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.