Blog - GEISTWERT

Supreme Court: Circumventing the withdrawal right regarding the digital toll badge (DiVi) is unfair competition plus infringement of DiVi marks

By Juliane Messner, Max W. Mosing, Alexander Schnider | January 15th, 2020 |

In its preliminary
injunction issued in favor of GEISTWERT’s client ASFINAG against German website-operators,
the Austrian
Supreme Court (OGH 19 December 2019, 4 Ob 96/19z – link, available in German
only) held that the
Defendants’ business model desiring to exclude the consumers’ withdrawal right
when purchasing digital toll badges (digital vignette, respectively a digital
vignette for […]

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German Balsamico?

By Rainer Schultes | December 6th, 2019 |

The
protection of the name ‘Aceto Balsamico di Modena’ does not extend to the use
of the non-geographical terms of that name such as ‘aceto’ and ‘balsamico’

The name
‘Aceto Balsamico di Modena (PGI)’ (balsamic vinegar from Modena, Italy) has
been registered since 2009 in the register of protected designations of origin
(‘PDO’) and […]

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Business and Trade Secrets in Life Sciences

By Juliane Messner, Rainer Schultes | October 26th, 2019 |

On October 24, GEISTWERT partner Juliane Messner and Rainer Schultes held a seminar on Business and Trade Secrets in Life Sciences at the Academy of the Association of Pharmaceutcial Companies Pharmig. Of particular interest were the intersections and synergies between Business Secrets on the one hand and patent protection […]

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Can “Black Friday” be a brand? The Federal Patent Court in Germany says “maybe for some branches”.

By Constantin Kletzer | September 27th, 2019 |

Black Friday is generally known as the name for a sales-day in the
pre-Christmas business in the US on Friday after Thanksgiving. It is also known in
Europe for some years now – and that’s what it’s all about in the Germany case.
Because the company Super Union Holdings Ltd. from Hong […]

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Save the date: GEISTWERT’s 5th anniversary party on November 8, 2019, in Vienna

August 27th, 2019 |

Invitation with further details will follow … be prepared!

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Enjoy Summer

By Alexander Schnider, Constantin Kletzer, Juliane Messner, Max W. Mosing, Rainer Schultes | July 31st, 2019 |

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No protection of trade dress „MAGNUM DOUBLE“

By Rainer Schultes | July 29th, 2019 |

Neither the
form nor the design of the icecream MAGNUM DOUBLE enjoys protection under the
Austrian Law against Unfair competition.

The manufacturer
of the icecream MAGNUM DOUBLE sued against Gelatelli DOUBLE without success (in
the summary proceedings).

The form of
the MAGNUM DOUBLE with its three layers of chocolate was owed to technical
reasons. DOUBLE was considered
descriptive […]

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Breakfast at GEISTWERT

June 17th, 2019 |

22
participants discussed the interaction between Trade Secrets, Data Protection,
Patents and Copyright at the first GEISTWERT-Secret breakfast on June 13 and
how to establish synergies between the different legal institutes and their
requirements.

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GEISTWERT Standard forms on ipag.at

June 5th, 2019 |

The
Intellectual Property Agreement Guide IPAG is a project of Universities Austria
(Österreichische Universitätenkonferenz, UNIKO) and is sponsored by the
National Contact Point for Intellectual Property (ncp.ip) in the Federal
Ministry of Digital, Business and Enterprise, the Federal Ministry for
Transport, Innovation and Technology and Austria Wirtschaftsservice. The aim of
this project is to increase […]

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3 attorneys and GEISTWERT as such among Austria’s TOP lawyers

May 19th, 2019 |

GEISTWERT partners
Rainer Schultes, Max Mosing and Constantin Kletzer ranked in Top 10 in the
Lawyers’ Ranking of Austrian economics magazine “TREND” in the categories Unfair
Competition Law, Media and IT Law and Trademarks, Copyrights and Patents.

GEISTWERT was
recognised as the second notable new law firm of the last five years.

Thanks to all […]

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