The IPR GROUP Team attended the Annual Meeting of the German Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property (GRUR), which held in Frankfurt am Main from 25 to 28 September 2019. Being the most frequent and popular German IP event, this year’s Annual meeting brought together over 800 professionals from more than 30 countries and covered almost all areas of intellectual property with particular focus on scientific, in-depth discussion of topical issues.
IP experts from academia, courts, private practice, industry, and institutions such as the German Federal Court of Justice, the Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection and the EPO, presented and discussed current developments of intellectual property law in Germany, Europe and the international sphere, with the audience.
In particular, the event addressed the changes required by the new EU Copyright Directive, which have been adopted and enforced this year. The new Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market includes major revisions as to how third-party content can be used online, and the level of responsibility online platforms have in regulating copyright infringement by individual users. Member states have two years to change their laws to meet the Directive’s requirements, thus the subject topic was of utmost interest to the attendees.
In an increasingly globalized world economy, the demands placed on the European Patent Office are growing steadily in terms of their diversity and complexity and one of the main challenges at the moment, is to ensure that the EPO achieves sustainable progress in a rapidly changing world. And so, the conference Vice-president of the EPO, Dr. Christoph Ernst, presented the EPO Strategic Plan 2023 to the audience at the conference.
The special committees and working groups also discussed such topics as: Influences of competition law on trademark law; Current jurisprudence of the Federal Court of Justice on trademark and competition law; The injunction in patent law; Recent judgments of the Federal Constitutional Court and the Federal Court of Justice on recalls, the right to fair hearing; and much more.
The event provided a great opportunity for the exchange of professional experiences, and also allowed participants to broaden their knowledge from in-depth discussions as they met with friends and colleagues.
The attorneys of the IPR GROUP would like to thank the event organizers for the well-organized conference and express their appreciation to the participants for a productive and informative time together.
