Secondary Protection for Innovation in Germany: would it work in the UK?

Secondary protection for innovations: if it works,
should we worry what it looks like?

Regular visitors to this weblog will now know, but new readers might not yet have learned of the cooperation between the Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice (JIPLP) with leading German intellectual property title GRUR Int.  Apart from an exchange of editorial content, which has already commenced this month, the two journals are inaugurating their relationship with two IP law seminars, one in London later this month, the other in Munich in March.

The Munich seminar, on the new European patent package and hosted by the German Patent and Trade Mark Office, is already fully booked, but there is still space for more registrants at the London event, details of which are as follows:

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 Watt, 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: Ian Karet (Linklaters LLP), Christopher Stothers (Arnold & Porter LLP), Darren Smyth (EIP) and Timo Minssen (University of Copenhagen), respectively representing expertise in litigation, competition issues, patent drafting and academia. 

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 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.