The research exemption for patents has long been a vital mechanism in striking a balance between protecting inventors’ rights and promoting scientific exploration. Within Europe, Belgium historically provided a notoriously broad exemption relating to research. However, on the 1st of June this year, the Unified Patent Court will start. One of the aims of the new patent court is harmonization and Belgium and other countries that will join the system have aligned their patent law. The changes that have been introduced in the Belgian law will have an immediate impact on companies, universities and institutes and concern general research as well as research and development for medicines specifically.

Press release. Paris, May 31, 2023. Since January 2023, the Franco-Belgian Group Gevers has shown that growth and independence can […]

Unfortunately, many misconceptions exist when dealing with patents. A number of those are addressed in this article.

A sign used in trade to identify the origin of products or services can consist of a ‘traditional’ word or figurative mark, on the one hand, or can have ‘non-traditional’ representation such as color, sound, multimedia or the position of visual element, on the other.
Nowadays, most IP Offices in the EU Member States are more lenient to accepting such non-traditional marks for registration. However as before, to be eligible for trademark registration, a sign must meet the requirement of distinctiveness.

Contraception is not a novel concept for anyone in this day and age. In fact, due to the advances in science and technology, we can now find innovative contraceptives even in our local pharmacies and drug stores. But did you know that the field of contraception is also not new to the labyrinth of patent law?

Our digital economy has become more and more data driven. Databases today are increasingly generated and verified with the means of machines, sensors and other new technologies, for example Artificial Intelligence or the Internet of Things (“IoT”). In order to secure the competitiveness of digital sectors and markets there are legislative initiatives on a European level to guarantee the free-flow of data, such as the Data Act Proposal of the European Commission of 23 February 2022. This is a difficult task because of the existing legal framework in relation to the protection of certain types of data contained in databases, specifically under the so-called “sui generis right” of the maker of the database.