In spring 2022, the European Commission launched two proposals concerning the protection of Geographical Indications (GIs): COM(2022)134 of 31 March 2022 amending current Regulation (EU) no. 2012/1151 on agricultural products and foodstuff and COM(2022)174 of 13 April 2022 on craft and...

This position statement of the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition comments on the EU Commission’s proposals for an amendment of the Community Design Regulation and for a recast of the Design Directive. It highlights issues of particular importance, as, inter alia, the revised...

'Study on the Functioning of the EU GIs System'; output of the work of the Max Planck Institute Research Team on Geographical Indications. Andrea Zappalaglio (Coordinator); Flavia Guerrieri; Suelen Carls; Alessandro Gocci

While the creation and still outstanding implementation of the Unified Patent Jurisdiction system continue to cause contentious debates among academics and practitioners, the system introduced in the early 1990s for adjudication of conflicts concerning unitary trade marks (and, later on, unitary...

The "International Instrument on Permitted Uses in Copyright Law" (the Instrument) is the result of a research project for a balanced reconciliation of interests in copyright law. The project was coordinated by the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition and resulted in a legal...

As a framework regulation for innovation markets, the patent system needs to be tailored to the innovation process, which it is supposed to serve, and to the competitive environment, within which it must operate. In order to ensure an efficient functionality of the patent system as an innovation...

The doctrine of trademark functions was developed and discussed under national law long before the CJEU elaborated its much-criticized approach towards the issue. However, the Court readily embraced the concept of functions in order to expand the limits of trademark law into what was previously...

The Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition is a research institute within the Max Planck Society. Its main purpose is to undertake basic research on legal and economic issues on intellectual property and competition law. One main focus of its activity is the study of European...