{"id":8173,"date":"2021-03-26T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-03-26T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.maiwald.eu\/maiwald-blog\/ip-marking-in-germany-rules-of-thumb\/"},"modified":"2021-10-13T15:45:17","modified_gmt":"2021-10-13T13:45:17","slug":"ip-marking-in-germany-rules-of-thumb","status":"publish","type":"maiwald-blog","link":"https:\/\/www.maiwald.eu\/jp\/maiwald-blog\/ip-marking-in-germany-rules-of-thumb\/","title":{"rendered":"IP Marking in Germany: Rules of Thumb"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>In Germany IP marking is not mandatory. However, IP marking may have the advantage, besides marketing aspects, that competitors are warned of the IP protection and that a malicious act of the competitor can be more easily argued before court, in case of patent infringement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, when products comprise any type of patent marking, the IP owner\/distributor is legally obliged to provide information of the granted patent or patent application upon request by third parties (\u00a7 146 PatG). The same applies to utility model markings (\u00a7 30 GebrMG) and design markings (\u00a7 59 DesignG). Moreover, it should be kept in mind that erroneous, deceptive or false IP marking is illegal under unfair competition law according to \u00a7 5 S. 2 Nr. 3 UWG.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to German case law the English term \u201cpatent pending\u201d, or any abbreviation of it, will be generally interpreted as if a patent has been granted. Thus, marking a product with \u201cpatent pending\u201d when a corresponding patent has not been granted will be seen as false IP marking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The following&nbsp;<strong>suggestions for patent marking<\/strong>&nbsp;are usually acceptable in Germany:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The patent application has been published:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><em>Patent angemeldet; Patentanmeldung offengelegt; DP angem.; Pat. angem.;<\/em><\/li><li><em>Europa-Patent angem.; EU-Pat. angem..<\/em><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The patent has been granted in Germany:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><em>Deutsches Bundespatent; Deutsches Patent; patentiert; patentamtlich gesch\u00fctzt, patentrechtlich gesch\u00fctzt; patented; Pat.; pat.; DBP; DBuPat; DP.<\/em><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The patent has been granted in Germany and another foreign country:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><em>international patentiert; internationaler Patentschutz;<\/em><\/li><li><em>Europ\u00e4isches Patent; EP\u00dc-Patent; EPA-Patent; Europa-Patent;<\/em><\/li><li><em>patentiert; patentrechtlich gesch\u00fctzt; patented; Pat.; pat.; int.&nbsp;<\/em><em>Pat..<\/em><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The patent has been granted in a foreign country, but not in Germany:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><em>ausl\u00e4ndische Patente<\/em>;<\/li><li><em>Patent&nbsp;<\/em>+ name of country of protection&nbsp;<em>(e.g. US-Patent)<\/em>; EP\u00dc-Patent +&nbsp;<em>name of the European country of protection<\/em>.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Last but not least, marking with \u00ae and&nbsp;<sup>TM<\/sup>&nbsp;commonly used in English speaking countries for trademarks is also not obligatory in Germany and does not belong to the common German practice. However, if used both of these symbols are interpreted as if the trademark is registered in Germany.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-8173","maiwald-blog","type-maiwald-blog","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maiwald.eu\/jp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/maiwald-blog\/8173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maiwald.eu\/jp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/maiwald-blog"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maiwald.eu\/jp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/maiwald-blog"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.maiwald.eu\/jp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/maiwald-blog\/8173\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10653,"href":"https:\/\/www.maiwald.eu\/jp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/maiwald-blog\/8173\/revisions\/10653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maiwald.eu\/jp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}