IP / IT / Data Protection
In the area of IP, Esche Schümann Commichau advises on all questions related to intellectual property – from patents, trademarks and designs all the way through to copyright and competition law. In addition, we possess particular expertise in the areas of pharmaceutical law and life sciences as well as press and media law. We also provide comprehensive advice on IT and data protection law.
Our consulting services
IT Law
- Outsourcing and IT projects: Structuring complex IT projects, in particular IT outsourcing#
- IT contract law: IT contracts, software licensing and sales models, maintenance and support including service level agreements (SLAs), software license management, hardware procurement contracts, IT procurement law (German supplemental contractual requirements, EVB-IT, BVB)
Data Protection
- Data protection in sales / customer data: Structuring online shops, consents, privacy notices, direct marketing, customer relationship management, address trading.
- Data protection and human resources: Advice on data protection and employment law regarding all questions of employee data protection, in particular in relation to employee monitoring, e-recruitment, digitalization of HR files, right of co-determination and works agreements
- Data protection within the group: Intra-group data concentration and commissioned data processing
- International data transfers: Commissioned data processing outside of Germany, data protection in international business relationships, posting employees abroad
- Data protection and compliance: Reviewing and structuring compliance management in light of data protection law and structuring whistleblower systems
- Legal relations with data protection officers: Appointment and removal of company data protection officers as well as drafting contracts with internal and external data protection officers
Trademark Law and Design Protection
- Trademark and company searches, design searches, filing for and managing trademarks, designs and Community designs (Germany, European Union and international registrations)
- Development of cross-border trademark and design protection strategies; collision monitoring; management of trademark and design portfolios
- Assertion of rights and defense against claims in and out of court, combating trademark and design counterfeiting (border seizure)
- Structuring of trademark and design purchase and licensing agreements
- Securing internet domain names and representation in domain-related disputes
Copyright
- Assertion of rights and defense against claims in and out of court in all areas of copyright and in particular copyright infringement litigation and the prosecution of cases of internet piracy
- Copyright and the internet (protection and use of images, texts, web designs, apps, embedded content)
- Grant of usage rights, drafting copyright Agreements
Enforcement of patents and utility models
- Advice and representation in patent and utility model infringement proceedings
- Support in border and trade fair seizures due to patent and utility model infringements
- Representation and advice in nullity and deletion proceedings before the Federal Patent Court of Germany, the Federal German Supreme Court as well as in appeal and complaint proceedings before the German Patent and Trade Mark Office (DPMA) and the EPO.
Employee inventions law
- Advice with regard to the assertion of employee inventions and setting a fee, arbitration proceedings
Confidentiality and know-how
- Drawing up confidentiality agreements, conducting proceedings for breach of business secrets
Licensing agreements and technology transfer
- Drafting licensing agreements for patents, utility models, know-how
- Development agreements, production agreements, joint venture agreements and sales agreements
- Advising on provisions of antitrust law in relation to technology transfers
IP due diligence
- Reviewing patents and licenses in the context of corporate acquisitions, patent and trademark reviews, IP reports
Regulatory requirements and compliance
- Preservation and maintenance of regulatory approval
- Naming and labelling of pharmaceutical and medicinal products
- Classification of medicinal products and conformity assessment
- Advice on questions of delimitation in the field of pharmaceutical products, medicinal products, foodstuff and cosmetics
- Sponsoring and collaboration with patient organizations, contracts with pharmaceutical representatives, hospitals and doctors, advice on anti-corruption measures in the health sector
Agreements in the product development and marketing stage
- Drafting in and outlicensing agreements, agreements with CROs for clinical trials, NDAs
- Drafting agreements for development cooperations, contract manufacturing agreements and agreements for the delimitation of responsibilities, pharmacovigilance agreements, co-marketing and co-promotion agreements, transfer of rights in products, granting shared dealings rights
Intellectual property rights and infringements
- Pharmaceutical and life sciences patents as well as patent infringement and nullity proceedings
- Supplementary protection certificates (SPC), regulatory exclusivity, registration data protection (RDP), exclusivity of orphan drugs and pediatric rewards
- Pharmaceutical and medicinal product trademarks and designs
- Parallel imports and re-imports
Advertising and marketing
- Advising on the requirements under the law on advertising medical remedies, misleading advertising, advertising non-approved medicinal products and off-label use
- Advising on impermissible benefits and rebates
- Representation in litigation regarding the law on advertising medical remedies
Data protection
- Advising in all questions relating to data protection in the health sector, in particular in relation to patient data, apps, hospital information systems, digital patient records as well as use of health data for therapeutic purposes (personalized medicine)
Disputes regarding the law on free speech
- Advice and legal representation in proceedings concerning press law and the right of free speech
- Claims for injunctive relief, rectification and damages
- Exercising and defending against rights of reply
- Enforcing claims for information and strategies for dealing with claims for information.
Legal advice before publishing
Legal copy editing of publications, pictures and advertisements with regard to press law and personality right risks.
Press releases and publicity in times of crisis
Legal advice on the development of strategies in times of crisis; advice on dealing with media, press and publicity, in particular regarding suitable forms of communication; legal advice on public relations.
Media law
Drafting of media-specific contracts, with particular consideration of modern rights management, new publishing products and distribution channels; legal representation in disputes with competitors.
Advertising and competition law
- Review of promotional and advertising campaigns, advice and representation in competition law matters
- Misleading advertising, plagiarism, disguised advertising and product placement
- Unfair comparative advertising, discrediting competitors
- Assessment of innovative forms of advertising, lotteries and raffles, sales discounts, giveaways
- Unfair poaching of customers or employees
- Misappropriation of business secrets
- Advice on related fields such as the German Quotation of Prices Act
Food law
- Design of products and their packaging
- Advertising of foodstuff and judicial disputes in this regard
- Advice and representation in disputes involving food law.
Advertising agencies and the German Advertising Standards Board
Drafting contracts with advertising agencies, representation before the German Advertising Standards Board and other self-regulating bodies.