1.
Federal Court of Justice
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The Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe is the highest court in the system of ordinary jurisdiction in Germany. It is the court in all matters of criminal and private law. A decision handed down by the BGH can be reversed only by the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany in rare cases when the Constitutional Court rules on constitutionality, as from 1870, in the time of the North German Confederation, there was the Bundesoberhandelsgericht in Leipzig. Later, in 1871, it was renamed to Reichsoberhandelsgericht and its area of responsibility was amplified as well and this court was unsoldered by the Reichsgericht at October 1,1879, which was also in Leipzig. On 1 October 1950, five years after the German Reich had collapsed, the general function of the Federal Court of Justice is to save the uniformity of the jurisdiction on the one side, and to do law-development on the other side. So usually it just reconsiders the legal assessment of a case as a court of last resort, in some special cases they also reconsider first-instance decrees of the local courts and the regional courts. Here it can decide that an application for revision is improper —then the application gets discarded— or that it is valid – then it has to decide about the case. In the criminal law it has to decide about applications for revision against first-instance decrees of the regional courts, here it has to decide whether an application is blatantly reasonless or whether it is blatantly reasonable in support of the defendant. In both of these cases it can decide without a main trial, in any other case, it has to decide about the legal remedy after a main trial. This is to save the homogeneity of the jurisdiction, since 2000, the judgments of the Federal Court of Justice have been published on the official court website. Once a judge has been chosen by committee, he or she is appointed by the President of Germany. Only individuals who possess German citizenship within the meaning of Art and this admission is the only special admission within the German court system, in that an attorney at the Federal Court of Justice for civil cases cannot appear in any other court in the country. Admission at the Bundesgerichtshof is highly selective, as of May 2015 there are only 46 attorneys so admitted, candidates for admission are nominated by an electoral committee and are then chosen and appointed by the Federal Ministry of Justice. The requirement for a representative specifically admitted to the Federal Court of Justice does not apply in criminal cases, here, representation by any lawyer admitted to the Bar in Germany suffices. Meyers Großes Taschenlexikon in 24 Bänden, Karlsruhe, Leipzig, Federal Court of Justice of Germany
2.
German language
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German is a West Germanic language that is mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, South Tyrol, the German-speaking Community of Belgium and it is also one of the three official languages of Luxembourg. Major languages which are most similar to German include other members of the West Germanic language branch, such as Afrikaans, Dutch, English, Luxembourgish and it is the second most widely spoken Germanic language, after English. One of the languages of the world, German is the first language of about 95 million people worldwide. The German speaking countries are ranked fifth in terms of publication of new books. German derives most of its vocabulary from the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, a portion of German words are derived from Latin and Greek, and fewer are borrowed from French and English. With slightly different standardized variants, German is a pluricentric language, like English, German is also notable for its broad spectrum of dialects, with many unique varieties existing in Europe and also other parts of the world. The history of the German language begins with the High German consonant shift during the migration period, when Martin Luther translated the Bible, he based his translation primarily on the standard bureaucratic language used in Saxony, also known as Meißner Deutsch. Copies of Luthers Bible featured a long list of glosses for each region that translated words which were unknown in the region into the regional dialect. Roman Catholics initially rejected Luthers translation, and tried to create their own Catholic standard of the German language – the difference in relation to Protestant German was minimal. It was not until the middle of the 18th century that a widely accepted standard was created, until about 1800, standard German was mainly a written language, in urban northern Germany, the local Low German dialects were spoken. Standard German, which was different, was often learned as a foreign language with uncertain pronunciation. Northern German pronunciation was considered the standard in prescriptive pronunciation guides though, however, German was the language of commerce and government in the Habsburg Empire, which encompassed a large area of Central and Eastern Europe. Until the mid-19th century, it was essentially the language of townspeople throughout most of the Empire and its use indicated that the speaker was a merchant or someone from an urban area, regardless of nationality. Some cities, such as Prague and Budapest, were gradually Germanized in the years after their incorporation into the Habsburg domain, others, such as Pozsony, were originally settled during the Habsburg period, and were primarily German at that time. Prague, Budapest and Bratislava as well as cities like Zagreb, the most comprehensive guide to the vocabulary of the German language is found within the Deutsches Wörterbuch. This dictionary was created by the Brothers Grimm and is composed of 16 parts which were issued between 1852 and 1860, in 1872, grammatical and orthographic rules first appeared in the Duden Handbook. In 1901, the 2nd Orthographical Conference ended with a standardization of the German language in its written form
3.
Patent
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A patent is a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for detailed public disclosure of an invention. An invention is a solution to a technological problem and is a product or a process. Patents are a form of intellectual property, the procedure for granting patents, requirements placed on the patentee, and the extent of the exclusive rights vary widely between countries according to national laws and international agreements. Typically, however, a patent application must include one or more claims that define the invention. A patent may include many claims, each of which defines a specific property right and these claims must meet relevant patentability requirements, such as novelty, usefulness, and non-obviousness. Nevertheless, there are variations on what is patentable subject matter from country to country, the word patent originates from the Latin patere, which means to lay open. More directly, it is a version of the term letters patent. Similar grants included land patents, which were land grants by early state governments in the USA, and printing patents, a precursor of modern copyright. In modern usage, the term patent usually refers to the granted to anyone who invents any new, useful. The additional qualification utility patent is used to distinguish the primary meaning from these other types of patents. Particular species of patents for inventions include biological patents, business method patents, chemical patents, the period of protection was 10 years. These were mostly in the field of glass making, as Venetians emigrated, they sought similar patent protection in their new homes. This led to the diffusion of patent systems to other countries, by the 16th century, the English Crown would habitually abuse the granting of letters patent for monopolies. After public outcry, King James I of England was forced to revoke all existing monopolies, the Statute became the foundation for later developments in patent law in England and elsewhere. Important developments in patent law emerged during the 18th century through a process of judicial interpretation of the law. During the reign of Queen Anne, patent applications were required to supply a complete specification of the principles of operation of the invention for public access. Influenced by the philosophy of John Locke, the granting of patents began to be viewed as a form of property right. The English legal system became the foundation for patent law in countries with a common law heritage, including the United States, New Zealand, in the Thirteen Colonies, inventors could obtain patents through petition to a given colonys legislature
4.
Intellectual property
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Intellectual property refers to creations of the intellect for which a monopoly is assigned to designated owners by law. Intellectual property rights are the protections granted to the creators of IP, and include trademarks, copyright, patents, industrial design rights, and in some jurisdictions trade secrets. Artistic works including music and literature, as well as discoveries, inventions, words, phrases, symbols, the Statute of Monopolies and the British Statute of Anne are seen as the origins of patent law and copyright respectively, firmly establishing the concept of intellectual property. The first known use of the intellectual property dates to 1769. The first clear example of modern usage goes back as early as 1808, the German equivalent was used with the founding of the North German Confederation whose constitution granted legislative power over the protection of intellectual property to the confederation. According to Lemley, it was only at point that the term really began to be used in the United States. The history of patents does not begin with inventions, but rather with royal grants by Queen Elizabeth I for monopoly privileges, the evolution of patents from royal prerogative to common-law doctrine. The term can be used in an October 1845 Massachusetts Circuit Court ruling in the patent case Davoll et al. v. Brown. The statement that discoveries are. property goes back earlier, in Europe, French author A. Nion mentioned propriété intellectuelle in his Droits civils des auteurs, artistes et inventeurs, published in 1846. Until recently, the purpose of property law was to give as little protection as possible in order to encourage innovation. Historically, therefore, they were granted only when they were necessary to encourage invention, limited in time, the concepts origins can potentially be traced back further. In 500 BCE, the government of the Greek state of Sybaris offered one years patent to all who should discover any new refinement in luxury. Intellectual property rights include patents, copyright, industrial design rights, trademarks, plant variety rights, trade dress, geographical indications, a copyright gives the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time. Copyright may apply to a range of creative, intellectual, or artistic forms. Copyright does not cover ideas and information themselves, only the form or manner in which they are expressed, an industrial design right protects the visual design of objects that are not purely utilitarian. An industrial design consists of the creation of a shape, configuration or composition of pattern or color, or combination of pattern, an industrial design can be a two- or three-dimensional pattern used to produce a product, industrial commodity or handicraft. Plant breeders rights or plant variety rights are the rights to use a new variety of a plant. The variety must amongst others be novel and distinct and for registration the evaluation of propagating material of the variety is examined, a trademark is a recognizable sign, design or expression which distinguishes products or services of a particular trader from the similar products or services of other traders
5.
Competition law
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Competition law is a law that promotes or seeks to maintain market competition by regulating anti-competitive conduct by companies. Competition law is implemented through public and private enforcement, Competition law is known as anti-trust law in the United States, and as anti-monopoly law in China and Russia. In previous years it has known as trade practices law in the United Kingdom. In the European Union, it is referred to as both antitrust and competition law, the history of competition law reaches back to the Roman Empire. The business practices of market traders, guilds and governments have always been subject to scrutiny, since the 20th century, competition law has become global. The two largest and most influential systems of regulation are United States antitrust law and European Union competition law. National and regional competition authorities across the world have formed international support, modern competition law has historically evolved on a country level to promote and maintain fair competition in markets principally within the territorial boundaries of nation-states. National competition law usually does not cover activity beyond territorial borders unless it has significant effects at nation-state level, countries may allow for extraterritorial jurisdiction in competition cases based on so-called effects doctrine. The protection of competition is governed by international competition agreements. These obligations were not included in GATT, but in 1994, with the conclusion of the Uruguay Round of GATT Multilateral Negotiations, the Agreement Establishing the WTO included a range of limited provisions on various cross-border competition issues on a sector specific basis. Competition law, or antitrust law, has three elements, prohibiting agreements or practices that restrict free trading and competition between business. This includes in particular the repression of trade caused by cartels. Banning abusive behavior by a firm dominating a market, or anti-competitive practices that tend to lead to such a dominant position, Practices controlled in this way may include predatory pricing, tying, price gouging, refusal to deal, and many others. Supervising the mergers and acquisitions of large corporations, including joint ventures. Substance and practice of competition law varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, protecting the interests of consumers and ensuring that entrepreneurs have an opportunity to compete in the market economy are often treated as important objectives. In recent decades, competition law has been viewed as a way to better public services. An early example of competition law can be found in Roman law, the Lex Julia de Annona was enacted during the Roman Republic around 50 B. C. To protect the trade, heavy fines were imposed on anyone directly, deliberately
6.
CD-R
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CD-R is a digital optical disc storage format. A CD-R disc is a disc that can be written once. CD-R disks are readable by most plain CD readers, i. e. CD readers manufactured prior to the introduction of CD-R and this is an advantage over CD-RW, which can be re-written but cannot be played on many plain CD readers. The CD-R, originally named CD Write-Once, specification was first published in 1988 by Philips, the Orange Book consists of several parts, furnishing details of the CD-WO, CD-MO, and CD-RW. The latest editions have abandoned the use of the term CD-WO in favor of CD-R, written CD-Rs and CD-RWs are, in the aspect of low-level encoding and data format, fully compatible with the audio CD and data CD standards. This means they use Eight-to-Fourteen Modulation, CIRC error correction, and, for CD-ROM, properly written CD-R discs on blanks of less than 80 minutes length are fully compatible with the audio CD and CD-ROM standards in all details including physical specifications. 80 minute CD-R discs marginally violate the Red Book physical format specifications, CD-RW discs have lower reflectivity than CD-R or pressed CDs and for this reason cannot meet the Red Book standard. Some hardware compatible with Red Book CDs may have difficulty reading CD-Rs and, because of their lower reflectivity, especially CD-RWs. To the extent that CD hardware can read extended-length discs or CD-RW discs, it is because that hardware has capability beyond the minimum required by the Red Book and Yellow Book standards. The dye materials developed by Taiyo Yuden made it possible for CD-R discs to be compatible with Audio CD, a standard CD-R is a 1.2 mm thick disc made of polycarbonate about 120 mm or 80 mm diameter. The 120 mm disc has a capacity of 74 minutes of audio or 650 Megabytes of data. Despite the foregoing, most CD-Rs on the market have an 80-minute capacity, there are also 90 minute/790 MiB and 99 minute/870 MiB discs, although they are less common. Also, due to the limitations of the structures in the ATIP,90 and 99 minute blanks will identify as 80 minute ones. Therefore, in order to use the capacity, these discs have to be burned using overburn options in the CD recording software. Nothing in the Red, Yellow or Orange Book standards prohibits disc reading/writing devices from having the capacity to read or write discs beyond the Compact Disc standards, the polycarbonate disc contains a spiral groove, called the pregroove, to guide the laser beam upon writing and reading information. The polycarbonate disc is coated on the side with a very thin layer of organic dye. Then, on top of the dye is coated a thin, reflecting layer of silver, finally, a protective coating of a photo-polymerizable lacquer is applied on top of the metal reflector and cured with UV-light. A blank CD-R is not empty, the pregroove has a wobble, maintaining a constant rate is essential to ensure proper size and spacing of the pits and lands burned into the dye layer
7.
European Union competition law
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Four main policy areas include, Cartels, or control of collusion and other anti-competitive practices, under article 101 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. Market dominance, or preventing the abuse of dominant market positions under article 102 TFEU. A2013 Civitas report lists some of the used by participants to skirt the state aid rules on procurement. The Directorates can mandate that improperly-given state aid be repaid, as was the case in 2012 with Malev Hungarian Airlines, one of the paramount aims of the founding fathers of the European Community - statesmen around Jean Monnet and Robert Schuman - was the establishment of a Single Market. To achieve this, a compatible, transparent and fairly standardised regulatory framework for Competition Law had to be created, the constitutive legislative act was Council Regulation 17/62. The wording of Reg 17/62 was developed in a pre Van Gend en Loos period in EC legal evolution, when the supremacy of EC law was not yet fully established. To avoid different interpretations of EC Competition Law, which could vary from one court to the next. The first major decision under Article 101 was taken by the Commission in 1964 and they found that Grundig, a German manufacturer of household appliances, acted illegally in granting exclusive dealership rights to its French subsidiary. Subsequent enforcement of Art 101 of the TFEU Treaty by the two institutions has generally regarded as effective. The Commission also received criticism from the academic quarters and these problems have been magnified by the increasingly unmanageable workload of the centralised corporate notification system. A further reason why a reform of the old Regulation 17/62 was needed, was the enlargement of the EU. Given the still developing nature of the east-central European new market economies, to all these challenges, the Commission has responded with a strategy to decentralise the implementation of the Competition rules through the so-called Modernisation Regulation. EU Council Regulation 1/2003 places National Competition Authorities and Member State national courts at the heart of the enforcement of Arts 101 &102, decentralised enforcement has for long been the usual way for other EC rules, Reg 1/2003 finally extended this to Competition Law as well. The Commission still retained an important role in the enforcement mechanism and this Network, made up of the national bodies plus the Commission, manages the flow of information between NCAs and maintains the coherence and integrity of the system. At the time, Competition Commissioner Mario Monti hailed this regulation as one that will revolutionise the enforcement of Arts 101 &102, since May 2004, all NCAs and national courts are empowered to fully apply the Competition provisions of the EC Treaty. Yet most recent developments shed doubt on the efficacy of the new arrangements, for instance, on 20 December 2006, the Commission publicly backed down from unbundling French and German energy giants, facing tough opposition from Member State governments. It remains to be seen whether NCAs will be willing to challenge their own national champion companies under EC Competition Law, because the logic of competition is most appropriate for private enterprise, the core of EU competition regulation targets profit making corporations. This said, regulation necessarily extends further and in the TFEU and this uncomfortable English word, which is essentially a literal translation of the German word Unternehmen, was discussed in Höfner and Elser v Macrotron GmbH
