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Intellectual Property Law Firm in Austria

The success of a company springs from its ideas. By obtaining, defending and licencing various property rights ranging from trademarks to designs, patents, protection certificates and utility models, this potential is transformed into financially measurable company values. A cohesive IP strategy, including both commercialisation and enforcement, will ensure you get maximum value from your portfolio.

Industry-specific and cross-border advice in intellectual property law

With 150 IP-lawyers in 42 countries, we understand your business needs. CMS has worked with some of the best-known brands and we specialise in representing companies from the life sciences, pharmaceutical, medical products, media, telecommunications, clothing, computer and consumer goods industries. We advise and represent clients during trademark registrations and similarity examinations, handle their trademark portfolios and potential breaches of their trademark, design, patent and protection certificate rights, and prosecute product piracy for our clients at customs authorities and courts across Europe. Our expertise extends to parallel and grey imports, sales rights and associated legal fields such as pharmaceutical products, media, telecommunications and broadcast law.

The right brands will win the hearts and minds of your customers. The right patents will prevent others exploiting your ideas or provide a substantial barrier to market access. Copyright, know-how and designs also play a vital role. In the event of a breach of property rights, we support our clients in asserting their rights before courts and criminal courts. Our range of services includes warnings, injunctions, lawsuits and border confiscations as well as the increasingly important international assertion of intellectual property rights.


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15/03/2024
CMS advises Sfakianakis Group on the acquisition of Ajar Car Rental
Press release - 15 March 2024 CMS Austria has advised the Greek Sfakianakis Group on the acquisition of Ajar Car Rental GmbH from the Saudi Arabian Al Jomaih Group, providing comprehensive legal advice on the project. Ajar Car Rental GmbH is the master franchisee of Enterprise, National, and Alamo in Austria, serving rent-a-car customers across the country. During the acquisition, the CMS Austria team provided significant support and advice on all areas of the transaction, including due diligence, employment, regulatory compliance, intellectual property, banking and finance, data protection and competition. Alexander Rakosi (Partner, Corporate/M&A) led the CMS core transaction team, which further consisted of Christoph Birner (Associate, Corporate/M&A) and Thomas Liegl (Associate, Corporate/M&A). Alexander Rakosi comments: “We are very pleased to have successfully supported the Sfakianakis Group on its market entry into Austria and to have contributed to our client's continued growth in the automotive industry."The CMS due diligence team included Rebecca Herlitz (Associate, Corporate/M&A), Mariella Kapoun (Partner, Real Estate), Hans Lederer (Partner, Intellectual Property), Andreas Lichtenberger (At­tor­ney-at-Law, Data Protection), Caroline Pavitsits (Associate, Employment), Kai Ruckelshausen (Partner, Banking & Finance), Sheldon Sookdeo (Associate, Banking & Finance), Maximilian Uidl (Associate, Real Estate), Marlene Wim­mer-Nistel­ber­ger (Partner, Regulatory), Jens Winter (Partner, Employment) and Dieter Zandler (Partner, Competition), as well as legal trainees Roman Namestek, Ferdinand Sima and Mattias Torggler. PHH Rechtsanwälte, led by Rainer Kaspar and Philip Rosenauer, provided legal support to Al Jomaih. About Sfakianakis Group Founded in 1958, Sfakianakis Group is one of the leading diversified business groups in Greece, with a core focus on the Automotive, Industrial and Consumer Retail sectors. Headquartered in Athens, Greece, the Group is 100% family owned and employs over 1,500 individuals across 14 countries in Europe. Within the Automotive sector, the Group operates one of the largest automotive retail businesses in the region, the distribution businesses of BYD and Suzuki, a leading long-term leasing business (Executive Lease), and a rapidly growing Rent-A-Car business as the Master Franchisee of En­ter­prise-Na­tion­al-Alamo in 14 countries.
18/01/2024
EP Case Law in Brief: Commercial success and inventive step
“Commercial success alone is not to be regarded as indicative of inventive step, but evidence of immediate commercial success when coupled with evidence of a long-felt want is of relevance provided...
21/11/2023
EP Case Law in Brief: Proof of common general knowledge
It is a common sight for a patent attorney – an EPO Examiner acknowledges that a claim is novel, but asserts a lack of inventive step over ‘D1’ in combination with ‘common general knowledge’...
07/11/2023
Description amendments at the EPO – the Appellant agrees with the need...
Description amendments bringing the content of the description in line with the allowed claims remain a controversial topic in the European practice. As reported previously, the Board of Appeal in T0056/21...
06/10/2023
The European Patent Office (EPO) ‘10-day rule’
By the Decision of the Administrative Council of 13 October 2022, a number of Rules of the Implementing Regulations to the European Patent Convention have been amended. These include Rule 126 (Notification...
28/09/2023
EP Case Law in Brief: Erroneous Disclosures
“Mistakes in a document do not in themselves constitute prior art such as to prevent the grant of a patent.”So begins section I.C. 4.9 of the Case Law of the Boards of Appeal. This statement, and...
15/08/2023
AI in healthcare inventions – technical or not technical?
SummaryRecent European Patent Office (EPO) Board of Appeal case T 1910/20 sits among a number of decisions regarding the discussion of what constitutes technical character in the field of healthcare...
28/07/2023
Description amendments at the EPO – uncertainty for not (too) much longer?...
Amending the description to conform with the claims remains a challenging element of European patent practice, particularly in view of the divergent case law in the subject, and varied approaches taken...
31/05/2023
UPC – the “Long-arm” jurisdiction
UPC Long-arm jurisdictionWith the UPC set to open its doors on 1 June 2023, just how far might its reach extend?Unless a European patent has been opted out of the UPC, the national courts and the UPC...
26/05/2023
'No Patent on Life' – Unitary Patent to circumvent Austrian’s latest amendment...
With the announcement “No patents on life”, the Austrian federal government has presented the latest initiative to amend the Patent Act. It makes clear that in the future no form of conventional breeding...
06/04/2023
G1/22 and G2/22 – Preliminary opinion of the Enlarged Board of Appeal
On 21 March 2023 the Enlarged Board of Appeal (EBA) issued a preliminary opinion in consolidated cases G1/22 and G2/22 (“pri­or­ity”), which provides some initial insight into the possible outcome of...
31/03/2023
Armchair inventions part 3: Decision on plausibility at the EPO (G2/21)
The issue of plausibility was previously referred to the Enlarged Board of Appeal (EBA), the highest judicial authority at the European Patent Office (EPO). Our article on the referral can be found here...