2009 is the European Year of Creativity and Innovation

The European Union (EU) has declared 2009 the European Year of Creativity and Innovation. This is to highlight and emphasise the importance of intellectual creation for personal, social and economic development. Therefore, intellectual property rights are to be further developed in 2009. According to the Federal Ministry of Justice, the following projects are planned for 2009:

  • The Federal Minister of Justice (BMJ) invites you to an international copyright conference in Berlin on 7 and 8 May 2009. The event is intended to provide food for thought for further legal policy discussion in the field of copyright at national, European and international level. It will provide a platform for the encounter of science, politics and business.
  • With the "Second Basket" of the copyright reform and the "Enforcement Act", questions of copyright in the digital age have been decided most recently. The German Bundestag and the Bundesrat have asked to examine whether there is a need for reform in other areas, such as copyright and science, or trade in second-hand software. The Federal Ministry of Justice will begin a written consultation procedure on this. It will also continue the dialogue on "Creative Content Online", in particular on the enforcement of intellectual property rights on the internet, with stakeholders.
  • The Federal Minister of Justice will take up the recommendations ofthe Enquete Commission "Culture in Germany" on collecting societies. Collecting societies ensure that creators are adequately remunerated for the use of their works. In particular, it will be examined to what extent the democratic participation of creatives in the decisions of their collecting societies can be optimised and transparency generally increased.
  • The Federal Minister of Justice intends to continue her efforts to ensure that European harmonisation is pursued where, in the opinion of the BMJ, it is sensible and necessary - e.g. through a uniform regulation of private copying and an entitlement of authors to appropriate remuneration. The framework conditions for collecting societies should also be defined at European level.
  • The Patent Law Modernisation Act is introduced. In future, court proceedings can proceed more quickly and the filing of patents is simplified. In employee invention law, procedural regulations will be modernised and superfluous or inappropriate regulations will be repealed. The bill passed the Bundesrat on 28 November 2008 and is expected to be debated in the German Bundestag from January 2009.
  • The German government wants to strengthen its commitment to a European patent system that costs less, creates more legal certainty across borders and ensures high-quality IP rights.

In addition, the competition "The Idea" is looking for associations, companies and individuals who have made a special contribution to the protection of intellectual property. In the school competition "Ideenliebe" (Love of Ideas ), pupils in the 8th to 10th grades are asked to deal with the topic of intellectual property.

For more information on the European Year of Creativity and Innovation, please visit: http://www.create2009.europa.eu/

Goldberg Attorneys at Law, Wuppertal-Solingen 2008
Attorney at Law Michael Ullrich, LL.M.(Information Law)
m.ullrich@goldberg.de

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