Disputes concerning European patents are now the responsibility of the courts of each Member State. The diversity of the legal practices of each country is the source of many practical difficulties and a certain legal insecurity due to the sometimes contradictory court decisions.

 

In addition, the absence of a single patent for all European Union states requires rights holders to seek multiple deposits.

 

Aware of these difficulties, 25 of the EU Member States ratified the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court of February 19, 2013. This agreement provides for the establishment of a Unified Patent Court. This international court will be responsible for ruling on the validity and infringement of so-called unitary patents and European patents.

 

The unitary patent will provide protection in more than 20 Member states through a single certificate issued by the European Patent Office (EPO). In case of litigation, the unitary patent will allow a significant reduction of costs, since the case would be brought before just one court, while allowing to obtain a decision applicable on a large part of European Union territory.

 

Armengaud Guerlain has invested itself fully in these various projects from the beginning. Catherine Mateu has contributed to the comments published by the European Union on the rules of procedure and the training of judges led by the EPO, and Stéphane Guerlain is vice-president of the Union for the Unified Patent Court.

While complying with many legal and regulatory requirements for transparency, companies must secure their trade secrets on a daily basis. Their commercial know-how must be protected in order to remain competitive.

 

It is in this context that the new EU directive 2016/943 on trade secrets of June 8, 2016, was conceived.

 

Armengaud Guerlain is fully aware of the problems currently faced by its corporate clients, particularly regarding the protection of their trade secrets and commercial expertise.

 

In the digital era, where the risks surrounding disclosure and the theft of such secrets are increasing, Armengaud Guerlain’s rigorous approach and innovative strategies ensure the optimal protection of the value of their clients’s intellectual and financial investments.

 

Among her many conference participations, Catherine Mateu was a speaker at the plurinational meeting (Australia, United Kingdom, United States) on trade secrets of the World Intellectual Property Congress organized by the AIPPI in Sydney in October 2017.

 

It is in this context that the new EU directive 2016/943 on trade secrets of June 8, 2016, was conceived, the provisions of this directive have been transposed into Articles L. 151-1 et seq. of the French Commercial Code by Act No. 2018-670 of 30 July 2018.

The Trademark Law Reform, commonly known as the « paquet marques », was finally adopted on December 15, 2016. The reform contains both a regulation and a directive. As such, Directive 2015/2436 of December 16, 2015 amended Directive 2008/95/EC of October 22, 2008 to approximate the laws of Member States relating to trademarks, and Regulation 2015/2424 of December 16, 2015 revised Council Regulation (EC) No. 207/2009 of February 26, 2009 on the Community Trademark.

 

This reform aims to harmonize and modernize trademark law in the European Union. It involves many changes in the subject.

 

The “European Union mark” thus replaced the “Community mark“.

 

Among the developments, it should be noted that the requirement of a graphic representation of the registered sign is no longer necessary. Henceforth, the only requirement for the registration of a sign is that it can be represented in a way that is “clear, precise, self-contained, easily accessible, intelligible, durable and objective” (point 13 of Directive (EU) 2015 / 2436). The registration of sound, olfactory and so-called trademarks in movement can therefore be facilitated.

 

Among other important developments, the Trademark Law Reform has endorsed a now-established case law prohibiting any reference to the designation of a class of products or services of the brand to claim the protection of the entirety thereof. It is therefore appropriate to list specifically which products or services the registration of the sign will bear.

 

This directive will shortly be transposed into national law. Stéphane Guerlain, as president of the AAPI, is fully invested, along with the French authorities, in the transposition of this directive.

E-reputation, also known as web-reputation or cyber-reputation, is the digital image and reputation of a person on the Internet. In concrete terms, it’s how an individual or legal entity is portrayed on social media and other areas of the internet. With the acceleration and increasing multiplicity of data and internet exchanges, as well as the development of sharing platforms open to all, the repercussions of damage to e-reputations can quickly become a significant business risk.

 

In the current legal environment, the boundary between unrestricted access to all this information and the right to privacy and the protection of  personal data is unclear.

 

It is in this context that the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union passed the  EU Regulation 2016/679 of April 27, 2016, for the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and to the freedom of movement of this data, applicable since May 25, 2018, in all the countries of the European Union.

 

While providing a unified legal framework for all member states, this regulation aims to increase the security of personal data circulating on the Internet, but also to strengthen the penalties applicable in case of non-respect.

 

For many years, Armengaud Guerlain has been assisting its customers, both private and professional, in the protection of their personal data and the implementation of these new regulatory requirements.