we will prepare a proper patent or utility model application for you, which will provide you with customized and comprehensive protection for your idea. In the case of a patent application, after your idea has been filed with the German Patent and Trademark Office (DPMA) or the European Patent Office (EPO), we will conduct the patent prosecution for you and ensure, in continuous coordination with you, that your idea is granted as a patent in the best possible form during the examination procedure.
If you are seeking protection for a trademark or an aesthetic appearance (design), we will assist you both before the application is filed and after the application has been filed. We will provide you with advice to ensure that you obtain a protective right with a broad scope of protection that is optimally tailored to the desired purpose.
We also provide comprehensive advice on international patent applications and national patent applications abroad, so that you obtain the best possible strategy for protecting your idea abroad from both patent law and economic point of view. For the conduct of foreign proceedings, we have a large network of experienced correspondent attorneys with whom we have been cooperating successfully for many years.
Opposition proceedings
Within nine months after the publication of a patent grant, anyone, in case of unlawful taking only the infringed party, can file an opposition against the patent. An opposition may be based on the subject matter of the patent being unpatentable with regard to prior art, the subject matter being insufficiently disclosed (lack of reproducibility), an unlawful taking of the subject matter and/or that the subject matter extends beyond the original disclosure of the patent application.
If an opposition has been filed against your patent, we represent you before the opposition divisions of the German Patent and Trademark Office or the European Patent Office to defend your property right. If, on the other hand, a granted patent of a competitor disturbs you, we file an opposition on your behalf and conduct the opposition proceedings for you.
Within a period of three months after the date of publication of the registration of a trademark, the owner of an older trademark or a business name/sign with an earlier seniority may file an opposition against the registration of the trademark. Within this period, opposition to the registration of the trademark may also be filed by persons entitled to claim rights under a protected indication of origin or a protected geographical indication with earlier seniority.
If an opposition has been filed against your trademark or if you wish to file an opposition against another person’s trademark, we will conduct the opposition proceedings for you.
Furthermore, we offer monitoring of your trademark, in which we search selected registers for registrations of younger trademarks and identify younger trademarks for you that could potentially interfere with your trademark.
We also conduct for you cancellation proceedings (utility model, trademark), nullity proceedings and infringement proceedings.