Free IHK advice: Protect your ideas and inventions!

Free IHK advice: Protect your ideas and inventions!

Good news for inventors and creative minds in Northern Germany! The Lüneburg-Wolfsburg and Elbe-Weser Chambers of Industry and Commerce are offering free telephone consultations on intellectual property rights in July. On two days, July 23rd from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. and July 30th from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., an experienced patent attorney will be available to provide valuable insights.

In the confidential discussions, participants can present their developments or ideas and find out which intellectual property rights are suitable for their projects. The focus is on the legal protection of technical inventions, design protection for product design ideas and questions regarding brand identification. This information is worth its weight in gold, especially for creative minds, because it helps to effectively protect intellectual property.

What is meant by industrial property rights?

Industrial property rights are essential to ensure the exclusivity of inventions, designs and brand names. They fall under the term intellectual property (IP), which includes useful inventions, designs and brand names. Such intellectual property rights are entered in an official register, thereby protecting the exploitation rights. This means that others cannot simply copy or use your ideas.

In order to best protect your own intellectual property, it is important to find out about the various protection options. These include patents for technical inventions and new processes, utility models for products, trademarks for brand names and designs for external shapes and colors. However, before registering such rights, thorough research into existing intellectual property rights is essential. This is the only way to minimize the risk of violations of existing property rights, recommends the German Patent and Trademark Office (DPMA).

Registration – an important step

When it comes to registering patents, the DPMA examines their content, while utility model and design applications are only formally checked. It is important to note that the trademark office examines the protectability of trademarks, but does not take into account the existence of older trademarks. Professional help from patent attorneys and patent reporters is more than advisable here.

The information provided on application procedures, enforcement and expected costs is invaluable to potential applicants. In addition, participants also receive tips on research in order to optimally prepare for the interview.

If you would like to take part in the telephone consultation appointments, you can register with Gritt Sonnenberg on 04131 742-142 or by email at gritt.sonnenberg@ihklw.de. Alternatively, the website is also available www.ihk.de/ihklw/schutzrechte available to obtain further information.

Take advantage of the opportunity to put your project on a secure footing and effectively protect your own intellectual property! This could be an opportunity for creative inventors and innovative minds in the region to promote their own work.