Repair, refill and recycle (in the following: repair) of physical goods is a necessity and a convenience – mending is better than ending, at least for the consumer. Where the goods to be repaired are patented, the question arises whether such act of repair infringes the patent, and under what...

The Berne Convention underscores the national treatment of foreign authors, allowing countries of the Union to protect designs through various means. Article 2(7) of the Convention (Berne) introduces a material reciprocity test, limiting copyright protection for works of applied art not...

This article takes a critical look at merger law and practice in the EU, the United States, and Germany regarding data-related transactions. It focuses on the current legal standard and evaluates the recent decision practice in these jurisdictions. This includes the increasing implementation of...

Patents relating to the human brain and its functions regularly fulfil the general patent requirements. In some cases, however, the inventions in question reveal considerable risks for the rights of individuals, but also for society as such, which have a hitherto unknown dimension and which have...

During the last decades, the focus of academic discourse on intellectual property rights has been on limitations and exceptions, with a strong accent on fundamental rights. However, until now such debates never involved protection of geographical indications under the sui generis system...

This article focuses on the ability to protect three non-traditional signs as trade marks in the EU: smell (olfactory marks), taste (gustatory marks) and feel (tactile marks). All three types of subject matter can meet the definition of a sign. According to the majority view in literature and...