The Trademarks Modernisation Act (MaMoG) is currently undergoing the legislative process and is due to enter into force in January 2019. It concerns a comprehensive amendment to the German Trademark Act (MarkenG) and also serves to transpose the EU Trademark Directive 2015/2436 of 16 December 2015 (MRL).

 

The acceptance of new brand forms due to the elimination of the preconditions for graphic representability of a brand is paving the way into the multimedia age and leading to the registrability of the following brand forms:

 

• Sound brands
• Movement brands
• Hologram brands
• Multimedia brands
• as well as other brand forms

 

The condition is that the trademark is unequivocal, precise and clearly identifiable, and presented in a suitable legally compliant electronic format. The permissible formats for the trademark submission are published on the homepage of the DPMA. Non-graphically depictable brands shall receive a corresponding link and a QR code on documents (resolutions, certificates and other attestations).

 

NOTE: The World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) still requires the trademark to be reproduced in the form of a two-dimensional graphical representation, so it is not yet known when an international extension of these new brand forms will be possible.

 

Please see the following article for an update on new forms of trade marks: New trade marks: sound, motion and others