IP Network News

On the second of December 2008гnew Law on protection against unfair competition published in the State gazette in issue , 102 from 28 november 2008г. The Commission will create an electronic register for its acts for better clarity of the procedures. The files accepted for proceedings before the entry into force of the new law […]

The European Patent Office (EPO) has publishing its two millionth patent application. The application, filed on 7 June 2007 by the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) in Lyngby, describes a microbial fuel cell which can be used to produce electricity from wastewater. The EPO received its first application in 1978. The one millionth application was […]

Benoît Battistelli is appointed as its next Chairman of the Administrative Council of the European Patent Organisation (EPO). Mr Battistelli is Director General of France’s I nstitut national de la propriété industrielle (INPI), and has served as Deputy Chairman of the EPO’s Administrative Council since 2006. His three-year term as Chairman of the Council will […]

The fees of the Office of Harmonization of the Internal Market (OHIM) are going to be reduced. This decision was adopted by Member State ministers at the meeting of the EU Competitiveness Council in Brussels on 21 May. The European Commission is called on to work out the details of the fee reduction, in particular […]

Following the adoption of the new .eu top level domain name by the European Parliament in April 2002, the European Commission decided in January 2005 that all EU institutions, bodies and agencies would be identified on the Internet using third level domain names under ‘ .europa.eu’. On 9 May 2006 , in line with the […]

On 11 June 2007, the parliament voted to ratify and accede to the European Patent Convention (EPC). Norway will deposit the instrument of ratification with the German government in October and it will become a member of the EPO at the beginning of next year.

DIRECTOR GENERAL OF WIPO AND PRESIDENT OF BULGARIA HIGHLIGHT THE ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE OF CREATIVE INDUSTRIES 29.07.2008 The huge economic potential of the creative industries was at the heart of talks between the Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), Dr. Kamil Idris and the President of the Republic of Bulgaria, Mr. Georgi Parvanov, […]

The protection of new plant varieties has been an important part of the IPR protection strategy in China. The country launched the new regulations on protecting new plant varieties as early as 1997. On April 23, 1999 China acceded to the International Convention for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants and became the 39th […]

Special search services are already provided by the national offices of the European patent organization’s member states starting on 1st September. This step is result of the decision of on Administrative Council (28 June 2007) of the European Patent Organization to stop the EPO’s Special Search Programme. The decision is related to the establishment of […]

Angola became the 138th contracting state of the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) when it deposited its instrument of accession at WIPO on September 27, 2007. The Treaty will enter into force for Angola on December 27, 2007. The accession by Angola means that in any international application filed on or after December 27, 2007, Angola  will automatically […]

On October 17, 2007 in Grand Hotel Bulgaria in Sofia was held a conference “Harmonization of National Legislation in the Area of Competition- a Precondition for the Effective Implementation of the European Law”. During the conference the Commission for Protection of Competition presented a draft of the new Law on Protection of Competition which was […]

In the end of November the Dutch customs authorities confiscated 20 000 cut roses at the Schiphol Airport. The action was organized after the special alert from the company Kordes from Sparrieshoop, near Humburg, the biggest European rose breeder. The confiscated roses were from the varieties “Pascha” and “Duet”. They were produced by an Ethiopian […]

Since 1 January 2008 Croatia and Norway are the new members of European Patent Organization (EPO). The accession of these countries brings the number of EPO member states to 34. The EPO comprises now all 27 members of the European Union and Croatia, Iceland, Monaco, Norway, Liechtenstein, Switzerland and Turkey. More information: http://www.epo.org/topics/news/2008/20080101.html

In its annual report for the development of Kosovo (Kosovo under UNSCR 1244, 2006 Progress report) the European Commission concluded that protection of intellectual, industrial and commercial property in Kosovo is insufficient. “The area has not yet been given appropriate administrative and political attention. Intellectual property rights are infringed upon in Kosovo in a widespread […]

In March last year the European Commission adopted program titled “Enhancing the patent system in Europe”. Based on this document, the Slovenian EU Presidency states that it wishes to re-launch the efforts to create a Community Patent System. On March 12 the Council will discuss the new working document proposed by the Presidency: Community patent: […]