"Football and Technology" - on the DPMA website

The Football World Cup, there is no escape at the moment, not even on this blog. The sport, the excitement, the drama and... the IP?!

On its website, the German Patent and Trademark Office (DPMA) has published a surprisingly detailed collection of information relating to football, technology and patents:

"a selection of typical inventions from patent literature and a brief historical overview of the technical development of football."

What's even better, the DPMA offers this delight not only in a German version but also in English. The DPMA's football special offers to direct links to patents (DE, WO, FR, US, etc.) relating to all things football, from pitch, goal, footwear to players' clothing to stadium construction and match analysis. So, in the words of the DPMA, if you "wonder how football and technology fit together" and if you are keen "to look at the history of football from a different angle", then this is the link for you.

Click here for the English version and here for the German version. Start by reading the "introduction" part of the website - the whole thing is rather fun.

FIFA's website can be found here.
The website of Swiss FC Trubschachen , a club clearly in favour of cats on the field, can be found here.

The "new" DPMA website - some helpful links

Like so many "expats", this Kat sometimes has a feeling of homesickness and homesickness can make you do funny things, such as looking at your hometown's web cam so you know what kind of weather you are missing out on, reading tabloids in your native tongue (not always a good idea) or surfing on the website of your national Intellectual Property Office, in my case the German Patent and Trademark Office (DPMA).

Given the amount of questions this Kat has received about how to use of the recently updated DPMA website, in particular its search functions, this Kat has now decided to share her observations with our readers. The "new DPMA website is very sleek and modern but it sometimes a trifle difficult to navigate, a bit like searching Easter eggs (see below, right).

The goods news is that the DPMA has not only completely revamped its search functions but it has also created a proper (and may I add, rather appealing) English language version of its website including helpful Q&A sections about German trade marks (here), German patents (here) and German utility models (here). Very useful are also the concise booklets 'Information for Trade Mark Applicants'; 'Information for Patent Applicants' and the DPMA's explanation of Utility Models (here).

Since 22 February 2010 the DPMA website also allows you to perform searches on designs in DPMAregister, in addition to searching trade marks and indications of geographical origin. As some of the IPKat's readers may have noticed, the very modern search search platform on the DPMA's website is not always intuitive but gives you many options (Quick Search, Beginners' Search, truncations, you name it, the DPMA seems to offer it). Thankfully, the DPMA has also published useful guides on how to perform searches for trade marks and designs. These guides can be retrieved by clicking on the following links: trade mark search and design search. Please note that the new DPMAregister search is being implemented in stages and patents, utility models, topographies will follow in the second half of this year.

As our readers may know, German law allows you to apply for protection of three-dimensional structures of microelectronic semiconductors at the German Patent and Trade Mark Office. This type of IP right is referred to as "topography." Topography applications are processed by the utility model unit of the DPMA and the DPMA very helpfully provides more information on topographies.

For ease of reference:

• Trade Mark searches can be conducted via the new system (see to the right) and this screen.
  
• Designs can be found via the new system and this screen.
  
• Patents and Utility Models can still be found via the old system here (see screenshot in the top left corner of this post).

And, should you still be stuck, then the DPMA offers an "Assisted search" service "in strictest confidence" via this link. Please note that while assisted search is initially free ("If a request cannot be processed within the scope of initial support, billable services are available.") and "Info-Lotse" charges a fee:

"If you are unsure how to formulate your search request in the Beginner's or Expert mode or how to design your search strategy, you can use two different support options, provided by the DPMA in cooperation with the patent information centres (PIZ): the assisted search and the interactive remote support service "Info-Lotse"."

Enjoy, says this Kat!

'Obama' trade marks - the DPMA's statement

The IPKat recently reported (see the IPKat's post of 23 April 2009 here) about a 'curious' press release by Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market's (OHIM) concerning an OBAMA trade mark on the Community trade mark register ("You may have seen that there has been an EFE story that OHIM has registered "OBAMA" as a Community trade mark. This is not correct - there has just been an application at present. In case you are interested here is our statement").


A quick check of some national trade mark registers revealed that OBAMA marks can be found on several (European) trade mark registers. There are, for example, currently eight pending OBAMA trade mark applications in different permutations reflecting Mr. Obama's popularity on the German trade mark register: "Obama-Fingers" covering class 29, "Mrs. Obama" and "First Lady Obama" both covering classes 3, 32, 33 are just three examples. The earliest of these German trade mark applications, German trade mark application No. 302008048873.5 Obama covering class 33, was already filed on 28 July 2008, just days after Mr. Obama's famous "Berlin Speech" (see also Class 46's post here)

However, in contrast to the OHIM, the German Patent and Trademark Office (DMPA) had not published any statements concerning "Obama" trade marks. Reason enough for this Kat to enquire and the IPKat is pleasantly surprised that the DPMA has now replied (in English). Please find the DPMA's statement below, which does in fact tell us very little but which is nonetheless interesting, particularly when compared to the OHIM's earlier statement (here):

"Several application procedures are pending at the DPMA that refer to US President Obama, his wife or his family.

This relation is most clearly shown in the case of eleven applications which apply for the registration of the complete surname 'Obama' or 'OBAMA' either as sole trade mark word or as an element of the trade mark applied for (such as 'Mrs. Obama', 'First Lady Obama', 'FIRST FAMILY OBAMA', 'Obama Fingers'). Three of these applications are deemed withdrawn, because the respective applicants did not pay the application fees. The remaining eight procedures are not yet concluded.

Please understand that the DPMA is currently not in a position to provide information on these cases. Within the scope of these procedures it will have to be examined, above all, whether the signs applied for have the distinctive character that is required for registration in the trade mark register, whether they describe the goods and services claimed in a concrete and direct manner or whether the applications might have to be considered as having been filed in bad faith.

Other applications relate to signs such as 'MR. PRESIDENT O' or the slogan 'Yes we can' in different spellings, combinations and variations (including 'YES WE CANdy'). In most of these cases, examination is not yet completed."

The IPKat says 'Dankeschön' to Dr. Stephanie Krüger of the DPMA's Press Office in Munich, while Merpel contemplates whether she should file a (German) trade mark application for YES WE KAT....

"With patents to the stars"

For those of you that are interested in patents relating to astronomy and can read German - which admittedly might narrow the group of interested readers - the German Patent and Trademark Office (DPMA) offers a entertaining little gallery on its website relating patents and astronomy called "With patents to the stars" (Mit Patenten zu den Sternen).

This gallery was created to celebrate the UNESCO's International Year of Astronomy 2009. Given the navigation on the DPMA's website is reminiscent of searching Easter eggs, here are the links that take you directly to the relevant parts of the gallery (all in German):

Short introduction
Patent history of telescopes
Travel to space
Living and working in space
Literature and sources