The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), in cooperation with Cornell University and INSEAD, released the Global Innovation Index (GII) 2020 with its main conclusions regarding the impact of the COVID-19 crises on the innovation developments and which countries are the leaders in innovation 2020.

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I. How COVID-19 affects innovation

Basically, the COVID-19 crisis has not changed the general growth and  potential for new technologies and innovations. It is expected that  the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors are going to experience a remarkable upturn, with the focus on health. But also traditional sectors, such as education or tourism, must adjust to the new circumstances which can lead to a rise in innovation.

Many governments are setting up rescue packages to dampen the negative impact of the crisis on the economy. However, except for the health sector, other Research and Development (R&D) areas have not been made a priority in those packages. Because of this fact, the authors of the GII 2020 report advises leaders to expand their support for innovations for the post-COVID era, especially focussing on start-ups and small businesses.

II. Global distribution of innovations

The annual ranking of the countries in terms of innovation capacity and output shows stability at the top. The top three leaders of the innovation ranking are still Switzerland, Sweden and the United States of America which all belong  to the high-income group. But some Asian countries are in the ascendant. China, reaching 14^th place, is the only upper middle-income country to be ranked in the top 20. But also, countries with lower middle-income economies such as India, the Philippines and Viet Nam have continuously made their way up in the ranking over the past years. All four are now in the top 50.

III. Germany in the GII 2020

According to the GII 2020 Index Germany ranks 9^th, like in the past few years.  It is  among the countries with the highest investments in R&D and stands out with its high level and quality with respect to innovation. Regarding the new GII indicator implemented into the report, the “global brand value”, Germany takes the 11^th place. It claims 149 of the world’s top 5,000 brands, even two of these brands fall within the top 25: Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen.

IV. Cooperation in innovation is the key

In a nutshell: Most economies which climbed up in the ranking of the GII 2020 ranking are well integrated within various global innovation networks. In particular the search for a coronavirus vaccine has shown how important global cooperation is. As the WIPO Director General Francis said: “Innovations equal solutions.”

For more information please find the full report here:

October 2020 is almost over and everything is different this year. Here in Munich, we have not been able to celebrate the WIESN as the “original” OKTOBERFEST is often called. It was cancelled due to the pandemic. Usually, visitors from all over the world come to our beautiful city each year during these two weeks in fall when OKTOBERFEST it taking place. However, while the public is cursing the pandemic and has been mourning, at least the City of Munich was able to enjoy a considerable legal and trademark victory.

1. Background

On 19 September 2019, we published a blog article about a then recent decision of the German Patent and Trademark Office (GPTO) which had denied trademark registration in Germany for the term “Oktoberfest” as a pure word mark. This had not been the first time that the mark had been applied for and been denied trademark registration. Different registration proceedings had been and are pending with at least the GPTO and the EUIPO. Every now and then a decision is published and the public starts discussing widely whether or not the mark “Oktoberfest” has a distinctive character.

2. Latest Decision of the EUIPO

Recently, on 26 August 2020 another such decision regarding an application for the word mark “Oktoberfest” was issued – this time in an appeal proceeding pending at the EUIPO. You can read the decision in appeal proceeding no. R 1840/2019-4 regarding European Union Trademark Application No. 15535008 “Oktoberfest” (word mark) here.

In its decision, the EUIPO’s Board of Appeal very profoundly analyzed the distinctive character of the word “Oktoberfest” for the goods and services applied for and found

• that it was not an invented word created by the applicant, but a word that is commonly used to describe a festival taking place in the month of October;
• that it was only descriptive for goods and services that are a festival or are an essential part of a festival.

Thus, it rejected the mark

• for all services applied for in class 41 (mainly entertainment, sporting and cultural activities, production of audio and video tapes), as they were limited to “all aforementioned services only with regard to public festivals”;

• for all services in class 43 that are related to the offering of food and beverages;
• for all food and beverages in classes 29, 30, 32 and 33 as they include goods that are very popular and an essential part of a festival like beer, wine, non-alcoholic drinks, sausages, pretzels, roasted and sugarcoated almonds and more.

However, the EUIPO allowed the mark

• for all services in class 43 that are not related to the offering of food and beverages, but to lodging only (for instance hotel services, rental of temporary accommodation, guesthouse services, hotel reservations and temporary accommodation reservations);
• for all services in classes 35 (mainly advertising and marketing services), 38 (telecommunication services), 39 (mainly travel and transport services) and 45 (mainly licensing services);
• for all other goods designated by the application – regardless of whether or not they are sold at festivals or can be merchandise related to festivals (for instance cosmetics, candles, electronic articles, cameras, mobile phones, CDs, jewelry, all kinds of printed matter, bags, kitchen ware, textiles, clothing, shoes, headgear, artificial and fresh flowers, games, playthings, fresh fruits and vegetables, tobacco articles).

The exact list of goods and services designated by European Union Trademark Application No. 15535008 “Oktoberfest” (word mark) can be found at the link given above.

3. Implications of the Decision

Should the decision of the Board of Appeal not be appealed further by the applicant and should no opposition be raised, the term “Oktoberfest” will be registered with the EUIPO as a word mark and gain protection in all 27 member states of the European Union.

Does this mean that nobody else except the City of Munich can use the term “Oktoberfest” for goods and services of a festival as has been reported on some internet platforms? No, it does not. If you are organizing a festival in October, you can still call it “Oktoberfest” and food and beverages can be sold freely. However, be careful when selling goods and services for which the EUIPO allowed registration of the term “Oktoberfest” as a trademark. You can use the term if it is merely to describe a specific feature of a good/service, but we recommend not using it in a trademark sense as it cannot be ruled out that the City of Munich may one day enforce its trademark rights – should they eventually get registered.

For any questions regarding use of the mark “Oktoberfest”, you are welcome to contact us at info@lexdellmeier.com or by phone at +49 89 55879780.

For the last two months, Oliwia Puto – our Legal Trainee was working on her Overall Project, which was the creation of a chatbot “BenBot” for LexDellmeier. “BenBot” is a mobile app that aims to facilitate and accelerate the process of filing applications for the registration of an EU trademarks. In order to achieve this purpose, it collects from the users all information that the attorneys at LexDellmeier need to prepare such applications. We are delighted to announce that this project will officially go live around December 2020/January 2021. This means that in just a few months you will be able to download the app from AppStore and use it to receive information on matters related to trademarks, IP law etc., and to send information needed to apply for an EU trademark registration – 24/7! What makes us particularly excited about this project is that (as far as we know) LexDellmeier will be the first law firm in Germany to implement a Legal Tech solution of this kind. Read the blog post to find out more!

Hello! Here is Oliwia again. In this blog post I will talk about “BenBot” and broader about the Overall Trainee Project I completed during my three-month internship at LexDellmeier, in particular what it involved and what I have learned from it.  To start off, you might have noticed that in the past few years chatbots have gained in both significance and popularity. In fact, according to Forbes, as much as 80% of marketers plan to start using a chatbot in some way or another by 2020. But, what exactly are they? And what benefits can they bring to businesses? Well, a chatbot is a software application used to conduct an on-line chat conversation, instead of providing direct contact with a live human. As such, chatbots can assist people in many different areas of daily life, most notably (but certainly not only!) by providing customer support. They are very beneficial both for businesses and clients, as they reduce the waiting time, are available 24/7 and help save costs. Moreover, since they are creative and fun, clients like using them. Importantly, they usually enjoy high success and satisfaction rate.

As an innovative and client-oriented law firm, LexDellmeier realised that implementing a chatbot can both enhance the experience of its clients and reduce the workload for the attorneys. Therefore, one of the main tasks I was assigned during my Traineeship was to create a program that will facilitate and accelerate the process of filing applications for the registration of EU trademarks. The outcome of this project is called “BenBot” (it owes its name to a very sweet dachshund Ben – LexDellmeier’s office dog that some readers will already know from last year’s Xmas card), and is an app for mobile devices with iOS. It works in the following manner: the chatbot asks questions to the user and the user replies to them by clicking on one of the available options or typing answers. In this way, “BenBot” collects all information that the attorneys at LexDellmeier need to prepare an EU trademark application. Once the user has answered all the questions, “BenBot” extracts all relevant parts of the conversation and combines them into a form which is sent to LexDellmeier. The attorneys can then review the answers and get back to the client with professional legal advice. In addition to these key functions, “BenBot” can perform identity searches for the user and help them create the list of goods and services. Sounds quite awesome, right?!

The creation of “BenBot” was one of the tasks I enjoyed most during my internship at LexDellmeier. At the same time, it allowed me to develop numerous skills that are vital in the legal profession as well as to enhance my understanding of IP law. As a part of the project, I was assigned two different types of activities. Firstly, with help from other team members, I was responsible for the overall organisation. I have to admit that managing the work of four people was not an easy task, especially taking into account that different team members had different backgrounds and priorities (legal vs technical). However, it felt rewarding to see that the teamwork, communication and planning are improving with every meeting. Second, I was responsible for providing the “legal” input into the project. This included structuring and drafting dialogues for the chatbot, preparing the terms and conditions of the use of the app and updating LexDellmeier’s privacy policy. While I found these tasks very interesting, the part of the project I enjoyed most was applying for the registration of a trademark “BENBOT” in the EU and Germany. During this process, I got involved in the drafting of the list of goods and services, performed the searches for similar and identical trademarks, evaluated the outcomes of these searches and summarised them in a form of a report. It felt truly amazing to know that I was doing tasks normally carried out by qualified IP attorneys.

Currently “BenBot” is still undergoing some technical improvements, and therefore will most likely go live around December 2020/January 2021. Stay tuned to see the final result of my project and I hope you will like it as much as I do!

On Wednesday, 1 July 2020, LexDellmeier held its two webinars no. 6 and 7 on the topic “Design Law Basics” (German: Designrecht 1 x 1). During the approx. 75 minutes presentation, Andrea Breier and Alexandra Dellmeier outlined what a design is from the legal point of view, explained how to acquire a design right and talked about the importance of design protection. As usual, we recorded the webinar and published it on YouTube – you will find the link in the post below!

​

Whether you are looking at a Nike shoe, an iPhone or at a BMW car - designs surround us everywhere. From a legal perspective it is crucial to think about them as important intellectual property rights. If you wonder why, let us explain – in some industries (e.g. automotive), designs make up for as much as 10 - 20 % of the company value.  As we are talking about billions of dollars, it becomes clear that an effective protection of design rights is a key concern for numerous brand owners and businesses.

As a starting point, it is necessary to answer the question what exactly a design is. From the legal point of view, a design must possess two characteristics: it must be novel and it must have individual character.  

The second crucial question is how to acquire a design right. Analogically to trademarks, different systems of design protection exist on national, European and international level. Depending on various considerations, such as cost, duration of the registration process or geographical scope of protection, one system may be more suitable for you than the others. Moreover, before applying for the registration of a design, you should bear in mind that other intellectual property rights (e.g. trademarks or copyright) exist that can offer you IP protection too. However, the prerequisites and legal consequences, including the duration of protection, are completely different.

Our webinar gives a more in-depth insight in all the issues mentioned above. Therefore, if you want to make informed decisions when applying for a design, simply learn more about IP law or are curious what strategy Nike has for registering its shoe designs, make sure to watch the recording published on YouTube!

PowerPoint presentation to download (PDF):[[{"type":"media","fid":"5190","view_mode":"default","instance_fields":"override","link_text":"20200701_termin_7_webinar_final_design_law_basics_eng.pdf"}]]

Link to the recording on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvr09qNI_Lw

Content of the webinar “Design Law Basics” (German: “Designrecht 1 x 1”) in English

1. Introduction–Economic value of a design
2. What is a design from a legal point of view?
3. How to acquire a design right?
4. Possibilities and recommendations for design applications
5. Strategic considerations
6. Which benefits can be derived from a design?
7. Conclusion and outlook on the next webinars
8. Q & A

On 7 August 2020, all attorneys, paralegals and trainees at LexDellmeier met at the picturesque Lake Starnberg in Bernried (approx. 25 km from Munich) to hold its annual Strategy and Team-Day Meeting. Although the main aim of the meet-up was to discuss three key topics:  digitalisation, client needs during Covid-19 and Brexit, it was also a great opportunity for the team members to finally gather all together (of course, with social distancing measures in place!) after a very long break caused by COVID-19. Some of the LexDellmeier team had been working non-stop from home for the past four to five months. Working web-based or via Teams or Zoom from the home offices has had some advantages (like no commuting time etc.). However, it is always really good to have in-person meetings at least once in a while. Even though home office is still done by some employees, others prefer to come to the office and meet up with colleagues in person – to discuss legal issues or to have a personal chat or just a coffee together. We have hygiene and social-distancing policies in place at the firm and we believe to have found a good balance between working from home and being on site at the office headquarter. Like all our colleagues and clients around the world – work is continuing – just the circumstances are somewhat different during these challenging times.

Teamwork, cooperation and participation – these words may sound clichée in the business world, but, LexDellmeier understands that their importance cannot be underestimated. Accordingly, the firm regularly organises Strategy Meetings, during which it summarises its most important achievements and set goals for the future. These gatherings also give all team members the chance to give their feedback and suggest ideas for improvement, and as such are a key contribution to LexDellmeier’s success.

This year’s Strategy Team-Da Meeting took place in Bernried, which is a small town located at Lake Starnberg in southern Bavaria.  Sitting in a conference room overlooking the water, surrounded by stunning nature, the team was more motivated than ever to discuss LexDellmeier’s strategic plan for the upcoming months. The first key topic was digitalisation. Since 2018 LexDellmeier has been “going green” with the aim to become fully paperless in the near future. Fact is though, that the German courts are hardly paperless at all yet – this is planned to be implemented as of the year 2020. Therefore, it was crucial to evaluate how our internal electronic docketing system has been performing so far and what still needs to be improved and to update everyone on the digitalization status of German courts, the German Patent and Trademark Office etc. The second main point on the agenda concerned LexDellmeier’s clients. In particular, the team discussed what the firm can do to better understand clients’ needs and fulfil their expectations and take into consideration the special circumstances of Covid-19. As the third key topic LexDellmeier debated Brexit. This part of the conversation focused on what steps the firm must take to adopt to the new reality of the UK leaving the EU regarding EU Trademarks and EU Designs as well as International Registrations designating the EU as of 1 January 2021. As you can see, the day was full of intense discussions and follow-up work to do by various team members.

After the official part, LexDellmeier went for lunch outside to a restaurant nearby. This gathering felt very unique as it was the first time since the beginning of COVID-19 that all team members could meet in one place and simply spend some time together in a relaxing and very airy atmosphere. It was great to see everyone happy and in good health! Apart from enjoying great food and catching up with each other, the team of LexDellmeier made sure to make the most out of being in place as beautiful and peaceful as Lake Starnberg. Some visited Buchheim’s Museum of Phantasy, which has an exceptional collection of Expressionist art and admired traditional Bavarian architecture when walking around Bernried. Overall, it is fair to say that the trip to Starnberg was not only beneficial from the firm’s strategic point of view, but, more importantly, it also allowed team members to bond and enjoy a summer day together. If you are curious how this beautiful place looked like, make sure to visit our Instagram account: https://www.instagram.com/lexdellmeier/.

Wie hoch ist der durchschnittliche Wert einer Marke am Unternehmenswert? Ist der Wert von Branche zu Branche unterschiedlich hoch? Und was bedeutet „brand valuation“ und „brand evaluation“ eigentlich genau? Diesen und anderen wichtigen Fragen rund um das Thema Markenrecht und -wert widmete sich Alexandra Dellmeier bei der Web-Seminarreihe des Bundesverband mittelständische Wirtschaft Unternehmerverband Deutschlands e.V. (BVMW Bayern).

ISO-Standards zur Bewertung einer Marke

„46 Prozent beträgt der Anteil einer Marke durchschnittlich am Unternehmenswert“, erklärte Alexandra Dellmeier. Damit kommt der exakten Bewertung einer Marke eine wichtige Rolle zu. Die Bewertung eine Marke kann grundsätzlich auch anhand von nicht- finanziellen Faktoren vorgenommen werden: Hierfür bieten sich seit diesem Jahr neue ISO-Standards an, mit denen der Wert einer Marke auch unter Marketing-Aspekten und ihrer rechtlichen Durchsetzbarkeit evaluiert und gemessen werden kann.

Markenrecht: Separate Anmeldung in UK nach dem Brexit erforderlich

Auch widmete sich Alexandra Dellmeier den Folgen des Brexits für Marken oder Designs in der EU im Webinar. Zu den Auswirkungen des Brexits auf EU-Marken und Designs gehört, dass eine bestehende EU-Marke oder ein EU-Design ab 2021 in eine eigene nationale britische Marke (oder ein britisches Design) umgewandelt wird. Neue Markenanmeldungen in der EU entfalten ab diesem Stichtag keine Wirkung mehr in UK und müssen separat angemeldet und bezahlt werden. Ab 2021 müssen die EU-Marke und die zusätzlich bestehende UK-Marke dann auch separat verlängert werden.

Für alle diejenigen, die das Webinar verpasst haben, hier gibt es die Präsentation dazu: 

/sites/default/files/20200721_final_bvmw_lexdellmeier_webinar_2020_002.pdf

On Wednesday, 17 June 2020, LexDellmeier held its fifth webinar on the topic “Brand Value and Financial Instruments”. During a 30 minutes discussion, Alexandra and Oliwia outlined the concepts of “brand valuation” and “brand evaluation” and explained how the economic value of a brand is assessed. If you missed the webinar, don’t worry – we recorded it and published on YouTube! As usual, you’ll find the link in the post below.

You might have heard that in 2020 Amazon - the world’s most valuable brand - exceeded US$ 200 billion value mark. But have you ever wondered where this number comes from? Or in other words, how the economic value of a brand is assessed?

Well, the starting point is that in the past 10 – 15 years businesses have seen a fundamental shift in the sources of value creation from their tangible assets to their intangible assets, namely intellectual property (brand). As a result, it became more important than ever to develop some objective standards according to which the value of brands could be assessed.

This task was undertaken by ISO – International Organization for Standardization, which is a non-governmental body that aims to facilitate world trade by providing common international standards for goods and services. Although mostly known for regulating things such as the shape of phone plugs or size of paper sheets, it also set standards for brand valuation (ISO 10668) and brand evaluation (ISO 20671). These two standards include inter alia guidelines as to what financial and non-financial methods should be used in the process of brand valuation and brand evaluation in order to achieve an objective assessment of a brand’s economic performance.

So, if you want to learn more about brand valuation and brand evaluation, understand the benefits of these two processes, and find out why people buy Coca Cola even though they actually prefer the taste of Pepsi, make sure to watch our Webinar! We also encourage you to take a look at the reports that we used as information sources, in particular the INTA Brand Value Special Task Force Report 2020 and PWC Brand Surveys 2012 (English) & 2019 (German). You’ll find the links to both of them at the end of our PowerPoint presentation.

PowerPoint presentation to download (PDF):

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Link to the recording on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDZeNlAXeKw

Content of the webinar “Brand Value and Financial Instruments”:

1. What is the economic value of a trademark?
2. Assessing the value of a brand

• Key definitions
• International Organization for Standardization -Overview
• ISO Standards

3. Brand valuation

• Importance
• Financial instruments
• Process

4. Brand evaluation

• Framework & Importance

5. Case Studies

Wanna cool down? Enjoy some “Plombir”! It is summer. The sun is shining, it is hot and you are looking for something to cool down a bit. How about a “Plombir”? You do not know what “Plombir” is? It is a kind of ice-cream that is very popular in the Russian Federation. But instead of only being used to COOL people down, it has been the subject of HEATED debates at the EUIPO and in Germany over the past about 10 years regarding the question whether or not the term “Plombir” was descriptive for ice-cream. Here is what the European Court of Justice (ECJ) decided on 18 June 2020.

(source: Shutterstock.com, No. 1280544706)

1.  Background

The German company Dovgan GmbH is the owner of several word and figurative trademarks containing the term “Plombir” in Germany and at the EUIPO. The trademarks are mainly registered in classes 29 and 30 for, among others, edible ice-cream and the goods are sold widely across Germany.

Based on its registered trademarks, Dovgan GmbH tried prohibiting use of the word “Plombir” by third parties and the mark became the subject of invalidity proceedings. It was claimed that the word “Plombir” should not be monopolized, but needed to be kept available for the public, particularly for trade and export. It was asserted that the contested mark was the transliteration into Latin characters of the Cyrillic word “Пломбир”, meaning “ice-cream” in Russian. Thus, it was purely descriptive for edible ice-cream and could not serve as a registered trademark.

The cancellation proceedings kept the trademark offices and courts busy over several years.

2.  Decision

German and European Union trademark law provides that signs or indications that may serve, in trade, to designate characteristics of the goods or services for which trademark registration is sought, may be freely used by all. The provision aims to prevent monopolizing the use of a descriptive term to the detriment of other undertakings, including competitors, for whom the extent of the vocabulary available to describe their own products would be reduced.

The descriptive character of a sign must be assessed in relation to the goods or services concerned and in relation to the perception of the public targeted, which is composed of the consumers of those goods or services in the European Union – or “part of the Union”. Also, “Part of the Union” is to be determined on a case to case basis. It can be a Member State or a group of Member States of the European Union. But, as the ECJ now confirmed in the most recent decision dated 18 June 2020 regarding “Plombir” ice-cream, the term “part of the Union” can also apply to a territory smaller than the territory of a Member State.

In the same decision, the court had to determine if the word “Plombir” in Latin characters was understood by the relevant public in the EU as describing ice-cream. The issue was that  Russian is not an official language of the European Union. However, the ECJ held that the descriptive character of the trademark “Plombir” should be examined from the point of view of Russian speaking consumers who are members of the general public of the EU and reside, in particular, in Germany and the Baltic States as “part of the Union”. In this context, the court confirmed that it was a well-known fact that a significant proportion of Baltic State nationals know Russian or speak it as their mother tongue. Also, the court agreed with the cancellation applicant that the Russian-speaking public in the European Union was likely to use means of communication which cannot process Cyrillic characters and that it was therefore accustomed to transliterating Russian words into Latin characters. Taking all that into account, the court found that as the word ‘plombir’ constitutes a faithful transliteration of the word ‘Пломбир’ into Latin characters known to the relevant Russian-speaking consumer in the EU, its descriptive meaning will be immediately and directly understood by that consumer.

Overall, the court thus confirmed that the evidence provided by the cancellation applicant had sufficiently proved that, in the European Union, the term “Plombir” was descriptive for “ice-cream” and could not serve as a registered trademark for such goods.

3.  Conclusion

The decision is of interest as it confirms that a sign can be precluded from trademark protection even if an absolute ground for refusal only exists in part of a Member State of the European Union. Also, it is another example that words taken from a common language – regardless of whether or not that language is an official language of the European Union – will most likely not be eligible for trademark protection. The issue often arises with words from languages like English, Spanish, Russian or Turkish. But also, more figurative languages like Japanese, Chinese or Korean will soon have to be looked at more closely as the relevant public in the EU that understands these languages steadily grows.

Should you consider registering a word that can be found in a dictionary as a trademark in Germany or with the European Union Intellectual Property Office, you are welcome to contact us by email at info@lexdellmeier.com or by phone at 0049 89 55 87 98 70 to discuss possibilities to proceed.

However, for the moment, sit down, enjoy summer and treat yourself to some “Plombir” or another ice-cream…

At the end of May 2020, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) announced the launch of WIPO PROOF - a new online business service that provides tamper-proof evidence of the existence at a point in time of any digital file, including data sets, in any format. Why is this significant? Well, now you can easily and cheaply safeguard your valuable intellectual work, such as a product design, an invention or research data from the earliest stage of its development.

Source: https://www.wipo.int/pressroom/en/articles/2020/article_0012.html

What is the WIPO PROOF tool?

As many modern solutions, WIPO PROOF originated as a response to the increasing globalisation and digitalisation of the economy. Just think about it - nowadays, it is common to create highly valuable assets online, whether it be software code, lyrics of a song or one’s contribution to a group research. While conducting business and other forms of economic activity digitally is highly efficient and convenient, it also has several vulnerabilities. One of them is that it can be very difficult to prove who is the owner of a particular piece of digital work, especially where many parties collaborated to achieve the final outcome.  WIPO PROOF addresses this issue by allowing creators and inventors to generate special tokens which are tamper-proof evidence that a digital file existed at a specific moment in time. Thus, it helps assign the ownership of an intangible asset to its original author.

How can it help me?

Being backed by a reputable international organisation, WIPO PROOF tokens constitute firm and reliable evidence in legal disputes before the courts in nearly all countries. Depending on what legal interest you want to protect, the WIPO PROOF tool can assist you in many different ways.

First, it may help protect your copyright, which covers a wide range of creative output such as art, music or literary work and applies automatically – i.e. you do not have to register it. For instance, if you are a musician working digitally, generating a WIPO PROOF token every time your new song is produced will allow you to easily prove original authorship and hence prevent unauthorised use.

Second, WIPO PROOF can be invaluable in safeguarding your trade secrets. While these IP rights do not require registration, it is difficult to protect them precisely because they are kept secret. With the new tool you will finally be able to prove that you possessed and used your trade secret at a certain point in time.

Third, before obtaining a formal IP right such as a patent, you may create a significant amount of know-how and data. WIPO PROOF will help you safeguard these valuable digital assets from the earliest stage of their development.

You can see that with so many areas of potential application, WIPO PROOF is a powerful tool capable of preventing misuse and misappropriation of intangible assets. As such, it constitutes an important complement to the protection offered by the existing IP rights.

How does it work?

WIPO PROOF is widely accessible and easy to use. As a starting point, you will have to connect to the web application via https://ipportal.wipo.int/ and create your account. Then, you will have to choose a digital file in any format you want to protect. Subsequently, the WIPO PROOF tool will generate a unique digital fingerprint (a hash) of the file, timestamp it and safeguard it with a digital key. At the final stage it will produce a WIPO PROOF token which you will be able to download. This token will be an unalterable proof that your digital file existed at the point in time the token was created.

Importantly, the generation of such digital token does not cost a fortune. You can get a single digital fingerprint for as little as 20 CHF. Taking into account how much time and energy you spent on creating your intangible assets, and how much money they can generate in the future, it is wise to invest in their protection!

Oliwia Puto is an English Law and German Law student at King’s College London and Humboldt University in Berlin and this summer will be supporting the team at LexDellmeier as a legal trainee. She is a member of ELSA - an organisation providing law students and young lawyers from different countries with education and professional development, of which LexDellmeier is a partner. 

Source: https://www.elsa-kiel.de/step/

Hello! My name is Oliwia and this summer I will be supporting the team at LexDellmeier as a legal trainee. I come from Cracow, Poland, but two years ago I moved to the UK to study English Law and German Law at King’s College London. I know - this is an unusual programme, but I chose it because it provides a challenging bi-juridical and bilingual education which ends with a double degree. As a part of it, I will spend my third year at Humboldt University in Berlin, where I will gain an in-depth knowledge in the German legal system and write my Master thesis. Then, I will return to London to complete my education and qualify as a solicitor.

You are probably curious how I found out about LexDellmeier. Everything began when my friend told me about the European Law Student’s Association (ELSA), which is an organisation that aims to promote education and professional development of law students and young lawyers. What really appealed to me as a student with international background was that ELSA truly believes in the importance of international cooperation and advocates the need for cultural diversity within the legal profession.

In order to achieve its purposes, ELSA provides its members with a wide range of opportunities, such as moot court competitions, seminars and summer law schools. It also organises the Student Trainee Exchange Programme (STEP), which enables law students and young lawyers to gain legal work experience in another country and legal system by connecting them with partnering law firms. I have decided to take part in this programme and apply to LexDellmeier- a firm that perfectly suited my interests, as it specialised in IP law and operated under German jurisdiction. I was over the moon when after the interview I received an email saying “it is a pleasure for us to inform you that we would like to engage you as a trainee”.

As a trainee at LexDellmeier, my responsibilities are threefold. Firstly, I have to take care of organisational and administrative tasks, such as docketing of deadlines, creating and sorting files and using the firm’s docketing system. This is an element vital for my legal education, as it allows me to see how a law firm operates in practice. Secondly, I work on legal topics under the supervision of the attorneys. This includes reading files from ongoing cases and drafting legal documents. I am also responsible for writing blog articles about most current issues in the field of IP law and preparing webinars. This part of the traineeship aims to advance my knowledge of the law and skills necessary in the legal profession. Thirdly, in the next few weeks I will start working on my overall project, which is the creation of a “chatbot” for trademarks. I am looking forward to it, as it will allow me to build something useful for the firm. In addition, this task perfectly corresponds with my interest in law and technology.

I am really excited for the next three months and sincerely encourage all law students to apply for one of the ELSA STEP traineeships!