Trade mark damages for infringement in multiple jurisdictions: a German court rules

A recent decision of the Higher Regional Court of Hamburg inGermany provides useful guidance as to which law applies whentrade mark infringements are committed in several EU memberstates; the Court found an effective and workable solution thatenhances Community Trade Mark Regulation enforcement and strengthensits unitary character throughout the Community.     

Can a contractarian be a paternalist? The logic of James M. Buchanan’s system

We consider the simplest version of a jungle economy à la Piccione-Rubinstein, wherein as many agents as goods are assumed, agents consume at most one indivisible good, and a transitive strong power relation exists. We first study the wilderness of jungle equilibria, i.e., whether they are Pareto-minimal (an allocation is Pareto-minimal if it is impossible to reduce the welfare of one agent without increasing the welfare of another). We show that jungle equilibria are not necessarily Pareto-minimal. We then study and characterize the set of Pareto-minimal jungle equilibria. Second, we tackle the case of equally powerful people, in contrast to the assumption that the power relation is asymetric. Assuming specifically a transitive weak power relation, we show that jungle equilibria exist, but that they are not always unique, nor Pareto-optimal. We also provide conditions under which those equilibria are Pareto-minimal.

     

Zulassung von Projekten in Natura-2000-Gebieten Zur Frage der Betroffenheit priorit?rer Lebensraumtypen und Arten nach § 34 Abs. 4 BNatschG

Von der sog. Abweichungsprüfung nach Art. 6 Abs. 4 FFH-RL wird infolge der restriktiven Rechtsprechung zur Frage der Erheblichkeit von Beeintr?chtigungen von Natura-2000-Gebieten in der Praxis verst?rkt Gebrauch gemacht. Sie ist h?ufig die einzige M?glichkeit, um für Projekte mit Auswirkungen auf Natura-2000-Gebiete eine Zulassung zu erhalten. Besonders strenge Anforderungen gelten hinsichtlich priorit?rer Lebensraumtypen und Arten. Durch die am 1. M?rz 2010 in Kraft getretene Novelle des BNatschG1 hat der Gesetzgeber klargestellt, dass die strengen Anforderungen des § 34 Abs. 4 BNatSchG nicht schon beim blo?en Vorkommen priorit?rer Bestandteile im FFH-Gebiet zu stellen sind, sondern nur, wenn diese auch von dem Projekt “betroffen” sind. Unbeantwortet bleibt dabei, nach welchem Ma?stab die Betroffenheit priorit?rer Bestandteile zu beurteilen ist. Dieser Beitrag legt dar, in wieweit § 34 Abs. 4 BNatSchG voraussetzt, dass priorit?re Bestandteile im Sinne des § 34 Abs. 2 BNatSchG durch das Projekt “erheblich beeintr?chtigt” werden.     

Rodeo and territorial scope of CTM infringement procedure

The binding effect of a ruling in an action relating to a Communitytrade mark (CTM) in one country is limited to the territoryfor which the injunction is sought and does not prevent subsequentprocedures between the same parties in relation to the sameinfringing acts in other Member States of the European Union.     

Reference to a protected geographical indication on a composite food product

It is prohibited to refer to a geographical indication protectedunder Regulation 2081/92 on the label of a composite food productif the specific features of the PGI are not preserved.     

Die Zulässigkeit artenschutzrechtlicher CEF-Maßnahmen in FFH-Gebieten

Natur und Recht - Die Möglichkeit, die Verwirklichung artenschutzrechtlicher Verbotstatbestände des 44 Abs. 1 Nr. 1 bis 4 BNatSchG durch die Festlegung vorgezogener...     

Grace,gold, or glory? Exploring incentives for invention disclosure in the university context

What motivates university scientists to identify practical applications for their research results and consider having them patent-protected? A wealth of research points towards a complex blend of factors, including organizational antecedents, social norms and personal-level expectations. Few studies, however, have attempted to investigate the effect of concrete incentives from the perspective of individual scientists’ decision-making. In this paper, we operationalize the propensity to patent and commercialize research results as the intention to submit an invention disclosure filing. We use scenario-based conjoint analysis to capture university scientists’ preference structures for different incentive policies. Results indicate that direct and indirect financial incentives are dominant drivers. In addition, a grace period that would allow for patenting and publishing in parallel and the inclusion of patents in academic performance assessments are worth considering, whereas the specific setup of the technology transfer organization and public recognition of achievements in form of an award appear to have limited effect. However, preferences for incentives and hence their effectiveness vary significantly across academic disciplines and ranks as well as with scientists’ working experience, patenting experience and research orientation. On this basis, we can derive more qualified recommendations for incentive system design.     

Invisible but infringing: when metatags are trade mark use

The German Federal Court of Justice has laid down the principlethat metatag use must be considered ‘use as a trade mark’.