If secondary protection of innovation takes your fancy ...

Yesterday a rather over-excited Kat had a little rant about the dispute between Bericap and Plastinnova over a Hungarian utility model registration, which started in the Patent Office, ran all the way up to the Hungarian Supreme Court, started all over again at the Patent Office and ended up in the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) via the Hungarian Court of Appeal.  And now that the CJEU has given its ruling, the case is on its way back to the trial court, to which the Court of Appeal remitted it.  All of this goes to show how valuable even the humble legal device of utility model protection can be.

Today the same Kat, still excited, is happy to tell you all about a lovely seminar on -- you guessed it -- secondary protection of innovations, which is coming up early next year, this being the first of two such events to mark the cooperation between the Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice (JIPLP) and GRUR Int.   The second seminar will be held in Munich this March; final details should soon be available.

Details of the London seminar are as follows:

Title: Secondary Protection for Innovation in Germany: Problem or Solution? 

Date and time: Tuesday, 22 January 2013 

Venue: the London office of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP, 65 Fleet Street, London EC4Y 1HT. 

Programme: 

3.30pm: Registration  

4.00pm: Welcome from the hosts (Justin Watts, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP) 

4.05pm: Welcome from JIPLP (Jeremy Phillips, JIPLP editor-in-chief and IP consultant, Olswang LLP)  

4.10pm: Secondary protection of innovations in Germany: what are the advantages? (Wolrad Prinz zu Waldeck und Pyrmont, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP)  

4.40pm: Secondary protection of innovations in Germany: is there another side to the story? (Karsten Königer, Harmsen Utescher) 

5.10pm: Panel discussion, followed by questions from the floor. 

Panellists who have agreed to participate are Ian Karet (Linklaters LLP), Christopher Stothers (Arnold & Porter LLP) and Darren Smyth (EIP), respectively representing expertise in litigation, competition issues and patent drafting. More may be added in due course.

6.00pm: Chairman’s closing summary, followed by refreshments. 

The seminar will probe the scope of protection accorded to innovations by the German Gebrauchsmuster, its advantages and disadvantages, its attractiveness to Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises ('SMEs') and its possible role as a model for adoption elsewhere in Europe. Regard will also be had to the experiences of other jurisdictions in which innovation patents, utility models and petty patents are available. 

Registration: all are welcome to attend and there is no registration fee. 

 Training points: CPD points will be awarded for attendance at this event. Further information will be provided once it is available.

To attend: please email Jeremy Phillips here, with the subject line "Secondary Innovation", stating your name and affiliation. Your email will be acknowledged and there are no further formalities. If you subsequently find that you are unable to attend, please let us know so that your place can be allocated to someone else.